Country Music Hall Of Pants

September 27, 2011 - Cannery Ballroom - Nashville, TN

My goodness, Tennessee is a long state. Drove through 3 states in 25 minutes in the morning and drove across Tennessee for four hours in the afternoon just to get to Nashville which is only somewhere in the middle. Thanks to swift travel and dropping back an hour to Central time, we got to the Cannery Ballroom too early, before the parking was even open. I accidentally drove the wrong way around the lot to get back to the street, right past the tour bus, of course right when Anna, the merch girl was coming out the door. Oops. So we paid far too much to park elsewhere and wandered around the area for an hour or so. Counted at least 4 cake bakeries in the square mile radius around the venue, several within the same block. That's a lot of cake.

When we did get in line we were clustered on the stairs to the venue behind a few other people. The band was doing soundcheck. We heard When Will You Die as we walked up the drive, which was exciting as they haven't done it yet without Dan. Then, as we enjoyed the music through an open door, they started checking Canajoharie. Yay!! Oh how I have missed you Canajoharie. I guess they remembered it was another one they knew how to play without Dan. The door was shut after that so we didn't got to hear whatever else they did.

JoCo and company drove up in their van and wandered around trying to figure out where to load in. Turned out they needed to load in right through the front door right past all of us. Awkward. So we watched as Jonathan, Brandon, Christian and Scarface hauled boxes, guitars, drums and other sundry equipment into the venue, then try to figure out where to park their van.

The fact that the front door was the only way in and out of the venue with access to the parking lot meant that TMBG had to exit right past us after sound check to get back to their bus. I was sitting on the stairs and discovered this fact when Linnell and Danny walked right past me down the stairs. I don't think they noticed me though which was good as it would have been awkward. I wasn't quite so inconspicuous with Marty as I happened to look around right as he was coming out the door and he waved at me. Flansburgh shot down the ramp on the side of the stairs on his cell phone and Scott walked by having a conversation about laundry on his cell phone. (This was the point at which I confirmed that Dan was in fact still absent.)

Shortly after, Scott re-entered the venue carrying a large neon yellow laundry bag. I believe he bumped another fan with it as he passed as I heard him apologize to someone. For some reason, I find the idea of Scott doing the band's laundry really amusing.

The next hour or so were passed mostly in boredom. I did chat briefly with the folks next to me who were all college students who had driven in for the show.

This venue was a very unusual shape. The room was huge but there was a long bar that was essentially next to the stage (on the other side of a passageway) so it was sort of like having the stage on the end of the long wall of a rectagular room. There was a lot of the room that looked diagonally down at the stage and a good portion of the room where the stage wasn't visible at all. And the stage itself was tiny compared to the size of the room. But very deep. There was a ramp leading up the length of the stage at the back that lead from the backstage area, but was in front of the video screen. It was a rather unique set-up.

We were on the right side which afforded a really clear view of the whole stage since, sadly, Dan wasn't there to block any of it. The people on my left all seemed to be nice pleasant fans but there were some obnoxious drunks off to our right. I will never understand why people insist on getting wasted at a concert. They won't remember any of it later.

JoCo started with Mr. Fancy Pants again. It was going great until the last verse when he hit a wrong button and the rhythms went all haywire. He ended up singing the end of the verse to the sample that plays at the beginning of the song. Afterward he said that sometimes the buttons do not do what he tells they to. Someone in the crowd yelled "Yes, they do!" He laughed pretty hard and the person yelled, "Don't blame the buttons!"

The rest of his set was Artificial Heart, Shop Vac, Nememes, Sticking It To Myself, Still Alive, Code Monkey, Je Suis Rick Springfield and I Feel Fantastic.

He made the joke about Artificial Heart being a clever marketing ploy to remember the name of his album again. He also said that he was not sure he had met his nemesis yet but there sure were a lot people he hated so it was hard to tell. He joked about playing the French national anthem when he said he was going to sing a song in French. And he's got Christian starting up I Feel Fantastic while he does thank yous at the end so he can segue straight into the song.

Somewhere in this set I caught Brandon's attention and he was smiling at me singing along with whatever song they were playing. This isn't terribly pertinent now, but will become more so in the Asheville recap.

The TMBG set was a tiny bit late getting started. Maybe the laundry wasn't done. Their set looked like this:

Dead - Johnny - We Live In A Dump - Canajoharie - Judy - Particle Man - James Ensor - Los Angeles - Turn Around - Celebration - Birdhouse - Clap Your Hands - Withered Hope - Battle for the Planet of the Apes - Cloisonne - Crazy Train - Spoiler Alert - Crazy Train - Older - Don't Let's Start - Racist Friend - Alphabet of Nations - Pine Box - Ana Ng - When Will You Die - Mesopotamians. Encore - Careful What You Pack - Band Intros - Instanbul Encore 2 - Lie Still - Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes

Flans greeted everyone and said hello to the people at the back of the room by the brick wall. He teased them about wishing they had arrived sooner. He made a joke about rock music not being sucessful in Nashville that I don't quite recall.

They played Canajoharie completely without fanfare as if this hadn't been the first time they'd played it since the album came out. FYI: It's still amazing.

After Judy, Flans gave Marty a very funny shout out. "Marty Beller, on the drums, ladies and gentlemen. Why is he hitting those drums so hard? What did the drums ever do to him? Except provide a comfortable living for him and his family." At which Marty gave this very funny shrug like "well yes, that is true."

A really drunk guy off on our left kept yelling "I love you John" after each song and Flans eventually said, "We love you too." There was a brief interchange between them. I think Flans was mocking the guy for being so drunk. Then the guy yelled something else unintelligible and Linnell said "I didn't get that part."

I know there was some humorous back and forth between the Johns about the fake accents used on Los Angeles but the specifics of it are gone (this is what happens when I get behind on recaps and have multiple shows rattling around in my head.)

Flans had two records for the Celebration dance contest. One was the signed Join Us, the other was a copy of Bryan Ferry's solo album. Flans made some funny comments about the Bryan Ferry record, then told Linnell to tell a story while he got a drink. Linnell said it was weird that the Bryan Ferry album was all covers because he was a brilliant song writer but when he went to record his own album he didn't record his own songs. He also said something about thinking he had produced it himself. He commented that he couldn't read the back of the record because he didn't have his glasses and Danny insisted on picking up the record and finding the spot on the back that said that yes, Bryan had produced it himself with another guy, even though Linnell had moved on to another train of thought.

They awarded Bryan Ferry to someone off on the left and Flans asked where the couple was that had been doing all the syncronized dance moves to give them Join Us. Linnell said the best thing about them was that after each move they stopped and looked at the band like, "did you see that one?" Linnell said, "The answer is yes. Yes, we did see that."

Flans used a beam in the middle of the room as the division point between the people and the apes. He made the crowd split so there was an aisle down the center and teased some people for jumping sides. He gave out instructions and we waged war. People won. Typical. Danny has kept up his habit of joining Marty on the drums for one round which is pretty entertaining.

Flans said they had been in town for a couple of days and had gotten to visit The Country Music Hall of Pants. He was laughing about how many pairs of pants were on display in the Hall of Fame.

I videoed the Avatar segment from this show, primarily because I wanted to document Danny's keyboard version of Spoiler Alert and epic bass Crazy Train cover since they are limited time offerings. I'll add in the video when I get back.

The Avatars made more whispered comments about They Might Be Giants being mean but they apparently love Jonathan Coulton. They thanked their corporate sponsor Epic Fail Baloney Sandwiches again and performed their jingleh "Epic Fail Baloney Sandwiches - putting baloney in your face since 1946." This time Marty got out his bell on a rope and was clanging it everytime they said the name of the sponsor. The Avatars said they got paid every time the bell rang.

They did Spoiler Alert and then as they wrapped the segment with Crazy Train, Flans attempted to stick the William Allen White head on a stick that he has been calling Ryan Adams into the camera (he did this in Chicago too but I don't think I remembered to mention it.) But the video feed had been turned off so his yelled "Ryan Adams!" had no context. Then he yelled "Who cut the video feed?"

Marty really made Linnell laugh with one of his drum beats in Older but I wasn't clear what had been quite so funny about it.

I was attempting to take a picture of Flans wailing on his guitar either during Older or Don't Let's Start, I'm not sure which, and he stepped out and pretty much shoved it in my camera lens to improve the shot. It came out rather cool but I couldn't get his whole head in frame anymore.

Flans commented after Alphabet of Nations that they frequently hear a little cheering after mentioning a country in the song. For example, he said, he had heard one person cheer after Canada, indicating that had one Canadians in the audience. But this time he said there had been an unusually large response for Zimbabwe from the left side of the room.

Flans said that people seem to like When Will You Die just from the title without even hearing the song. The song just isn't the same without Dan.

When Marty left the drum riser before the encore he flipped his drum sticks in the air back over his head. They landed on the riser but when he came back he had to go hunting for them because he had no idea where they had landed.

Some awful drunk people flooded our corner during the encore break, including a guy who pushed his way to the front with a camera saying, "I'm sorry. I'm an asshole," as he did it. Charming.

As he tuned for Careful What You Pack, Flans said the ratio of people to lead guitarists in Nashville was 1-1 and he was just trying to do his part to keep that ratio in tact.

Flans did the Alternate Band Intros again with the cacophony of awful noises. I love the way he keeps saying "On the guitar, it's me!" as he rubs his guitar against the mic stand.

Flans told everyone to visit Anna at the merch stand, which he could see all the way on the other side of the venue from the oddly positioned stage. He said she had a new robotic credit card machine ready to make your old broken credit card work again. He also thanked the Cannery Ballroom for opening up the laundromat.

As the Johns and Marty were finishing Lie Still, Little Bottle Danny appeared at the bottom of the ramp at the back of the stage, beer in hand, to rejoin them. But instead of just walking up the ramp he shuffled his way up a couple inches at a time with each foot like a penguin, in time with the music. It looked ridiculous and I laughed myself silly.

Flans made a comment after Lie Still that they liked to keep things fresh and moving forward so they were going to play a song from their first album. And they played Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes, which was exciting as I had seen it on the St. Louis set but haven't heard it in a couple of years.

At the end of the song, as the guys all left the stage, Danny made Marty go down the ramp ahead of him so he could go last and then did his penguin walk all the way back down to the bottom. It had the effect of looking like someone miming walking down stairs behind a couch or counter, but with an actual incline. Totally silly and adorable and I loved him for it.

Victor came out to do setlists and gave a couple to some guys on my left. Then he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded one and held it out to me like contrabandn with this half glance at me that said "I know you are gonna like this, but I'm not gonna smile or anything so I don't tip you off." And sure enough, he'd tucked the St. Louis set in behind the Nashville one for me. Have I mentioned he is the best? Cause he totally is.

I know I've forgotten some stuff from this one but I think I got all the best bits in. It was a hoot. Not sure when I'll get Asheville and Richmond done. I'm so backed up now, the tour might be over before I get to them. But I'll get there eventually rest assured.

Song of the Day - Day 319

Today's song is...


Dr. Evil


This is one of the songs that is eventually going to thwart my desire to hear every song on the Dial-A-Song collection live. Because, seriously, what are the odds of them ever doing this again, really? As far as theme songs for a parody movie go, this is a pretty spot on parody itself. Kudos on that!

Song of the Day - Day 318

Today's song is...


Gazing Out Toward


I really do enjoy mixed tempo songs and the guitar here is pretty cool. Too bad it's so short.

Ain't Never Gonna Keep Me Down

September 23, 2011 - The Vic - Chicago, IL

"If you can draw it in the air or write it down then you weren't there."

After being at this show I really get that lyric. There are some things that words are just inadequate to describe. I actually wasn't sure afterward that I would be able to recap this show at all. It was such an emotionally charged experience, I wasn't sure I was up to the task. I'm still not. But I'll try to at least share the basics because there are some things that happened that deserve to documented, even if I can't do them justice.

Gary and I got up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the airport for our 6:30 flight to Chicago. I'd been nursing a very mild cold since we got back from our last trip but, sitting on the plane it decided to flare up full force so by the time we landed in Chicago, I was well and truly sick. This, combined with the three hours of sleep I got, made me kind of a wreck.

We spent the day at the Brookfield Zoo, then went to check into our hotel before the show. But we got stuck in traffic and had trouble with the hotel key and had to stop for cold medicine and it all resulted in us being an hour and a half late to meet Megan and Ana and all of their friends at The Vic, so that just added to my stress.

I got to briefly meet a bunch of great people in line, at least half of whom, I failed to retain their names. It was lovely sort of meeting all of you and I'm glad there is photographic evidence.

We learned from one of these people that Dan had not been at the show the night before and that rumor was he had had to go home because of a family emergency. This prooved to be accurate once we got inside as we stood on his side of the stage and his pedal board wasn't there. So I added desperate worry about Dan to my already touchy emotional state and was mostly a complete wreck for the rest of the night.

I had the last spot on the right side of the stage right next to a light tower and a speaker on stage, and a very large security guard next to me on the floor. He also had a backpack on the floor next to my feet and as people budged and shifted when the show started, I was pushed into it so that I couldn't really stand straight. And during the entirity of Jonathan Coulton's set, the security guard was pressed up against my back, much closer than was really necessary given the space. It was really awkward and uncomfortable. Fortunately, after JoCo, the guards switched and a different guy was next to me who did not feel the need to adhere himself to my back and eventually even let another fan in between us. The backpack was still there though so it was still an awkward place to stand.

JoCo's set was mostly the same but in a different order. But he did play Je Suis Rick Springfield which I was excited about because I hadn't heard that live yet. Normally, I would have more to say about his set but I was still so distracted and standing in such an uncomfortable way, it was hard to really enjoy it.

The TMBG setlist was as follows: Dead - Johnny - Particle Man - James Ensor - Los Angeles - Turn Around - Celebration - Don't Let's Start - Racist Friend - Horse With No Name - Tubthumping - Cloisonne - Crazy Train - Spoiler Alert - Crazy Train - Older - Alphabet of Nations - Old Pine Box - Ana Ng - Judy - Dump - Birdhouse - Withered Hope - Clap Your Hands - Battle for the Planet of the Apes - Mesopotamians Encore - Careful What You Pack - Band Intros - Guitar Encore 2 - Lie Still - Istanbul

This was definitely a "less talk, more rock" show with pretty limited banter.

Flans started the show by applying nicknames to several people in the crowd. "You, you in the hat. You're gonna be Rocky. And you, guy with the Ecstacy sticks, we're gonna call you Exey." There was a drunk guy behind me who was yelling that he wanted to be dubbed "drunk guy." He ended up being pretty obnoxious over the course of the night so maybe being drunk was not something he should have been so proud of.

Flans was going on about how incredibley unsuccessful the Venue Songs record was before Los Angeles and how they were playing the song to promote awareness of the album.

Flans held a dance contest during Celebration with the prizes being some dollar bin records (and the signed Join Us vinyl). There was a Rick Springfield album in honor of the JoCo song and Laurie Anderson's Big Science. And The Sin-sational Rusty Warren. One of the guys commented that they felt bad for Rusty Warren because that album hadn't gotten any cheers from the crowd. Then Flans went on this riff about Rusty Warren calling to Linnell to join her in the afterlife and Linnell was like, "Someday. Someday I will and you'll be waiting for me." (This actually had more to it and was far funnier than my retelling. Megan probably remembers better.)

There was some enthusiastic dancing going on in the crowd but I couldn't really have participated even if I had wanted to because I was so wedged in next to the backpack. I would have fallen over. I contented myself with singing along enthusiastically and being fascinated that Danny was singing Dan's back-up part in the song.

Flans had tweeted the AV Club people to remember that their cue was Don't Let's Start. And sure enough, as they did Racist Friend, the Av Club crowd could be seen massing in the wing, all with guitars.

Flans asked our pardon for a moment while they prepared the stage and the techs brought out a bunch of extra mics and positioned them around the stage. Then the giants crowd of AV Club staff flooded the stage. There must have been at least 20 of them, maybe more. And at least half of them had acoustic guitars. Flans explained that they were going to do something that they used to do a lot but they had realized that none of their current band members had ever participated in despite their long tenure with the band. They were going to have a large crowd of people all join them with guitars to play a two chord song, A Horse With No Name. Linnell was to sing and Flans conduct. Flans asked anyone with a smart phone to please take it out and film the next seven and a half minutes or so, which is probably why there are so many videos of it on YouTube. I, for once, used the video feature on my camera and captured the whole thing though the audio is a bit blown out due to my proximity to the speaker. I'll embed it here when I'm not writing on my phone.

They started to play and Linnell said he was gonna give everyone a minute to settle into the rhythm. Danny was standing on the other side of the stage demonstrating the strumming pattern for the folks that were struggling. And then Linnell started singing (with a cheat sheet) and we got to witness acoustic guitarmaggedon. On the "la-la-la" part Linnell told us all to sing along because we all knew the song. And it was a beautiful thing.

When they finished, Flans explained how they had come to do the Tubthumping video with the AV Club and said they were going to recreate it live for the people of Chicago one time only. And they did. And I don't think I have ever, in my entire life, been in the presense of so much completely unadulterated joy and youthful exuberance than during that one three minute song. Watching the AV Club staff on stage having the time of their lives screaming along (and this one guy on the end who was doing his best impression of a rock star) and Flans backing up to play with them and smacking a girl in the head. Flans and Danny and Linnell all bouncing up and down on the choruses like there were springs in the floor and Marty throwing his whole being into the drums. And more than anything else, looking back at the crowd and seeing hundreds and hundreds of people jumping up and down, pounding fists in the air and screaming "Ain't never gonna keep me down!" This is what I flew 1000 miles for a day to see and it was so powerfully emotional I felt like the Grinch on Christmas Day when his heart swelled ten times. It was so beautiful it hurt. Not gonna lie, I was watching someone elses's video of it the other morning and I there were tears rolling down my face.

The song finished and Flans thanked the AV Club and apologized to the girl he had whacked in the head.

When it came time for the Avatars I was really curious what they were gonna do without Dan. I was thoroughly wow'd when Danny produced a spot on cover of the guitar part of Crazy Train on the bass. He was tearing it up. Damn, that was cool.

Flans did the same schtick about Don Kirschner's Rock Concert live from London that he's been doing. Blue greeted us in a British accent. Green attempted to do the same but then commented that it sounded more Australian. They said they'd like to thank their sponsor and someone in the crowd yelled "BP!" Blue said yes, their sponsor was British Petroleum and made some jokes about wrecking the environment. Then he said, seriously they wanted to thank their sponsor Epic Fail Baloney Sandwiches. They then proceeded to sing the jingle for Epic Fail Baloney Sandwiches which was a pretty perfect reacreation on a radio jingle from the 60s. I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact lyrics (but I have it on video from Nashville). They also reprised the jingle at the end of Spoiler Alert. Blue also made a joke about his hat being a message for their sponsor.

When I saw Danny approach the keyboard at the beginning of the segment, I thought they were going to do Shoehorn with him on keyboard. But to my surprise he actually played Spoiler Alert on the keys which was really cool and which he must have put together ridiculously fast and without much practice time. Sounded great.

During the "cover my eyes" line, Flans put his hand over Blue's eyes and leaned his head back and then sang the rest of the song with Blue sideways on the screen as if he had reclined. Hehe.

We got more epic Crazy Train cover instead of Free Ride.

I was worried about Linnell playing Alphabet of Nations on the keyboard as he frequently botches it horribly but he did ok. Good job.

Flans made a joke about Old Pine Box being about a sad old burnout that was funny but which I don't really recall.

Flans asked if they could take a 20 second break before We Live in a Dump and brought out the giant Join Us poster. He did a sales pitch that involved trying to convince people to buy it for their dorms. He said it was so thick sound couldn't penetrate it and demonstrated by holding it between himself and the mic and then rubbing it against the mic to make a scratchy static sound. Then he said the poster was thicker than most dorm room walls. "We've changed the name of the wifi to 'We Can Hear You Having Sex.'" Then he actually gave the poster away to a guy in the crowd which he hasn't been doing because he keeps saying they are too expensive. One of the techs ran out and handed the guy the plastic sleeve for the poster. Flans told him good luck getting it back into it.

Sad as am that Dan wasn't there, I was pleased to see that after all this time, Danny finally got a mic to sing the "ba-da-da-daa-da" part of We Live in a Dump.

Added to Marty's pre-Clap Your Hands resume: the next liberatarian candidate for president of the United States.

Vicious ape vesus people battle. Flans actually divided the crowd down the middle physically, creating an aisle down the middle of the room. Both sides fought valiently but the people still one. They were added by an intensely good bass and drum riff on the first round and Danny picking up the drum sticks to play with Marty on the second round.

Flans said they were with the apes but he loved the people too. Linnell said it was just the apes for him. Then he said something that included fuck, that I have completely forgotten but it was so funny I cackled.

They did the Alternate Intro again for the band, with the guys all making awful noises. Flans was rubbing his guitar against the mic stand again. But Marty won this contest, flipping around his kit like a nutcase playing every noise he could think of. By the end it looked like he was just hitting things like he was trying to make sure he had whacked every possible item at least once.

Flans also thanked the crew and thanked JoCo for joining them for the acoustic guitarmaggedon. I hadn't noticed that he had but I guess he did.

Then a lovely performance of The Guitar. Flans had Danny do the solo and had him play for what seemed like forever while leading us in endless rounds of "The bass is Danny Weinkauf."

The drunk guy behind me managed to stomp on my ankle while jumping up and down during The Guitar. He didn't even notice but I was near tears. No wonder too, since, examining it outside the entire left side was purple and swollen. Asshole.

Mr. Brunette came out and placed new setlists before the second encore. Hardly seemed necessary since they had already gone off set and only played one of the songs written on that set during that encore anyway but whatever. We clapped along with Lie Still, Little Bottle and then they closed it out with Istanbul.

Marty ran back out to pass out sticks. Then to my surprise, Danny came back out to say hi to us. He was moving down our group smacking hands with everyone (except Megan, sorry Meg) and the folks reaching in behind us and said thanks for coming. Then he looked back at me grinning maniacly (as Megan described it) and said "What are you doing here?" "We flew," I said, making airplane wings with my arms (I have a tendency to do embarassingly goofy things like this when talking to him for some reason). And he just shook his head at me and laughed.

Victor came out with setlist and only had three in his hand and handed them all out before he got to me. But he looked at me and held up a finger like "hang on, I'll be back with yours" and went back stage. I could see him rummaging around in some drawers in a cabinet and couldn't figure out what he was doing. But he came back out with some more setlists and one tucked under his arm. He gave out the others then handed me the folded one under his arm. And I opened it up to find, not only the two pages of the set from Chicago, but also, every setlist from the entire week of the tour we had missed. I looked back up at him with a shocked grin but he had already moved on. I hope he saw how surprised and delighted I was. Because he remembered to the exact show when we had left, to the point that he even included the Cleveland set because he had not given us that one (we got it from Mr. Brunette). I was completely stunned. Victor is the best. THE BEST.

Megan went to buy a hoodie and we waited around for her. We saw the aftermath of what turned out to be a successful marriage proposal up by the stage.

We went outside to wait where we could avoid the crowd. While we were standing out on the sidewalk, Danny came up behind me and said said "thanks again for coming." It happened so fast and I was so caught of guard I don't think I even replied, just smiled at him foolishly. I'm actually not even sure I knew how he was there except I think he must have put a hand on my shoulder or something as he passed or I would have missed it completely.

And we said goodbye to all out friends and went back to our hotel for 3 hours of sleep before another 6:30am flight. The entire thing seems a little dream-like but is not something I will soon (or ever) forget. Worth the trip a thousand times over.

There's A Picture Opposite Me - 9/28/11

Captured on our whirlwind trip to Chicago.

Please send submissions to theroommustlistentome@gmail.com

Song of the Day - Day 317

Today's song is...


The Next Plane To London


I can't say I enjoy Flansburgh's cover as much of the original but it's an interesting choice to cover. And the bridge is entertaining.

Song of the Day - Day 316

Today's song is...


Tigerella


This never fails to make me laugh because I'm forever trying to picture Linnell recording these vocals and just giggling at the mental image of the faces that go along with those sounds he is making at the end. I enjoy the song as a total TMBG oddity and one of the many little gems hidden in Unlimited.