Memo To Marty Beller: Do The Things I Gotta Do

July 21, 2011 - Apple Store - Boston, MA

The disadvantage of going to a show so close to home is that you can't kill all the time during the day getting to the show. We sat around antsy and bored all afternoon waiting for a reasonable time to drive into Boston. Conversation topics ranged from Flansburgh's cats, to recapping the previous night's show, to a discussion of how I was envious of all the folks I know who have been given Marty's drum sticks after a show.

When we finally drove into the city we hit only a very small patch of traffic and I rerouted us the other way into Boston to avoid it. Compared to the NYC travel experience this was a breeze. We parked under the Commons and walked to the Apple Store. It was only about a mile but it was so blazing hot it felt like four and all three of us, Megan, Gary and myself, we sticky and dripping by the time we entered the cool serenity of the Apple Store. We had to ride an elevator to the basement to find the restroom and back up again to re-enter the store. Weird.

There was a bit of confusion over where to line-up for the show. The performance was on the third floor which was closed off while they set up. We hung out on the first floor for a little while. Megan even asked an employee where they were lining up but the guy had no idea. Eventually another employee identified our wristbands and pointed out they they were lining up on the second floor. It was a good thing too because there were already five or so people in the line ahead of us and it rapidly grew behind us until it wrapped all the way around the central spiral stairs and then started again on the first floor.

This show started an hour later than the NYC one and we spent a lot more time in line. But we got to hear the soundcheck as a result which is always fun. There was a period of random noise punctuated by Marty smashing cymbals and toms. Then they blasted into Johnny quite loudly and suddenly. We got some little samples of Cloisonné. Then the guys pretty much made Megan's century by starting up Puppet Head. That's her song she'd never heard live that she'd been waiting for forever. I don't think I've ever seen anyone quite so excited about those opening drum beats.

Soundcheck over, the guys dispersed and we got to peer down at them on the first floor as they headed out for food or whatever if was they were after. We were hoping that meant we would be let upstairs to the stage soon but we were still there when the guys came back in later. In the end we were only allowed to ascend the stairs about 20 minutes before the show began.

We were expecting a set-up similar to SoHo with rows of chairs in front of the stage, but boy were we wrong. When we finally got to go up, the first 10 of us in line were ushered into a small roped off area immediately in front of the stage where we stretched from one end to the other with our toes under the stage curtain and our knees at stage level. We got spots on the far left side. I've been in the front row plenty of times before but I have never been quite this close to the stage. It was unnerving. The stage was so low to the ground that it felt like we were practically standing on top of it. I actually had to take off my purse and tuck it under the stage because it kept getting caught on the back of what I originally took to be Dan's mic stand.

Some of the remainder of the crowd pushed in behind us, some clumped up on the right side of the stage and others spread back across the room and around the sides of the stairs. While the SoHo set-up had a very comfortable, cozy feel. This was like the world's most intimate, intense rock show. And the stage was in front of the wall of windows that made up the front of the store as well a a giant lit up Apple logo which made for some dramatic back lighting.



Scott came out to lay out setlists that were pretty easily visible. My companions were determined not to look but I had no such qualms. That is until Scott taped one to the floor about a foot in front of us. Then we couldn't have not looked at it if we had wanted to. It was unavoidable.



An Apple Store employee came out to introduce the band, promising the show would be beginning momentarily. And in fact, when I turned around, I could see the guys hanging out by the elevator in the back waiting for their cue. And moments later they took the stage. I had a brief shock when I realized the mic stand two inches in front of me, that I had assumed was Dan's was in fact the one for Linnell's accordion. Because the first thing he did was pick up the accordion and walk over to that mic stand. I was actually a little relieved when he picked it up and moved it further back because it was intimidatingly close.



And of course, just for Megan, they opened with Puppet Head. I've seen it a couple of times  but it's always super exciting for me to be there when someone finally gets to hear "that" song. Meg is gonna have to find something else to look forward to at shows now that she's experienced the one/two punch of meeting Dan Miller and hearing Puppet Head live. Two life goals checked off the list in two days is a pretty neat trick. Glad I was there to witness the magic.

The funniest part of this particular version of Puppet Head was the bridge when Flans declared, "Memo to Marty Beller, do the things I gotta do. Touch the puppet head." It was just kind of random and perfect.

They mentioned something about having a new album and the new songs and a guy in the audience (who happened to be dressed in a banana costume) held up his vinyl copy of Join Us. Flans got really excited because he hadn't seen the vinyl yet and asked to look at it. So it was passed to the stage and both he and Linnell stood their pouring over it with Danny peering over Linnell's shoulder. They were like little kids with a new toy. Flans told the banana guy, "This is the Apple Store. Don't you know you need to check your vinyl at the door?" Then he joked that he was keeping his vinyl. (But he did give it back.)

They played Never Knew Love. I continue to be amused (and probably will for quite a while yet) by the faces Linnell makes while singing the back-up. It's like he has to achieve a certain face for the notes to come out properly. I was also fascinated watching Marty constantly flipping his drums sticks over, because he had these sticks with the fans on one end and sticks on the other that he was just whipping around in his hands as the song switched from chorus to verse.



Then followed what may be the single best performance of Fingertips ever. Flansburgh did the extended Everything Is Catching On Fire again with extra ad-libbed "catching on fire"s at the end. Dan came down to the mic to do Fingertips and it wasn't turned on. He started to sing the first word, realized the mic wasn't on, then held up a finger to hold on a second. Then he moved to Flans' mic and did it there instead. It was adorable. Then he went to leave but Flans wouldn't let him. Flans put an arm around him and held him pinned at the mic while he sang I Hear the Wind Blow. Then he turned his head and whispered "Hello, hello, I'm the one who loves you so" into Dan's ear. Dan was trying so hard not to completely crack-up. It was beautiful.



Then they got to Mysterious Whisper and Flans commanded us to put our hands in the air and sway. Dan put his hands up and then started goading Danny into putting his hands up. But he was still playing and kept shaking his head. But Dan just kept mouthing, "put your hands up" and Danny responded by adding more and more notes into what he was playing to indicate that he was using his hands. That too was beautiful and hilarious. Then they played a blazing I Walk Along Darkened Corridors with Linnell belting out the words at the top of his lungs and Dan soaring on an epic guitar solo. And Flans stood with his back to the audience egging Marty on so that he kept playing harder and faster until the song finally ended with a cymbal smash so hard the entire cymbal on it's stand leaped a full inch forward on the stage.

The Johns talked about the contest winning video for Johnny before the song. (Dan clapped politely at the back of the stage when it was first mentioned.) Linnell said that once you saw it you couldn't unsee it. And Flansburgh said "at least not until Apple launches the iTime Machine." "Or the iForget," chimed in Linnell. I kind of hope they someday play the song with the video playing in the background.



They followed with Twisting, Ana Ng and Memo to Human Resources. There may have been some other banter in this section but I've forgotten it if there was. I'll stick in some stuff that I'm not sure exactly when it happened. There was a song that Flans made a joke at the end of, wondering which member of the band had had the last note. Linnell responded by playing one more note on the keyboard and Marty followed it up with a little drum bump which had Flans declaring Marty the winner. There was also a song where Flans picked up his coffee cup and was waving it around while he sang, never quite having enough time between lines to drink from it. When he screamed in Twisting he turned and screamed directly at me, like he was really hoping I would take a picture (I don't think I did though). Many of the guys did some really goofy posing for the array of cameras in the front row. There was a guy off to my right whose pictures I would really love to see because Flans, Linnell and Danny were all having fun making faces for him.



Linnell moved back over to the mic in front of me to do Alphabet of Nations. Only this time he didn't move it back. He was standing as close in front of me as the people in the audience were behind me and I had to crane my neck up to look at him. If you were every wondering how close is intimidatingly close to John Linnell, it is this close. And I wanted to take some pictures of him because of course he was making great Alphabet faces but he was just so close it was awkward. When I finally ended up taking one, I had to lean back into Gary just to get his head in frame. And then I looked over and Danny was just shaking his head at me. Not sure if it was the awkwardness of my photography or if I just looked that stunned at my proximity to Linnell (it might have been both).



Flans made some announcements about upcoming shows. He started saying that the Brooklyn show was Saturday, July 29th. Then he second guessed himself and asked if it was Friday or Saturday. A bunch of people including Dan all said Friday. "Friday. Still the 29th, just one day earlier." He made some kind of joke about hitchhiking to the show if you left now. Then he mentioned that they were coming back to play at Berklee in October. And he was teasing that some people on the stage had matriculated from Berklee. "Matriculated...I think that means you spilled something on yourself." This got a good laugh from both of the Dans (the Berklee grads). Then both he and Linnell started making these plays on words with musical terms. Not sure quite how it started. I think maybe Flans was teasing Dan about something. I don't remember most of them which is sad because they were all hilarious. The audience started supplying some for them to riff off of. I think Dan tossed one in too. But the only one I remember is someone saying "suspended fourths" and Flans turning it into "suspended disbelief." "We could do these all day."

They did You Probably Get That A Lot with Linnell still towering over me and making ridiculously awesome faces that I couldn't photograph because I was too self conscious. The most nerve-wracking moment though, was when he paused and looked down just before singing the last line, and fixed me with the most intense stare, I probably should have been reduced to a pile of ash on the floor. And then he just went back and finished the song while I attempted to get my heart going again.

They all shifted positions around for Cloisonné. Danny briefly didn't realize what they were playing and forgot to put his bass down. Flans asked one of the fans to turn off the electric fan that was next to the keyboard because it was going to mess up the mic for the bass clarinet. Then followed some truly amusing dialogue from Flans and Linnell.

Flans: "Are you OK there, John?"

Linnell: "Yes."

Flans: "Do you need to hear it in the monitor?"

Linnell: "No. I don't want to hear it."

Flans: "It's not going to get any better if you can't hear it."

Then Flans said something about Linnell being in denial about playing the clarinet. But he did just fine. The song still sounded amazing the second go round. And they did this cute thing afterward (which they did at least once at each show) where they all looked at each other when they were done and kind of shrugged and nodded as if to say "That was pretty good right?"



They played the deeply familiar Birdhouse. Then Marty absolutely exploded into Judy. It was so loud you would never ever believe he was only playing a four piece kit. Flans started to sing and the vocal was just completely washed out by the drums. Danny looked at Marty and Marty just kind of shrugged. I was glad I got to watch him play it this time since I couldn't see him in NYC and I was focused on Linnell anyway. It was truly impressive. Flans messed up the words again but in a different spot.



Afterward, Linnell asked Flans if he had been the one that had messed it up. Flans said yes. Linnell couldn't tell if he was being serious or not and Flans said he was but he hadn't wanted to make a big deal out of it. Then Flans started joking that it was going to be a long car ride home and stood on stage with his arms crossed making an angry face, imitating their faces as they sat in the car furious with each other. We laughed a lot.

They did a traditional Graveyard where we whooped for Dan, chanted for Danny and screamed our heads off for Marty. I can only imagine how this whole show must have sounded to people shopping in the Apple Store downstairs and suddenly 100 people started to scream at the top of their lungs. Note to self: don't forget to breath while screaming, as I briefly made myself lightheaded.



Flans thanked us all for coming and said something about going to hang out with his mom. I believe this was his was of making an excuse for not doing an encore. His mom was apparently in the audience, though I didn't see her this time. Then they closed out the show with The Mesopotamians and filed off the stage waving, and back to the elevator escape route.

Then followed the most wonderful, disorienting thing for me. I bent down to pick-up my purse and Gary reached over me to get the setlist off the stage that was taped in front of us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was someone jumping onto the stage on my right but I couldn't turn to see who or what it was, stuck as I was on the floor (turned out some girl climbed on stage to retrieve setlists from the back...bad form!). And I finally stood up again to realize that (least from my perspective) out of nowhere Marty had reappeared on stage and was currently walking towards me holding out his drum sticks. He bent down and put them in my hand and I'm pretty sure I was staring at them like I didn't know where they had come from. He said, "Thank you for the birthday message you wrote. It really touched me." All I could manage to say was "Thank you." And I realized later I should have said "You're welcome." Then he stood up and started to walk away and I just stared at him dumbfounded as my mind briefly scrambled to decide if I should try to ask him to sign my CD I had in my hand or the sticks themselves, but in the end I just stared as he walked away. I was absolutely and totally shocked.

The entire event is in my mind in tunnel vision. I barely remember seeing Marty, only hearing him. And the inner dialogue in my head while it was happening probably resulted in some really amusing expressions on my face. At first my brain was scrambling trying to even find context and even figure out what he was referring to. The first thing that jumped to my mind was the birthday message Danny had written for me and I was super confused. Then I remembered that I had wished him Happy Birthday on Facebook and was trying to remember if I had said anything especially touching. Then I had a whole debate with myself over whether "Thank you" was an appropriate thing to have said at all. Somewhere in there I remembered that we had just been talking earlier in the day about how I wanted drum sticks and now I was holding them. And then, FINALLY, it occurred to me that I had actually tagged Marty on Facebook when I had posted the blog entry I wrote for his birthday and that that was actually what he had been referring to. Which led to even more stunned shock as I tried to remember what I had written and wrap my brain around the fact that he had actually read it.

I have had some cool encounters with the guys before shows and after shows before, but I think I can honestly say this one was the most meaningful to date.

We spent a few minutes just standing around examining the sticks. One of them is completely shredded on the top and even has red paint marks on it (which is interesting as Marty was not playing a red drum that night). The other looks virtually untouched on top but has score marks all over the back as if he was using it upside down on something. Then I frantically text messaged some of our absent friends while we walked back to the garage. I say walked, though I think in my memory I was floating. This was a show for the history books and the two days together made all the travel hassle worth it times ten. Can't wait to do it all again next week. And a most sincere thank you to Marty for making me the happiest fangirl on the planet.