Why Is The World In Love Again?

October 2, 2009 - Albany, NY - The Egg - Flood!



We managed not to miss the entrance to the parking garage on this trip to The Egg. Yay! The security guard at the garage entrance asked me if the band played jazz. I don't know how he knew we were there for the concert. Actually, we realized later that he apparently mistook us for road crew, which explains the questions about the band he was asking, (I didn't even have my hoodie visible) and why he didn't charge us to park like he was supposed to. That makes me two for two on the free parking for this trip as the garage on Thursday had the gates open.

We got to The Egg early and met up with a friend we made at the show in Portland in June (which I will do a write-up on at some point, I promise). The show was general admission so we wanted to make sure we were there early to get a spot. While we were standing in the lobby Flans walked by us coming in from the parking garage, loaded with stuff. We tried not to look to obvious while we gawked. We also made a new friend while we were waiting, who had come by herself. Hi, new friend! We couldn't figure out where to wait since you have to ascend into The Egg via elevators and the elevators stopped on two levels. We settled for the upper level. Unfortunately, most every one else chose the lower level and there was a whole elevator full of people that got in line before we did. Oh well.

Our elevator stopped on the stage entrance level on the way up to the theater even though know one was getting off. The doors opened and there was Danny sitting at a table eating dinner, looking rather surprised to suddenly see a whole elevator full of fans. Dan was getting into another elevator at the back of the room and Ralph Carney was walking by and waved at us before we continued our ascent.

There were two lines to get into the theater and we picked the one on the far side because there were only a few people in it. When they opened the doors we were able to get "front row"seats though a big open dance floor had been put in, in front of the seats so it was obvious that front row wasn't going to mean anything. We were expecting people to wait until TMBG came on before rushing the stage but a whole bunch of people ran up when the opening act came out so we didn't get the best spot. We were all the way to the left in front of Marty and the brand new confetti canon (it was pretty much pointed at my head).

Same opening act. Still weird. Peter seemed a bit more put together tonight. He didn't need sheet music to remember the lyrics (though he still forgot some) and he was able to get through complete coherent sentences between songs. He also didn't start laughing randomly in the middle of songs quite as much. He confirmed that Zoe is, in fact, his daughter and that these were the first shows they had performed together. Perhaps I should contribute some of the weirdness to nerves. Maybe.



TMBG came out to their new "Sammy Intro"and launched into Meet the Elements again. This song sounds fantastic live. It is my second favorite on the album, next to Paleontologist. It has such a great rhythm.

Then we got to Clap our hands and jump in the air. I had more room for jumping today so I wasn't worried about stomping on people's feet. Either before or after Clap, someone over on Flan's side of the stage had apparently hit another fan while dancing. Flans told everyone to be quiet and said that wasn't going to happen at this show and that they could stop the show at any time if it did.The ultimate fan advocate! They were back to the fast version of WDTSS? again. Seems appropriate since that is the version on the new album.

Flans told Linnell to talk about the new album while he was getting ready for the next song. Linnell seemed momentarily caught off guard then said he been planning to make a joke about hitting people in the face but it didn't seem appropriate any more. Then he did actually talk about the new science album before they played My Brother The Ape and Science Is Real. The latter still sounds odd live; I think it has something to do with the electric drum kit.

They did the new slightly techno sounding version of James K. Polk with Ralph playing The Thing. It really works quite well as a substitute for the singing saw.



They launched the puppet segment next which was even better than the night before. It seems that The Lab actually refers to any time Marty is at the electric kit and the puppets are just a piece of it. To kick it off the Flans-Puppet presented the Linnell-Puppet with a homemade certified platinum Flood album from the RIAA. The "album" was a CD stuck on a piece of yellow construction paper with Flood and Platinum written on it. Much sobbing insued from Linnell-Puppet as he accepted the award. The in a complete turn around Flans-Puppet accused Linnell-Puppet of illegally distributing the Garrison Keillor audiobook Aw, Shucks and told him he would have to appear in court. The flip side of the Flood award had a picture of Garrison Keillor on it with Aw, Shucks under it. Linnell-Puppet was very affronted. There was also an amusing attempt to accept the award in the puppet's mouth since they don't have hands. Eventually the puppets sang What Is A Shooting Star? together.



They closed out the pre-Flood set with Albany, The Egg venue song. Really, what were they thinking? They left the camera displaying the audience on the screen but it went all psychedelic and squiggly around the edges and Flans joked about giving the audience seizures and eventually had Dan turn it off.

Linnell could not figure out how to introduce the Theme From Flood and they eventually just launched into it. There was a guy standing behind us that was rather annoying because he was singing too loudly throughout the entire show. At times he was almost drowning out the band. But he was a only a minor annoyance.



It seemed like they flew through the Flood set though that may have just been me. Ralph did the clarinet intro to Istanbul again and then the sax outro complete with more rolling on the floor while playing. I hope to get some pictures of him doing this at some point but he was on the other side of the stage.

Linnell completely flubbed up the lyrics to Your Racist Friend. He was kind of muttering along at a few points while Flans confidently sang right through.

When Flans instructed everyone to clap at the beginning of Particle Man he told us we had to keep clapping no matter what, even though the music was going to stop.

After Particle Man, Linnell made a comment about how they had to pause before the next song because they were used to having to flip over the record. Flans had to tell him that actually, they weren't at side two yet (this was particularly funny as their setlists had Side Two written on them in the right spot, which Linnell obviously didn't notice). Flans did one of those "back in the day" things explaining that music used to come on records and Linnell said that the first copy of Flood he bought had been on a CD so he was making the whole thing up for dramatic effect or something like that.

They finally played Twisting and We Want a Rock in the right order again. I think they figured out that since Linnell has been playing We Want a Rock on the keyboard instead of the accordion lately there was no reason to have them flipped. There was also a girl a few people down from me holding a rock with a string tied around it. Neat! By the way, same person made a comment on the TMBW that they didn't think the band had noticed the rock but Linnell definitely did because the only reason I noticed it was because I looked over to see what he was looking at in the audience. He was smiling so he obviously appreciated it.



At the end of Rock, Flans said he thought they should have some special switiching-to-side-two music, which led to a little debate on stage about what they could play. Then Linnell made a joke about how they actually plan all their shows on stage in front of the audience.

At some point at the end of one of the songs right around here one of the Johns (I think it was Flans) commented at the end of a song that "that big finish made me think of Mel Gibson." This earned a big "HUH" from the rest of the band and the audience and a great moment of Linnell looking at him with a great "what the heck are you talking about" expression on his face. He never really did explain himself. But the joke did come back later when they said they expected Mel Gibson to appear in the theater. Very odd.

Also at the end of either Someone Keeps Moving My Chair or Hearing Aid, Linnell went over to Marty and said something like "don't use the ____ until Hot Cha" (Marty had obviously played something wrong but I missed exactly what it was) to which Marty responded in a kid's voice "stop yelling at me." It was very cute.

After Minimum Wage this idiot next to me started yelling for them to play Dirt Bike. My friend turned around and told him they were playing Flood and to shut up. Thank you! Flans said "no, we are not going to stop in the middle of a Flood set to play Dirt Bike." Someone else in the crowd yelled out a joking request for Apollo 18 and Flans said they'd just stop and play all of Apollo 18 and then finish Flood. He was laughing by that point but seemed annoyed at the Dirt Bike guy.

On Whistling in the Dark Flans played both the bass drum and the cymbal from the electric kit with his arms stretched out to either side. He looks so much more comfortable now that he doesn't have to lug that big bass drum around.



Linnell kind of forgot what he was doing at the beginning of Women and Men and messed up the first verse then laughed his way through the end of it before he got himself together again. I think he hadn't been quite ready to start playing yet.

They set off the confetti canon during They Might Be Giants. I saw the guy crouching next to it at the beginning of the song but when Flans gave him the signal he didn't see it. Then one of the other techs was flashing a light at him as a signal, which he also didn't see, so the guy started yelling"go" at him which he didn't hear until he came up behind him and yelled it at his head. THEN the canon went off spraying confetti right in our faces. Not nearly as much as the night before. They only put part of a bag in where as in Ithaca a tech had said after the show that the canon had a 50lbs bag on confetti in it. Personally, I was glad not to have a 50lb bag of confetti blown at my head.

At the beginning of Road Movie, Marty signaled to one of the guys back stage to come out to the drum kit, which he did. He crouched down behind Marty and I couldn't figure out what he was doing because Marty was just sitting there playing the tambourine. But when the song hit the big, loud bridge, Marty handed the guy his tambourine and took his sticks from him to play the drums. When it went back to the slow part he reached his hand back for the tambourine and put the sticks down. Turned out he just needed to guy as a tambourine holder to make the transition fast enough. Pretty slick, but the guy sure looked silly crouched down holding a tambourine in the air.



For the first encore they did Alphabet of Nations, The Mesopotamians, band intros and Damn Good Times. The second encore was Drink!, Cowtown and New York City. Many more audience members participated in the Drink call-back tonight which was good to see. And I never get tired of the faces Linnell makes while playing the intro to Cowtown on the clarinet. It is a look of such concentration.



All in all, not quite as good a show as Ithaca but still a lot of fun. They seem to be developing the puppet segment more as they go and I can't wait to see what they do with it in the future. As usual, more picures are on Flickr.

Write-up of the AMNH shows will be up shortly as will the pictures from those shows.

Only two more days until the start of the road trip. Detroit, here I come!

Reverse Order

October 1st, The State Theatre, Ithaca, NY

No cameras allowed at this show so you'll have to do without pictures on this one. Except for this one.

The opening act was Peter and Zoe Stampfel, a truly strange experience. I assume they are father and daughter or possibly even granddaughter. Zoe played a bongo and did a little harmonizing to Peter's singing and guitar. He certainly has a unique voice and playing style. Part folk, part blues, part crazy, senile old man.His songs were mostly off color and ranged from humorously inappropriate - there was one called Stick Your Ass In The Air - to almost offensive, like It's A White Man's World. Zoe really seemed like she was more there to keep an eye on him than to play. The whole vibe was of a old guy who used to be a singer in the 50s escaping from his nursing home to play the gig. He's an old friend of the band having appeared in the Hello Recording Club. He also sings the Fingertips line in Fingertips. Flans said on the radio the other day that they had invited him to open for this whole tour but he only agreed to one weekend. Thank goodness for that. It was kind of funny, especially the banjo version of I Will Survive they closed with but I don't think I could take it long term.

On the TMBG front, big news! They have changed the stage set-up! In a mind boggling move - Linnell is on the left. Sort of center left but still left. Marty's regular drum kit is all the way on the left and his new electric kit is on the right. The horn set up is on a platform in the back center. They have Ralph Carney with them for this tour playing pretty much the entire horn and wind sections. Danny's spot is kind of between the drum kit and the platform though since he has no mic he isn't tied to it and moved around a lot. Flans has most of the center right area of the stage though he moved around too. Dan is at front right, mostly but he now has his own keyboard in the back right corner behind Marty's new electric drum kit. Flans commented that for 25 years he has been on Linnell's left so it was very weird for him to be on his right. He spent a fair amount of time in the front left corner of the stage which must have felt more comfortable for him.

They played an Intro I have't heard before labeled on the setlist as Sammy Intro. It sounded cool but I missed the Stompy one.

They started off with Meet the Elements which I was very excited about. They've played it at a few shows this fall but I hadn't seen it yet. After the song Flans said he wasn't used to playing for a seated audience and invited everyone to the stage. We got a spot right in front of Dan on the right. He also said that since this was the first show on a new tour they would be playing four or five songs for the first time for a paying audience. They really only debuted one song since the rest had been played elsewhere in September but they were played at free shows so I guess that is what he meant.

Flans introduced the next song as being from their least commercially successful effort which means - Venue Songs! They did Los Angeles. Ralph Carney also came to the stage for this one. He played various different saxaphones, a clarinet and an instrument of his own design that Flans called The Thing, throughout the show.He also had maracas shaped like an apple and a banana.

Next up, an exciting first for me, Youth Culture Killed My Dog. They are digging into the oldies for this tour and I ain't complaining. At the end of the song Flans said we had reached the animal portion of the show and they did My Brother The Ape. Linnell commented that this new album was for older children and was thus also more appropriate for adults. I keep being confused when I hear them play this live (they did it on the radio before this) because Linnell always sings "well, I got the information, you sent to everyone" and I could swear on the album he says invitation. Whatever.

Birdhouse appeared early. I guess they are prepping for their Flood run where it kicks things off. It was very ahrd to jump during Clap Your Hands because we were all packed in so tight around the stage. We managed.

Another first for both my boyfriend and I, Where Your Eyes Don't Go! They did four songs from Lincoln which may be a record. Then into Mono Puff territory with Unsupervised.

Before Seven, Flans said that they were just as surprised as we were about their Grammy win and that the standards must have gone down. He also said he was surprised they had been allowed to make an educational album much be rewarded for it.We had to get the audience going on the "we want cake" chants. They were obviously all Seven novices, at least on our side, but they caught on quick.

At the end of Hearing Aid they set off the new confetti canon. It is much bigger and has a fan with it that blows the confetti out. It just kept blowing and blowing a ridiculous amount of confetti. A lot of it ended up in piles in the stage. It did manage to travel all the way across the crowd and onto us though. The guys seemed a little disappointed in it's performance and said this was they first time they had hooked it up.

Marty switched to the electric drum kit for James K. Polk which oddly had no confetti even though they had their small canon hooked up too.Ralph played The Thing during the bridge to imitate the singing saw. It's a mouth piece with a straight piece attached on the bottom and a curved piece on the top that can be pressed to different degrees to make the notes. It is pretty cool and makes a sound that is a cross between a clarinet and a kazoo.

Then they launched The Lab portion of the show mentioned in the recent mailer. They had the bass drum from the electric kit set up on top of a big box behind Marty. It had a camera mounted on top of it that projected on a screen behind the drum and Dan's keyboard. The Johns debated for a minute about how they were going to introduce the segment and then decided to just go for it with no intro. They both stood partially hidden behind the drum and donned sock-like hand puppets that were very cute. The puppets were projected on the screen so everyone could see them. The then proceeded to sing Shoehorn with Teeth with the puppets. Marty stood center stage with a board with three service bells screwed to it and rang they periodically and very seriously. Danny didn't play on this one and reappeared from backstage towards the end of the song and jumped in the air bringing his hand down as if he was ringing the bell, being much sillier than Marty who never even cracked a smile. Between that and the puppets, the whole thing was hysterical.What I would not have given for my camera!

At the end of the song Linnell said he felt they should attempt a duet with the puppets ans suggested Maybe I Know. Flans asked if he could play it on the keyboard while doing the puppet and Linnell wasn't sure. Flans suggested something else which Linnell was even less confident about then Linnell said "how about this" and started To All The Girls I Loved Before which Fans joined in on. Between verses Linnell sang a line about having trouble playing the keyboard and moving the puppet mouth at the same time. Flans seemed to go further through the song than Linnell had intended to. They had also swung the camera around to show the audience on the screen while they were singing. Flans called an end to the segment after the song though apparently, according to the setlist it was supposed to go several songs longer.

Flans pulled out a chair and an acoustic guitar for the next song and talked about how their new album discusses evolution and the Big Bang and except for some "haters" on YouTube there hasn't been a lot of controvercy. And yet every time they do an interview the reporter says, "wow, evolution, that's controvercial." He then attempted to start Science Is Real which he has to sit down to play. He stopped it almost immediately and declared a do-over. He had to start it twice more before he got it. There was some feedback coming off of one of the instruments so the song didn't sound great but it was the only legit debut of the show.

Flans didn't give the audience any instructions on Drink! So the audience reply was a little weak but there were a few vetrans who participated.

They did WDTSS? in the original slow version with Linnell doing the spoken part. He stuck with the real words because he couldn't think of anything good after a moments thought. Marty did some good drum banging to accentuate his words.

Why Does the Sun Really Shine? had a shorter than usual but otherwise typical introduction.

Flans started out Spider with his mic stand raised upsidedown in the air. Somewhere right in this batch of songs Marty switched back to the regular drums but I don't remember exactly where. It was a real shame cameras weren't allowed as I could have finally gotten some great pictures of him since he was right in front of me on the electric.

West Virginia evened out the solo material representation. They set off the big confetti canon again during the guitar solo at the end of Damn Good Times. Then they had a big debate about when in the solo it should have been set off and where on stage it should be placed to get more of the confetti into the audience and less on the stage. Flans thought closer to the edge and Danny suggested on top of the speaker. Linnell said they don't actually talk outside a show so they have to have all their discussions on stage which prompted Flans to say "welcome to our production rehearsal." Don't Let's Start followed.

Awesome as usual. Linnell and Ralph both had their clarinets for Cowtown, which Flans said was the first song they had even played as a band. Ralph switched to sax part way through.

They did New York City before What Is a Shooting Star? which featured Dan on guitar.

Introduce the band signaled we were close to the end. This show went by so fast. I am so glad I have 14 to look forward to :-)

They closed with Istanbul. Ralph did the intro on clarinet but his mic fell off the clarinet and he attempted to hum a few bars while he put it back on. It was a pretty short solo and I missed Dan's guitar intro. For the outro Ralph went nuts lying on his back in the confetti pile on stage and playing sax while kicking his legs around. He had a little trouble getting up though.

They took a long break before they encore. My hands were going numb from pounding on the stage. They started the encore with Alphabet of Nations. I could see Dan's setlist upside down and had been trying to figure out what was written under Alphabet with some question marks but Flans was indicating to everyone on stage to skip the song so it didn't matter (it was See the Constellation that they skipped, written as Contellation on the setlist). They moved on to The Mesopotamians.

For the second encore they did Dead. Then Flans discussed their free podcast and how they had done Cast Your Pod to the Wind which was the best of the free stuff which was in fact so good that you now have to pay for it. They did We Live In A Dump off that collection.

At some point during the encore Flans commented on how long it had been since they had played in Ithaca and blamed the chicken fighting (a girl had gotten up on someone's shoulders in the crowd).

They closed with Ana Ng. We waited around for a while afterwards and eventually got Marty's setlist from the electric kit as well as a poster I found on the floor.Someone was sitting ontop of a chair in the front row while we were waiting (and collecting confetti) and the left half of the front row fell backwards. It was supposed to collapse but still, yikes!

Really great return to the tour circuit. Can't wait to see what they do next. On to the performance orb!

Tarrytown USA

May 9th found us in Tarrytown, NY for both a family and rock show at The Music Hall. Tarrytown is one of those lovely little towns that actually still has a Main Street with little shops and restaurants and such. The venue was next to a tiny little curio shop and a yarn store. This is exactly the kind of place I would live to live. The parking was a little weird (metered but very long times) and it was funny watching the theater employee outside before the show trying to give people directions on where to park.



While we were waiting to get into the theater we saw one of the techs leave and then re-enter with a brand new broom he seemed to have purchased at a hardware store down the street. Seems they forget to bring a broom with them on which to create Broom. I have wondered from other shows it they actually usually just borrow a broom from the venue because he always seems to have a different face.



The family show featured almost exactly the same setlist as the last family show I attended at LPR but with the addition of John Lee Supertaster which I had not heard live before. It has never been one of my favorites but it is better live than it is recorded.

Setlist: Alphabet of Nations - Seven - I Never Go To Work - Pirate Girls Nine - Istanbul - Apartment Four - E Eats Everything - No! - Clap Your Hands - Paleontologist - Older - Particle Man - Fibber Island/Zilch - Four of Two - Robot Parade - Alphabet Lost and Found - Broom - John Lee Supertaster - WDTSS? - 813 Mile Car Trip - Doctor Worm

This was a seated venue so it was a very relaxed show. The audience only stood when they were asked to and for the encore. Flans asked everyone to remain standing for Paleontologist after Clap Your Hands because they were going to play a new song and it is tradition to stand for a new song (it is??). Then he told everyone to pretend like it was their favorite song and cheer really loudly even though they had never heard it before. Linnell did the dinosaurs a little differently this time but it was just as funny.

I don't remember much of the rest of the show so I will let some pictures speak in my place.














What was really exciting about this day was what happened between the shows. We went to a little Chinese food place that was three doors down from the theater for dinner. It was counter service but they had about six tables inside where you could eat and a few outside. We were about half way through our meal when I caught sight of Marty out of the corner of my eye (my back was to the door). We had seen him and his family outside the theater after the show and they had apparently come into the same restaurant we were eating in to get food. I could see my boyfriend's eyes growing large and he was just giving me this look like "you wont believe who is behind you" and I heard Flansburgh's voice discussing what they should order. I was too terrified to turn around but all I knew was some portion of the band was now seated about two feet behind me. I didn't even know how many of the guys were there because I was afraid to ask my boyfriend, in case they heard me. We basically didn't talk again until we left the restaurant. I think we were afraid we might give ourselves away as fans (though it was probably obvious from my hoodie.

I tried very hard to be polite and not eaves drop but we did hear Flans saying something about needing to order more confetti and a very cute conversation he tried to have with Marty's little girl who was refusing to eat. We finished our meal long before they did and when we got up to leave I realized that Danny was with them as well. So I can sort of say that I ate dinner with 3/5 of the band! They were hanging around on the sidewalk outside the restaurant later while we were waiting to get back into the theater and a few fans stopped to talk to Danny, who didn't seem to mind, but I am far too chicken for such things.

We had seats on the end of the second row for the evening show (specifically purchased for their easy out access should we be invited to approach the stage). The opener was Jedediah Parish, a sort of folky rock singer/guitar player. He was quite good and his banter was funny. He did a song about a train I especially liked and had a funny joke about searching for his name on iTunes which I don't remember properly.

When TMBG came out we were invited to came stage side right after the first song and we got a great spot right in front of the keyboard. Only down side was I couldn't see Marty at all. He was completely behind the keyboard and Linnell's legs. Linnell had on the best, geekiest T-shirt with the molecular structure for caffeine on it. I want one.



Setlist: Twisting - Fingertips - Mesopotamians - Cyclops Rock - Withered Hope - Memo - Don't Let's Start - Dinner Bell - Asbury Park - Seven - Dr. Worm - The Guitar - Clap Your Hands - Ana Ng - Istanbul - Hey Mr. DJ - New York City - Birdhouse - WDTSS? and WDTSRS? - Damn Good Times - Drink! - Particle Man - She's An Angel - Sleepwalkers

If I remember correctly this is the other show I saw where Dan climbed up on the speakers for the end of Fingertips. They were quite high but he didn't seem concerned. He did need help getting down though.

Marty "was wrecking his best shit" during the band intros to quote Flans. I think it was the second best I have seen him do. And I could see him for the only time in the show because Linnell stepped to the side and I could squat and look under the keyboard at him.



Danny caught me taking a picture of him at one point which always makes me nervous. I was sort of hoping he'd make a funny face for me like I have seen him do in other fan photos but he just stared. I am really addicted to my camera at shows and I am always paranoid that I am annoying either the band or other people in the audience. I try to be very good and never use flash and don't hold the camera over my head so people can't see. I've turn off all the camera's external lights which makes it harder to focus but I figure irritates the band less. I try not to use the camera in venues that don't permit it (though I did sneak some pictures at one show while no one was looking). I'm just terrified that the band is going to think of me as "that annoying girl with the camera," if they ever think of me at all. Not to mention the other people in the audience. Sometimes I feel like I get so caught up taking pictures I forget to enjoy the show. I think that may be why I don't remember this show very well even though it wasn't that long ago.

On another Danny related note. I LOVE his red pants. They are the best pants ever. He should wear them at every show except then they wouldn't be special and cool. That is all.



I apologize that I don't remember any of the good banter from these shows. If I think of anything later I'll add it in. They were both excellent shows and these write-ups don't do them justice. Hopefully the photos will speak for themselves.












It is my intention to blog the last May LPR show and my June triple hit weekend tomorrow and then my one July show on Wednesday. Don't know if that will happen since I also need to pack for the trip out to New York. We'll see. Only one more day until I leave, two before the first show!

Pachycephalosaurus?

Another double feature family show/rock show at LPR on March 28th. The family show was billed as being in celebration on their recent Grammy win (YAY!). Much less trouble getting there this time. We still chose to stand in back since the view was so good over all the people sitting and we were ensured of no one in front of us because the club had set up barriers between the seated families and the folks standing in back.

While we were waiting inside the club for the doors to open Dan Miller came out a side door in the lobby and hit my boyfriend with the door. He apologized very politely and it didn't hurt much but it made for a great Facebook status update, "just got hit with a door by Dan Miller." Heehee.

Setlist: 813 Mile Car Trip - I Am A Paleontologist - Alphabet of Nations - Pirate Girls Nine - Seven - Istanbul - Apartment Four - E Eats Everything - No! - Clap Your Hands - Particle Man - Doctor Worm - Alphabet Lost and Found - Fibber Island/Zilch - Four of Two - Broom - One Dozen Monkeys - Never Go To Work - WDTSS?



My entire memory of this show is eclipsed by the premiere of I Am A Paleontologist. I believe I have stated before that I love everything that Danny does and boy do I love this song, from the first time I heard the opening chords. I also really love that he plays bass while singing since he usually plays guitar when he does Where Do They Make Balloons? The song has the perfect mix of rock and silly and Linnell reading off dinosaur names was priceless. I don't have any pictures of it though, because everyone stood up and I couldn't see. I spend hours, after they started doing this live, watching YouTube videos of it at various concerts trying to sort out the lyrics for TMBW so I already knew it by heart by the time Science came out. Fortunately, I don't think I will ever tire of it.

Also new to this show, Fibber Island led directly into the Monkees' song Zilch. Linnell, Flans, Dan and Danny each took a part and went faster and faster until they couldn't manage it anymore. It went off pretty well, though I can never hear Danny when they do it. That may be mostly because he is one of the last to start. It sounds kind of like a train if they get it going right and it got a lot of laughs from the parents. I think the kids were kind of confused.



Broom was pretty funny, going on about his next gig at Pianos. He made Linnell laugh a lot. Hannah was back to sing One Dozen Moneys again. She really is quite talented.






This was a pretty short set with only one encore. Curt was back to rock the solo in I Never Go To Work. They did talk about the Grammy win a little bit but didn't say anything memorable enough for me to remember (the quote from one of the official newspaper reviews is "It's an honor just to win"). Seriously, the whole section of my brain devoted to this show is just going "diggin, diggin, diggin, diggin."

We tried to get a setlist after the show but there was nobody around giving them out. We did get to see Marty hanging out afterwards with his family but didn't say anything to him (I never want to bother him when he's with his kids). I do have to say though, without trying to be creepy at all, Marty has the one of the cutest little boys I have ever seen. I've seen the family at a bunch of shows and that little boy is just adorable!

We went to get pizza again between shows then went back to waiting in line. Got to see most of the band leaving the venue between shows, presumably to seek out food but oddly, did not see many of them return (though they did all manage to sneak back in.)

The theme for the evening show was Venue Songs which was cool since I hadn't seen many of them performed before. They had invited their friend Joshua Fried to appear as an opening act and read the narration for the Venue Songs.

Fried's act Joshua Fried's Radio Wonderland is one of those things that you might be really skeptical of when reading about it but it is actually is quite awesome. He has a set up with a steering wheel and upside-down shoes rigged as drums, attached to his laptop and a boombox (which he entered carrying on his shoulder). He finds a song on the radio (which was a bit difficult in the basement club) samples it into the laptop, mixes it up, then uses the shoes to provide percussion and the steering wheel to control the sound. He turned Better in Time, I Will Survive and even a commercial into nifty techno beats and had the whole audience bobbing. He was also bobbing quite a bit on stage. It was fun to see the audience move from confusion to grooving in just a few minutes. Startlingly good. He only played with three or four loops before he finished but he was definitely a success.



TMBG did a few songs to warm up for the Venue Songs set: West Virginia, New York City, She's An Angel, Ana Ng, They Might Be Giants, WDTSS? and WDTSRS?, Subliminal, My Evil Twin and Unsupervised. I had never seen They Might Be Giants outside a Flood show so that was fun. Subliminal made me deliriously happy. And I had never seen My Evil Twin outside the Apollo 18 show either. Flans asked Linnell to do the spoken part on WDTSS? again but when Linnell got to the section he started talking about how he had watched The Three Faces of Eve the night before and how he had really wanted to find a way to work it into the show but hadn't figured out how yet, and then never did any nuclear reactions. It was really funny because no one else had seen the film so no one knew what he was talking about.



Every time they made a mistake Flans would cry "Celebration!" as a signal to stop and try again. Apparently, this was something they had worked out for the family show to avoid saying "this show is killing me inside" (or really to avoid swearing, probably). I think they only used it once or twice in the afternoon but it appeared several times in the evening. It became quite a joke. The really funny thing is they've kept doing it. I've heard them say it at several shows since then.



Joshua Fried almost missed his cue to come on for the Venue Songs narration. I was surprised and pleased to discover that they had adapted the narration from that on the DVD so it wasn't exactly the same. It wasn't even the same as that heard on the recordings from the Venue Songs tour. And it was really funny. Fried did a great job with it, trying to play it really straight even when it was silly, though he did slip and laugh a few times. Linnell was laughing quite a lot. He seemed especially amused by it even though he must have heard it before.



They did not do the Venue Songs in the same order that they appear on the DVD. They also didn't do the Orange Peel one. I didn't realize until after the fact that it wasn't on the recording of the Venue Song tour show that I downloaded either. Kind of sad since it is one of my favorites. I wonder why they don't do it?



The order for this show was Los Angeles - Anaheim - Albany - Dallas - Vancouver - Pittsburgh - Glasgow - Charlottesville - Asbury Park - Brooklyn. They really did write some great songs when they were doing Venue Songs. I find it hard to believe that songs like Los Angeles and Vancouver in particular were written in just a few hours. Just a testament to the band's brilliance I guess. One of the most amusing things about the set was that because the songs were so short Linnell didn't bother taking off the accordion while he was playing keyboard on at least one of the songs. He just leaned over to play with it still strapped to him. I wonder if he can play both at once?



They finished out the show with Older - Withered Hope - Seven - Four of Two - Drink! - Experimental Film and The Mesopotamians. Dan went up and stood on Marty's drum stand for Older and wacked Marty in the back with the neck of his guitar.



For encores they did Museum of Idiots (YAY!) - Spy - Birdhouse - Clap Your Hands and Doctor Worm. It was really funny that they chose to do Spy because I had just been complaining to my boyfriend that I hadn't seen it. We keep a list of all the songs each of us had seen and of all the songs he had seen that I haven't, Spy was the one he had seen the most that I hadn't seen at all (he'd seen it seven times prior to this). The most embarrassing part was I didn't even recognize it when it started so I didn't know what he was talking about when he poked me and asked, "Happy now?" Stan Harrison knocked the sax solo on Spy out of the park. It was phenomenal. The song led into Linnell conducting the audience, the horns and the band in making various bits of noise and music before Flans took over and really got pretty silly with it pointing to one group, then another and back again, trying to confuse everyone. And Linnell had the craziest expression on his face every time Flans pointed to him. A good bit of goofiness to round out the show.



The didn't play LPR in April because Marty had to do something with his family. And I couldn't get to the shows they did do in April because I had to go to a bridal shower that day, so nothing in April for me. They were back in May for one last LPR experience. But there is another double feature show in Tarrytown, NY between us and that show. Coming soon (as it my next show, only 2 more days!).

As always, more pictures of these shows can be found on my Flickr page. Link on the right.

Stare Into The Subliminal

February 28th at LPR. The theme is once again...Flood. It's a really good thing I like this album. The opener is Oppenheimer. Finally, a really, really excellent opening act. They were loud and awesome. There was one song that they played that I particularly loved though I have never learned it's name despite having access to the CD now. Their sound man had gotten food poisoning from a burrito the previous night. Poor guy. I am always impressed by drummers who can sing while they drum and Shaun Robinson does just that. I was amused that Rocky left the voice modulator on his mic even while talking between songs. It was silly.


The first thing I noticed when TMBG came on was Linnell's disastrous new haircut. It was very severe, particularly on the sides and I missed the floppiness. It had been near perfect when they appeared on Conan just a few days earlier. Fortunately, it grew back to a much more pleasing length before the next show.


I will let you form your own opinion.

They opened with Subliminal which was a new one for me. I once scoffed a little bit when I read someone's reaction to hearing Ana Ng at a show. They said they did not realize it was their favorite until they realized they were still holding their breath half way through the song, or something to that effect. At the time I thought, how could you not know it was your favorite song? It wasn't until the band started playing Subliminal at this show that I knew what they meant. I had no idea I loved this song so much. I was just enthralled. I may never hear them play Man, It's So Loud in Here live but I might not mind if they would just keep Subliminal in the rotation.

They followed with It's Kickin' In which was also a first for me. Really great one-two punch start. Then they did Older, Upside Down Frown, Damn Good Times, Bee of the Bird of the Moth, Hey, Mr. DJ and Seven. Then I got another first timer, With the Dark, which sounds really cool live. That also meant I have now heard all of the songs from The Else played live except for Feign Amnesia, which they have never played anyway. They closed out the pre-Flood set with Doctor Worm.

This was a particularly excellent Flood set. The whole band seemed to be in a really silly mood. Dan played what is possibly his best intro to Istanbul I have ever seen. I have just made my very first ever video upload to YouTube in order to share it with you. Just look at how fast his hand is moving at the end. I also really enjoy the way he bobs his head while he plays.

The horns did an excellent outro (in that a word?) to Istanbul too complete with some freaky trumpet playing.

Someone at the last show had been loudly requesting Your Racist Friend and they promised to play it at this show. I hope that person was there to enjoy it.

Linnell started singing Clap for the Wolfman in the middle of Particle Man. Danny and Flans played along with the weird noises on the keyboard as usual. But very unusually, Flans continued playing the keyboard after Particle Man restarted and he went NUTS. He was attacking the keyboard and making wild faces and hammering out all sorts of weird sounds all with his guitar pick in his mouth. Danny even joined back in at the end on the kaoss pad. Thank goodness, I have photographic evidence. It was insane! Incidentally, the guy whose video camera is in the photo has a great video of the whole thing up on YouTube if you care to seek it out.

 Flans could not seem to get the "little bird" line of Letterbox out tonight. He just kept mumbling. He also had to be reminded, by the audience I might add, to get his drum for Whistling in the Dark. He said that the worst thing about doing these album shows in that everyone knows what's coming next and yells at you if you don't do it fast enough. He makes the most amusing faces while trying to hold that drum up and play.

At some point in the show they started talking about Tom Poston again. This was either the second or third time this conversation has been reprised. The initial story was at Lupo's but then I think they brought it up again the next night at LPR and were talking about it as if everyone there knew what they were talking about. They eventually went back and explained it again. Then I think, it came up again at this show except this time without any explanation so people who had not been at the other shows were completely in the dark. I may be misremembering and the last two incidents may have been the same but it was funny either way.

When discussing themes for the next show they announced an Every Album in sequence show for 2012. I would so be there for that.

For the first encore they did Maybe I Know, Los Angeles, and Drink! The second encore was S-E-X-X-Y with Linnell on clarinet again and The Guitar.

This show was a great example of how two people can have completely different experiences at the same show. I loved this show but my boyfriend was driven completely crazy by an obnoxious guy behind him (whom I was oblivious to) for pretty much the whole show so he really couldn't enjoy it as much. A PSA for show goers everywhere: by all means, sing along, but please do not sing a different song than the band is singing or sing while the band is talking. Please? It's just not cool. Thanks.

Shamrockium, Lepreconium and Lucky Shannanigans

January 31, 2009 we got up early to head to NYC for a double feature TMBG day. Family show in the afternoon, rock show at night, both at LPR. We had a ridiculous series of travel problems getting there, first getting separated on the train, then accidently getting on an express train and overshooting our stop. Then there was construction coming back the other way so we had to overshoot again and turn around before we finally got to the right place. By the time we got there the doors had been open for 45 minutes and I was sure we were going to be stuck in the back and not be able to see. But inside LPR all of the parents and kids had chosen to sit on the floor. So even though we stood at the back we had a perfect view to the stage (the place just isn't that big). As my boyfriend said, even if someone got up to dance it didn't matter because they were very short! We were standing right in front of the VIP area so got to see numerous family members of the band. It seemed like everyone had brought their kids. It was also funny watching how many people accidently walked back stage thinking it was the bathroom. And it was just funny in general seeing kids in a night club. But the staff were so into the whole family show concept. They had a stroller check and there were milk and cookies being served at the bar. It was adorable.


Setlist:





Alphabet of Nations had one of the best Guatemala's yet.


Pirate Girls Nine featured Dan Levine on Euphonium, "the small competitive friend of the tuba, enemy of the trombone."


All the horns came out for Seven. Curt Ramm was not with them at this show. Instead they had a trumpet player named Scott Harrell. He was good but was not Curt. Curt, it seems, was playing with Springsteen at the Superbowl. I guess he can be forgiven for missing a TMBG show for that. Flans amusingly forgot Scott's last name at one point. He was introducing the horns again and said "once again, Stan "The Optimist" Harrison on the sax, Scott.....on the trumpet, and Dan "The Machine" Levine of the trombone.


I Never Go to Work was introduced as the musician's anthem because they never go to work.


Marty came out to do Alphabet Lost and Found and did the obligatory crazy, escaped drummer dancing. I never, ever get tired of watching him dance or fall down on the floor. He even moved too fast for my camera.





Clap Your Hands had definitely dropped the screaming by this show and replaced it with more clapping.


Hannah Levine was there to sing One Dozen Monkeys. Flans' version is amusing but it was nice to hear the real thing and she was great. She had some trouble getting the mic to be short enough for her which was cute.


Flans had to introduce Four of Two because Linnell declared himself the band liar.


I love Where Do They Make Balloons? Actually, I love everything that Danny does.


Broom was amusing as always and was talking about his next gig that he had booked.


They decided to sing WDTSS? in pirate voices which lasted most of the way through until it got to the nuclear reactions and Flans told Linnell to do them. By then he had morphed into an Irish accent and declared that "the heat and light of the sun are caused by nuclear reactions between Shamrockium, Lepreconium and Lucky Shannanigans." Brilliant!!


813 Mile Car Trip was mislabeled as 814 on the setlist which was very easy to get after the show because the kids didn't care.


There was more discussion of their Grammy nomination and they said if they won they would be free to make inferior music. Looking back on it, it was sad because from the way he was talking about it, Flans seemed so excited about going to the ceremony and then he didn't end up being able to go. Life's timing is just crappy sometimes.





We went to get some pizza before the next show, then stood in line in very cold weather for about an hour and a half until the doors re-opened. The best part about already being there for the early show is that we got really close to the front of the line and actually got a spot stage-side for the one and only time in the eight shows we saw at LPR. We were standing right at Dan Miller's feet. I was actually leaning on the foot of his mic stand before the show started. And I accidently discovered that our camera, which we had had for several years has a zoom feature that we never knew about. So I was able to get some pretty decent photos.


Remember the story from the last show about the picture of the people playing guitar and the guy on the end with the kazoo? Well randomly, as we were waiting for the show to start, the person standing next to me handed me two copies of that picture signed by the Johns (the signatures had been reproduced too but still cool) and told me to take one and pass it down (I gave the other to my boyfriend). They didn't seem to know where they had come from any more than I did (though I later found out that another fan had bought it on eBay, had the Johns sign it and made copies for everyone). It was really cool.


Spray Paint Star opened again. Their act was identical except that this time there was a security guard trying to get the "drunk" guy off the stage (not sure if that was planned or if the guard hadn't been let in on the joke). At least at this show they announced that they were playing their last song so people weren't as confused when the guy dropped dead on the stage.








The theme for this show was once again Every Album and though that did not include any Mono Puff or State Songs this time around it was one of the most incredible sets I have seen. There were so many songs I hadn't heard live before. And from where we were standing we could see Dan's setlist so we knew if was going to be awesome before they even started playing.


Sleepwalkers - Ana Ng - We Live in a Dump - Wicked Little Critta - See the Constellation - Apartment Four - Take Out the Trash - Snail Shell - New York City - Asbury Park - Cowtown - Dig My Grave - Particle Man - Bee of the Bird - Meet James Ensor - Puppet Head - Older - E Eats Everything - Don't Let's Start - James K. Polk - Lucky Ball and Chain - The End of the Tour - Pet Name - Mesopotamians - Maybe I Know - Famous Polka - Twisting - Museum of Idiots - Clap Your Hands - Istanbul


The show was plagued by technical problems. Lala was running the board at the front and was really having trouble (oddly, I have never seen him again after this show - I hope those two things aren't related). They couldn't seem to get all the mics and instruments adjusted right. Linnell's mic was completely drowned out during Ana Ng and he kept gesturing for it to be turned up but Lala kept misunderstanding and playing with the keyboard instead until the song was over and Linnell stood there pointing emphatically at his mic. Danny seemed to be taking point on getting things fixed and he spend so much of the beginning of the show gesturing to the techs on the opposite side of the stage to fix various things, they should have just moved him over. It must have been very frustrating for the band but, I am sorry to say, it was kind of funny to watch. They did more or less get everything working by the end.


Pictures do not necessarily accompany the discussed songs (though some do). I just picked the best ones.





I don't remember a single word of banter from this one, only the music. I was stoked to see Cowtown, having missed it the last time they played it at LPR.





I had never heard Puppet Head live before. Now if they will just play Purple Toupee at a show I will have seen all of what I consider to be the BIG hits live.





I had heard that they had played End of the Tour and Museum of Idiots at the show previous to this one which I wasn't able to go to and I was really hoping they would play them again since they are two of my favorites. I was all but jumping out of my shoes when I saw them on Dan's list. Museum of Idiots in particular I really identify with. It was one of the first TMBG songs I really loved.





Pet Name, as I have learned is traditional, was played in total darkness.


While Dan was tuning his acoustic guitar before Istanbul, Flans sang a little song about it which he had to change halfway through when Dan had to switch to electric because there was something wrong with the acoustic. I could not believe how fast Dan's hand was moving during the solo. You can really get an idea of it from the picture.





Really excellent show despite the technical problems. Tomorrow, more Flood. Only four days!!


More pictures from both these shows are can be seen on my Flickr site. The link is in the Essential Sites box on the right. All photos there are sorted by show.