What a difference a year makes. 2 posts in 2011?
Really, I'm posting just to keep track of the few TMBG shows I've been to this year while they've been promoting
Join Us. Briefly, I've seen Them at the Chameleon Club, Toad's Place, and most recently the TLA on Friday. Even though I hadn't been to a show since last year's Stone Pony show, seeing Them again was like coming home. It was like getting on a Santa Cruz bike. It was like comfort food. I'd been to a few Fountains of Wayne shows this year but it just wasn't the same, as their fans aren't as sociable or knowledgeable and the band is pretty boring live.
It's taken a few months for me to get accustomed to
Join Us but most of the tracks are growing on me. As usual, the Linnell songs are the most appealing to me but I am thoroughly enjoying Cloisonné and Celebration, which are getting frequent live play. I've heard that Canajoharie was played a few times on tour, but as soon as Dan Miller returned, they stopped playing it. (Meaning, as soon as I could get to another show, I would never see it played live.)
They've incorporated the Avatars of They into the show and the avatars have been singing Spoiler Alert. I'm not enamored of this act, mostly because I find puppets creepy and I think you can only do this schtick a few times before it gets old. I much prefer Calls From The Dead because the variety of dead callers is obviously endless.
Battle of the Planet of the Apes has been a staple. At the TLA, Flans had a flashlight, which he used to divide the audience in to "People" on the left and "Apes" on the right. I, uh, happened to be in the center and taking video of this, not realizing the crowd had parted like the Red Sea behind me. Before I knew it, Flans was blinding me with his flashlight and saying in a policeman-like voice, "Lady, put the camera down. Lady, put the camera down." Hey, some attention from Flans is better than no attention from Flans, right? Although, I did want to sort of crawl underneath the stage at that point.
Speaking of attention, that same night, during Cloisonné, I was videoing the song. Unfortunately, Flans was on the other side of Linnell's keyboard so it was pointless for me to crouch down underneath the setup to get him in my video. However, Linnell, who has been sporting a bass clarinet for a few songs, was playing on my side. He seemed to be in a particularly good mood, hamming it up for all the fan photographers and videographers. Whenever he held the note at the end of the Cloisonné verse, he would lean toward me so we could all get a good shot of his posing. After the third time and at the start of the jam, Linnell must have decided he was getting tired of being my subject. All of a sudden, I see him looking at me and saying, "Hey, hey..." as he put his hand on my camera. I let him have it as he went up to Danny, who is on keyboard, and just pointed the camera at his keyboards. After a bit, he gave it back to me and continued on with the rest of the jam. I had the presence of mind to continue recording the song and got Danny totally cracking up at the exchange. When I got home and saw my husband in the morning, I related the story to him and then uploaded the video to my iMac. We both watched the
recording and laughed because what Linnell captured was ridiculous. In my mind, the exchange seemed to last for a lot longer than what transpired. I'm not used to the fourth wall being broken like that.
Highlight announcement, They Might Be playing a New Year's Eve show in Philly. Huzzah! I'm hoping everyone will be conga-ing for my birthday. In between, I plan on spending Thanksgiving weekend with Them. Maybe they'll have Canajoharie worked out by then...