Part One of the trilogy: The Fellowship of the Johns

My very first TMBG gig. Awesome!

I got to the venue at 6.45pm as the ticket said Doors 7pm, but Jim Morrison never showed. However, there was already a fair queue. Before joining it, I wandered round the back where the tourbus was. There was a roadie there who I said hello to - I knew he was a roadie because he had a Robot Parade T-shirt and an American accent... he said the Johns were about to start the soundcheck as they'd not been there long.

I went back and joined the queue. Bad news was we were there for an hour. Good news was as it was so hot, the windows were open so we got to hear (pretty well) the sound check (Experimental Film, Cyclops Rock, Bastard... and Dr Worm). I got talking to the people next to me who were about the same age as me and were taking their 12 year old son to his first "proper gig" (he had been to see Blink 182 at an arena and the Chilis in Hyde Park, but never to a gig with a real band in a close up venue).

It was weird seeing such a diverse group of people going to the same gig. Students, kids, hippies... There was one young fresh fellow (about 14/15) with bright pink hair and a shirt full of safety pins who was there with his dad - probably mid 50s. I saw them both during the gig and it was difficult to tell which one was enjoying it the most!

7.50 pm and the queue started to move... very slowly. Because it was in a student union (college campus) venue, we all had to sign in as guest members! There are some crazy laws in this country... Then we had to queue again inside to get into the hall itself! By this time, everyone was getting hot as the temperature inside was into the 90s but the atmosphere was buzzing. On the way in, I noticed the sold out signs. This was already a great experience!

Fortunately, neither the venue nor Corn Mo kept us waiting too long. By 8.20, I was in row three (having realised I'd missed the chance to lean on the stage, I had a beer to quell my thirst) just in time for the opening strains of Corn Mo.

What can I say about CM? If you've not yet had the pleasure, picture a solo Meatloaf with an accordian playing Tenacious D and you'd be pretty close! The audience loved him (although a few spent the entire 25 minutes he was on with jaws on the floor and WTF?!? expressions on their faces). Pure genius, particularly the manic faces when soloing that accordian and a sing-along cover of Queen's "We are the Champions"... The perfect support for The Giants.

So just a few minutes to go...

Lights go dow, O Fortuna (Carl Orff from Carmina Burana as previously discussed on this board...) blasts out as Marty, Dan, , Danny and finally hit the stage (and it's a tiny stage - there's barely enough room for the band to stand, let alone move!) and 500 people go absolutely ape! I can't belive I'm finally here!!!

The crew seem to have momentary trouble finding the stage lights as all is dark ( Please wait as I attempt to locate the right keys in total darkness!) and the band launch into

1 Experimental Film

I'm dancing like a lunatic, but fortunately so is everyone else around me. I'm immediately surprised (after comments I've read here) how much looks people in the eye and how much sheer fun he's having. He did look straight at me (and several other people too) several times during the night although he might just have been wondering who the pogoing buffoon singing along word for word was...

After the first song finishes and the bedlam calms, starts his irrepressible banter. He has noticed that some people - just behind me have a home made 70s retro style bannner and says "I have just one thing to say to you guys - cut it out!" and gently berates them for ruining the view of the people behind. "Maybe I'm being a bit harsh - let's compromise - just hold up your sign during alternate songs..." He asks what the sign says - Nice Belt. He is puzzled by this until points out it's a reference to Homestar.

2 The Spine
3 Memo to Human Resources ( 5, 4, 3, 2, 7, 6, 9...)
4 I Palindrome I
5 Twisting

Breathless!

then does a Red objects intro - maraccas made by people chained to a table, that funny instrument that DM plays that makes a "boing" noise and "according to American recording industry regulations can only be used once every 10 albums... the most unsuccessful musical instrument in history, hated by all, including us... no cultural impact ever... only brought to the UK to see if we can leave it here..." and we're obviously into

6 Stalk of Wheat

which is so much better live than even the album version! introduces "...a song for thirsty people. We don't play this when there are children in the audience as they don't understand the real meaning of thirst" at which point points out that there's a child of about 9 in the front row. "Security!"

7 Drink

DM then makes "the transition from acoustic guitar to electric keyboard without the intermediate step of either electric guitar or acoustic piano"

8 Dr Worm

Corn Mo joins the band (although how they find room for him is a mystery!)

9 Particle Man (with battle of accordions)

A great moment when sings "triangle... man... hates..." and pauses for a loooonnnng time, so is helped out by the audience "person man"... another long pause... "yeah..."

"somethings burning" "I think it's Corn Mo" (Corn Mo leaves to singing Corn Mo to the Dallas theme)

10 Cyclops Rock

"We like to save the best for the middle... that part of the show when you're thinking do I like these guys anymore? I don't like these guys anymore... then we clutch victory from the jaws of defeat with 18 very short songs..."

11 Fingertips
12 Older
13 Damn Good Times
14 She's An Angel

"here's a new song about a crazy bastard who wants to hit me"

15 Bastard Wants To Hit Me
16 It's Kickin' In
17 Ana Ng

We then practice the wave before tells us we're the most senior audience they've played to in a long time...

18 Violin

Obviously not too many of the audience have got "No!" as a large proportion of the audience don't sing, but are laughing out loud at the silliness of it!

19 Birdhouse (and the crowd go totally NUTS!)
20 The Guitar featuring the future sound of Mr

1st encore

21 New York City
22 Head Falls Off
23 Thankyou For Coming To Our Show... "And if you have any friends in the Leeds area we've only sold about 17 tickets for Wednesday...(to the whoops of those like me obviously going to that one too) Oh. That'll be you 17 then?"

24 End of the Tour

2nd encore

25 John Lee Supertaster SUPERTASTERS!

then announces they aren't doing any merch after the show (Boo!)

26 Sleepwalkers

On the way out, Corn Mo is manfully perching on a stairwell trying to sell CDs (the venue was totally unsuitable for merchandise sales - let's hope they're better equipped at Leeds!) and I'm hugged by complete strangers all caught up in the mood!

I'm exhausted, soaked in sweat and absolutely ecstatic.

Roll on Wednesday!

Wow, Chuckie, that sounds awesome! You write with such a wonderful enthusiasm, I was smiling the whole time I read your post!

About the "looking in the eyes" thing ... Linnell is terribly nearsighted, so if he had his glasses off, he probably wasn't seeing anything, just a big amorphous blur.

The flexotone is the "boing thingy" ...

Can't wait to hear about the next one!

BigJohn

that was an awesome review, chuckie. i'm so happy you finally got to see em!

i knew you'd totally 'get' Corn Mo.

thanks for tellin me the name of that opening song. i've only heard it like 10,752 times in my life, but i never knew what it was called.

did you get any pictures?

i can't wait to hear about your next 2 shows. i hope you don't get all burned out.

BigJohn, you just ruined my whole day.

hey chuckie, did you ever see that SBO person there?

Yeah, I was suprised how much eye contact they both made. I had atleast three staring contests with Linnell when I saw them in LA. Hah. And he did have his glasses on... I think

he had em on at the beginning of my show...

maybe that nearsighted thing is why he always looks so intense. kinda like when i close my right eye to look at my check when they print it at wal mart.

Excellent write-up, chuckie. Glad you enjoyed your very first TMBG show.

I thought Linnell was actually farsighted, and that's why he needs glasses. (Flansy's nearsighted, and he wears his all the time; I think Linnell wears his mostly when he's reading, writing, or otherwise having to look at things up close... )

Thanks guys! Guess what I did tonight?

SBO and I are meeting tomorrow night for the London gig, biff.

i hope yer right, GR.

wow chuckie! it's so cool that you guys are meeting up like that.

Yes, well I made it over here.

I also made it to Manchester on Sunday and also to Glasgow on Monday - which was nice.

All I'll say in addition to what has been said already (really comprehensive review-nice!) is that sleepwalkers was a really random song to end on - especially considering what was said about people not having No! To be fair to us Irish/UK based TMBG fans - No! didn't receive a full release here.

Another thing that stuck me was how much people were singing along. I kinda went expecting the crowd to be made up of at least half people who had bought Flood when at university in 1990 and just went for the memories - but they seemed to know most stuff.

Found one of Flans picks on the floor afterwards - would like to have got it initialed but he wasn't about at the end - though my friend and I had seen them and the band and Corn hanging outside the front of the venue at about 5, but I wasn't brave enough to go talk to them (never meet your heroes!)

Although Manchester was a great gig, Glasgow was even better. They wrote a song especially for the gig based on the name of the venue, seemed to play more songs and finished (IMO) properly with Istanbul.

Discuss!

I look forward to the thoughts on last night's Leeds gig

SIMON!!! welcome back!!! i was hoping you'd show up here.

let me know what title you'd like. i'll PM you the password.



i'm glad you've been getting to go to some of the shows. that's the nice thing about England. everything's really close together. (but you're from Ireland, so i bet it's all kinda far for you) anyhoo, i'm glad they're touring over there. (sorry, i'm just a litle excited)

i love Sleepwalkers. it's the best song on No, even if you've never heard it before. when i saw em, they did a bunch of songs from The Spine, but nobody had heard it yet, since it came out that day.

The Giants closed the Fillmore show in San Francisco with Sleepwalkers and I swear, it's the best performance of it I've ever heard. The guitar work is really playful. I think it's somewhat appropriate to end the show on Sleepwalkers - it's the final track on No! and supposed to put you in a sleepy mood. But I can also see how you'd want to end on an up-note.

Sounds like a good concert, though!

BigJohn

that's a good version.

Yah, i'm not saying that it wasn't a good song to play - I just felt it was a strange song to finish on.....it left me somewhat unsatisfied or something.....

interesting.

Istanbul is a cover you know...