Hey, y'all. This past Saturday my husband & I headed on down to Ithaca to see the Johns (for free!) in the Arts Quad at Cornell. The show was put on by the Cornell Concert Commission, but I don't know if it was really supposed to be a "welcome back" show for the students there - it was completely open to the public, and there were lots of townies there with their kids.

To set the scene for you, imagine the kind of day where it pours down rain for a few hours, but it doesn't cool off at all, so when the rain stops the humidity is just oppressive. That's what Saturday was like. Wretched atmosphere for an outdoor show - but hey, at least the rain stopped (and the grounds weren't flooded like at that other outdoor show I attended recently).

Anyway, here's what they played:

Clap Your Hands
James K. Polk (which Linnell introduced by saying, "This is a song about a president - he started a war, he has 4 letters in his name... and he only served one term.")
Twisting
Experimental Film
Spine
Memo to Human Resources
Stalk of Wheat
New York City
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass...)
Particle Man
Drink! (which Flansburgh introduced as "a long distance dedication to those thirsty, thirsty people at Ithaca College" - my alma mater, which is across town from Cornell, and which, yes, has a reputation for being a school full of drunks. Only the IC students in the audience laughed at his intro.)
Dr. Worm
Older
Damn Good Times
She's an Angel
Wearing a Raincoat
John Lee Supertaster
Fingertips
"Jazz Waltz in C" (aka "the venue song" - in which Flansburgh sang thank-yous to selected people in the audience, people who just happened to be walking by the quad, their local crew, and the nearby statue of Ezra Cornell )
The End of the Tour
----- (encore) -----
Violin
It's Kickin' In
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

The show was plagued with technical problems from the start, since, as one of them put it, their soundcheck was essentially washed out by a tremendous thunderstorm. They had to stop several times and give directions to the sound guy - they were having problems with their monitors being way, way too loud. After "Drink!" Flansburgh just stopped the show, summoned the sound guy over, and explained their situation like this:

JF : Every time he (Marty Beller, the drummer) hits the kick drum, we have a heart attack. Our hearts actually stop. But the next kick revives us. So the only reason we are actually still alive right now...
JL : ...is that he's played an even number of beats.
JF : It's exciting - it's just too exciting...
JL : Like facism.



And that exchange, in a nutshell, is why it's always worth it to go to a TMBG show. Their between-song banter is truly hysterically funny.

Another reason it's always worth it to see TMBG is when Flansburgh screws up the lyrics to a song (which he did during "It's Kickin' In"), and Linnell just gives him that look.



Uhm, anyway, we hit the merch booth after the show, but by the time we made it out of the crush of people, none of the band members were anywhere in sight. We think we just missed 'em signing stuff. But it's ok, because we've already got plenty of stuff that's signed by the two of them.

I got a Chopping Block "Brooklyn's Ambassadors of Love" shirt and an Apollo 18 pin set! Woo! My husband got the newest two EP's since he hadn't gotten them yet, and uhm... something else - I forget what. But the lucky bastard also found a show poster (which he promptly nicked) tacked to a bulletin board in one of the buildings on campus that we wandered into in search of a bathroom. I scoured every other bulletin board we passed, but I couldn't find one for myself.

But I had a lovely time, anyway. Ithaca is a great place to see TMBG, since Flansburgh has family ties to the town (he's the first person in his family who attended college somewhere other than Cornell).

thanks for the review!

bee's girlfriend, iwannabekate, is a freshman at IC, & she was at that show too!



i wonder why they didn't have that shirt at my show? we had all the ones they were sellin, but i got galoot an Apollo 18, & iwannabekate a pink Hayseed Johns.

Excellent write-up of the Cornell show, maple. Thanks for sharing!

Too bad about the technical problems, but it's nice to know the Johns were able to keep their sense of humor.

I've heard that Flansy's dad, mom, and brother went to Cornell...

he's such a rebel.

thanks Maple. you've really put me in the mood now! 5 days... etc