I know your plan
Well, I'm back in Chicago (and have gotten all my stuff organized from this trip!). Five show reports will follow (the kids shows don't get individual ones). Without further ado,
TMBG 6 Shows, 5 Days, 4 States! 2005, Part I of VI: Pageant! St. Louis!
July 12, 2005
Setlist [Setlist Note: They did not play The Spine, and played The Guitar after Dead]
No pictures, as I had to take my camera back to the car!
The first leg of our midwest roadtrip following They Might Be Giants around the country led aliste, unsupervised and I to St. Louis, and the Pageant Theatre. The Pageant has an, um, interesting underage policy. The show was all-ages, but if you were 21+ (which I now am, thankfully!!) you can get into the Halo Bar at 5pm and chill inside until the doors open at 7pm. We were big losers and got there first for even getting into the bar, but the joke was on everyone else, because we were really winners! Specifically, the First Entry Pass winners; we had laminated ticket pass thingers and a reserved table for us proclaming to all the world that we were losers winners! Hehehe. We heard them soundcheck the Orange Peel, Road Movie to Berlin and Till My Head Falls off, none of which they played! The venue was pretty strict about cameras/recording devices, and unless you had secret pockets (ahem, aliste) they wouldn't let you in with them. I had a camera in my bag, and they made me take it back to the car. Then I couldn't get back into the Halo Bar to get in early. I knocked on the glass and pleaded with the guy to come let me in, and finally he did after I told him I was an Early Pass winner. When I went up to look at the merch table, I discovered another quirk of the Pageants underage policy: they were confining all people under 21 to one section of seats to stage left, and not letting any of them on the floor! It got so crowded in that one section that they opened the balcony and let them all in there too, but never on the floor. The floor was pitifully empty for a while, and we were afraid it would look like that for the whole show, and Flans would not be a happy camper. However, it was filling up when Corn Mo came out, and by the time that TMBG came out it was pretty full (though not packed).
Corn Mo had gotten himself a new Casio keyboard and thus played about half his songs ont he accordian and half on the keyboard. One he sang at the end with his taped band playing over the speakers, which he said was a rocked-up version of Havinagila (I definitely can't spell that) he did for a Bar Mitzvah, called Havina Gila Monster. It was quite amazing.
TMBG came out and we noticed straight away that Dan Miller was sporting some groovy shades. It appears they're not doing the Dan Miller Intro (tm) to Istanbul anymore, and instead doing some crazy improv Future of Sound thing. During Istanbul Flans broke a string on his red Gibson, and the new tech guy, obviously not knowing how things were done, brought Flans' other guitar forward and stood behind him holding it out for the rest of the song (which thankfully was not much more) while Flans kept playing his Gibson.
When the confetti cannons blew during Dr. Worm, the confetti for some reason blew back a lot onto the stage, and there was confetti all over everything, prompting Flans to use one of the TMBG fans to blow the confetti off his pedals (and onto us, of course). They played their scripted Venue Songs portion, which was very cute, and nice to hear the Venue songs live that I hadn't heard the first time. Before Drink!, Flans instructed the audience to chant "Drink, drink!" quickly after he sang "drink" in waltz time. The sound check did not inspire confidence, and during the song at first I couldn't hear anyone but myself and aliste chanting in time, but toward the end of the song I could hear the audience doing it too.
This time I kept noticing members of the backing band mouthing words along to songs, It was super adorable. Marty was singing along to Memo to Human Resources and also again during NYC, and then when Dan Miller came back out on the stage at the end of Dead he was mouthing the words along too.
The stage was really high and behind a barrier, so we couldn't reach the setlists ourselves. One tech guy came out and gave Linnell's setlist to someone, and then I asked him to give me one also, and he gave me Flans' (complete with shoe-print). About that time the new tech guy came out with a stack of setlist copies and was giving them out to people. He also threw out a bunch of Flans picks, but because I had one I let others go for them.
Setlists in hand, we waited for some of the band to come out to sign them. Danny came out first and signed Alice's, and then Marty came out and signed it too. Then I got Danny's attention and got him to sign mine, expecting him to just sign it and give it back, but he asked my name to personlize it! Our conversation went as thus:
Danny: What's your name?
Me: Sara, without and H. Just S-A-R-A
Danny: Oh, like the Ben Folds song
Me: Yeah, like that one
Danny: Sara without and H and Zak without a C
Me (why I said this is a mystery to me): I'm still looking for my Zak without a C
Danny: I dunno if I'd want that guy in the song
Me: Yeah, that's true, that whole song is pretty crazy
I noticed he was writing something more besides my name but I couldn't see what it was. When he handed it back, it said "Sara, you rock!!!" at the top of it. :D :D I love Danny.
I then got Marty to sign it, and after a momentary memory lapse ("What's my name? oh yeah"), he signed it as well. I noticed Dan Miller over by the soundboard collecting his mac after recording the show, and went up to him. aliste was all like "if you're not too busy..." but Dan said he alwasy had time for her. :D We told him we were seeing them in Indy, and he asked if we had tickets. When we told him yes, he said, "aw man, you gotta tell me! You know, do the list thing." Awww Dan you are too nice. Of course when we told him that we were also seeing them in Detroit and Cleveland he was like "don you guys have lives?" but we told him we were taking a break from them right now.
I gave him my setlist to sign, and he saw Danny's note and said, "Who wrote that? Danny? He's such a goofball" Hehehe. Jackie and I then got introductions, which was funny because he of course introduced himself back to Jackie, and it's that whole "I know you know who I am but it's presumptuous not to introduce myself." It was doubly weird with me, because he had seen my name on the setlist, so we kinda already knew each others' names, but we got a real introduction anyway. :) Alice said, "This is Sara" and he replied "Apparently, you rock." We asked him about the shades, and he said that they were a bet; they had seen them in a local store, and I guess bet that he had to wear them the entire show. He said he didn't know how people did that, he couldn't see anything the entire night.
We thought Flans wasn't going to come out, but then when we went around back to go to the car Flans was out there signing, so we got him to sign our setlists as well. So ended well the first part of our road trip!
TMBG 6 Shows, 5 Days, 4 States! 2005, Part I of VI: Pageant! St. Louis!
July 12, 2005
Setlist [Setlist Note: They did not play The Spine, and played The Guitar after Dead]
No pictures, as I had to take my camera back to the car!
The first leg of our midwest roadtrip following They Might Be Giants around the country led aliste, unsupervised and I to St. Louis, and the Pageant Theatre. The Pageant has an, um, interesting underage policy. The show was all-ages, but if you were 21+ (which I now am, thankfully!!) you can get into the Halo Bar at 5pm and chill inside until the doors open at 7pm. We were big losers and got there first for even getting into the bar, but the joke was on everyone else, because we were really winners! Specifically, the First Entry Pass winners; we had laminated ticket pass thingers and a reserved table for us proclaming to all the world that we were losers winners! Hehehe. We heard them soundcheck the Orange Peel, Road Movie to Berlin and Till My Head Falls off, none of which they played! The venue was pretty strict about cameras/recording devices, and unless you had secret pockets (ahem, aliste) they wouldn't let you in with them. I had a camera in my bag, and they made me take it back to the car. Then I couldn't get back into the Halo Bar to get in early. I knocked on the glass and pleaded with the guy to come let me in, and finally he did after I told him I was an Early Pass winner. When I went up to look at the merch table, I discovered another quirk of the Pageants underage policy: they were confining all people under 21 to one section of seats to stage left, and not letting any of them on the floor! It got so crowded in that one section that they opened the balcony and let them all in there too, but never on the floor. The floor was pitifully empty for a while, and we were afraid it would look like that for the whole show, and Flans would not be a happy camper. However, it was filling up when Corn Mo came out, and by the time that TMBG came out it was pretty full (though not packed).
Corn Mo had gotten himself a new Casio keyboard and thus played about half his songs ont he accordian and half on the keyboard. One he sang at the end with his taped band playing over the speakers, which he said was a rocked-up version of Havinagila (I definitely can't spell that) he did for a Bar Mitzvah, called Havina Gila Monster. It was quite amazing.
TMBG came out and we noticed straight away that Dan Miller was sporting some groovy shades. It appears they're not doing the Dan Miller Intro (tm) to Istanbul anymore, and instead doing some crazy improv Future of Sound thing. During Istanbul Flans broke a string on his red Gibson, and the new tech guy, obviously not knowing how things were done, brought Flans' other guitar forward and stood behind him holding it out for the rest of the song (which thankfully was not much more) while Flans kept playing his Gibson.
When the confetti cannons blew during Dr. Worm, the confetti for some reason blew back a lot onto the stage, and there was confetti all over everything, prompting Flans to use one of the TMBG fans to blow the confetti off his pedals (and onto us, of course). They played their scripted Venue Songs portion, which was very cute, and nice to hear the Venue songs live that I hadn't heard the first time. Before Drink!, Flans instructed the audience to chant "Drink, drink!" quickly after he sang "drink" in waltz time. The sound check did not inspire confidence, and during the song at first I couldn't hear anyone but myself and aliste chanting in time, but toward the end of the song I could hear the audience doing it too.
This time I kept noticing members of the backing band mouthing words along to songs, It was super adorable. Marty was singing along to Memo to Human Resources and also again during NYC, and then when Dan Miller came back out on the stage at the end of Dead he was mouthing the words along too.
The stage was really high and behind a barrier, so we couldn't reach the setlists ourselves. One tech guy came out and gave Linnell's setlist to someone, and then I asked him to give me one also, and he gave me Flans' (complete with shoe-print). About that time the new tech guy came out with a stack of setlist copies and was giving them out to people. He also threw out a bunch of Flans picks, but because I had one I let others go for them.
Setlists in hand, we waited for some of the band to come out to sign them. Danny came out first and signed Alice's, and then Marty came out and signed it too. Then I got Danny's attention and got him to sign mine, expecting him to just sign it and give it back, but he asked my name to personlize it! Our conversation went as thus:
Danny: What's your name?
Me: Sara, without and H. Just S-A-R-A
Danny: Oh, like the Ben Folds song
Me: Yeah, like that one
Danny: Sara without and H and Zak without a C
Me (why I said this is a mystery to me): I'm still looking for my Zak without a C
Danny: I dunno if I'd want that guy in the song
Me: Yeah, that's true, that whole song is pretty crazy
I noticed he was writing something more besides my name but I couldn't see what it was. When he handed it back, it said "Sara, you rock!!!" at the top of it. :D :D I love Danny.
I then got Marty to sign it, and after a momentary memory lapse ("What's my name? oh yeah"), he signed it as well. I noticed Dan Miller over by the soundboard collecting his mac after recording the show, and went up to him. aliste was all like "if you're not too busy..." but Dan said he alwasy had time for her. :D We told him we were seeing them in Indy, and he asked if we had tickets. When we told him yes, he said, "aw man, you gotta tell me! You know, do the list thing." Awww Dan you are too nice. Of course when we told him that we were also seeing them in Detroit and Cleveland he was like "don you guys have lives?" but we told him we were taking a break from them right now.
I gave him my setlist to sign, and he saw Danny's note and said, "Who wrote that? Danny? He's such a goofball" Hehehe. Jackie and I then got introductions, which was funny because he of course introduced himself back to Jackie, and it's that whole "I know you know who I am but it's presumptuous not to introduce myself." It was doubly weird with me, because he had seen my name on the setlist, so we kinda already knew each others' names, but we got a real introduction anyway. :) Alice said, "This is Sara" and he replied "Apparently, you rock." We asked him about the shades, and he said that they were a bet; they had seen them in a local store, and I guess bet that he had to wear them the entire show. He said he didn't know how people did that, he couldn't see anything the entire night.
We thought Flans wasn't going to come out, but then when we went around back to go to the car Flans was out there signing, so we got him to sign our setlists as well. So ended well the first part of our road trip!