calling out my name
Ok, so I obviously lied when I said the show reports were coming Monday night. But the Hedgpeth one is here now. There are pictures, many of which are embedded as links in the text as well.
It was supposed to be one of the hottest days of the summer, which aliste and I were not looking forward to, but we were hoping it wouldn't be too brutal. Even so, we decided to forgo getting there before doors and arrive just before Trampled by Turtles was supposed to play, even if it meant seeing TMBG and the Flaming Lips from a distance. Though we underestimated how annoying traffic would be on the toll road, we still made it just in time. I had to pick up my ticket at will call, and while we were there aliste asked them if we had been put on the VIP ticket list. We had asked Dan about this, and his reply was that he would ask, but we didn't know if he had or not. In any case, they radioed in about us, and they ended up walking us in; whether that meant we were on the list or what, we'll never know. When we got in we were going to try to head toward some building where we'd presumably get our VIP passes, but on the way we got side tracked by Dan. He was standing with a friend of his by the merch table, and we went over to talk to him. He commented on the poor attendance, making a joke we took seriously, because we live for the Word of Dan, heh. Anyway, we said our goodbyes and decided to go see TBT, whose set had just started. They were adorable, as usual, and pleasantly playing beneath a shaded tent.
After their set ended we walked to the main stage, where the band before TMBG was playing. The pit area was set up somwhat strangely, with this gigantic sort of runway cutting down the middle of it to the sound board. Most people entered the pit from stage left, and so the stage left side of the pit had a lot more people in it. We, however, walked over to stage right, and by some miracle managed to snag front row spots by standing behind the only two people that happened to leave after the band that was playing ended. While they were setting up for TMBG they also set up for the last two acts, which included big screens to either side of the stage and crazy lights. Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips came out and took a stroll down the runway, greeting fans. The people setting up lights and such for the other bands were taking a long time to set up, cutting into TMBG's set time, so Bob came out and yelled at them in his grumpy old man way.
Finally, TMBG came on. The stage was also set up such that the performers faced directly into the sun, which makes good light for pictures but is not so great for the bands. Everyone was wearing sunglasses except Linnell and Marty, and Flans commented, "if you turn around, there is free Lasic surgery with this concert." During the set up they had taken off and put on a highly reflective mylar sheet on Linnell's keyboard, and the ended up folding it back and leaving it on during the concert. Linnell expained that he liked the new heat shield, because "reentry is an issue for They Might Be Giants."
Other highlights:
Why Does the Sun Shine? was apropos, and Flans pointed at the sun, looking small, after "the sun is far away." He also flubbed the lyrics, explaining how the sun is large after Linnell prompted "the sun is hot," so we didn't get a list of random things that were gasses inside the sun.
After 33-second Boss of Me, Linnell commented that they had amp cords longer than that. But apparently not long enough, because during the "two guitars" section of Birdhouse, Flans and Dan tried to walk out into these little flower beds on either side of the stage. I guess Dan's cord wasn't long enough, causing him to crack up and abandon the flowers.
They played Drink! but changed the audience participation part from "drink drink!" to "no wait!" Flans: "I want to divide the audience in half, but I don't really know how to do it..." He had those to stage left of the runway say "no" and those to the right say "wait", which was kind of difficult to pull off. He noted that the stage left side had more people, but that stage right knows how to party, so we could hold our own. At first in the song I was too busy trying to take pictures, and automatically said "drink drink!" at the first occurance. Also during Drink!, Flans took the opporunity to wander around the stage area, messing with a camera tripod that was set up for later on and knocking it over.
Before they played Bee of the Bird of the Moth, they announced they were working on a new album with the Dust Bros, due out in 2009. Heh. Guess they figure they shouldn't get our hopes up. Of other songs I had not heard live before, they played We Live in a Dump, We're the Replacements and the Stone Pony.
They played Fingertips, and during "I don't understand you", Flans turned his cordless mic around, and we really couldn't understand him. He also made use of the runway during "I'm having a heart attack," walking out to the end and pointing to the sound guy as the "girl" his heart attacked. He then ran back up to the stage, hitting some fans hands on the way.
There was unfortunately no encore, most likely due to a lack of time since they started late.
Then there was Peeping Tom. It was not a good experience, and I should not like to speak of it again.
I decided that having scored such good spots on the front row, I wasn't leaving, but aliste decided to go sit toward the back for the Lips. I had seen the Lips once before about three years ago, so I knew what a spectacle it would be and was definitely psyched. While they were setting up Wayne himself came out to set things up, probably because so much of it was so complex that only he knew exactly how to do it. There were of course lots of balloons, even before the set started, though the big ones came out later. Wayne also came out and gave us a bunch of little glowsticks, which would come into play later. They had a giant screen set up behind the band that was patched in some of the time to the "Wayne Cam", in case you ever wanted to know what it would look like to be Wayne's microphone. Right before the show started they brought our the bubble. Wayne got in, they blew it up, and then he took a stroll around the runway.
Then the show started. When I saw them last, they favored fans in animal suits up on stage, but this time it was Santa Clauses vs. Martians, with a few superheroes thrown in. There was plenty of confetti (they had reloadable confetti cannons!), and streamers, and balloons, and balloons filled with confetti, and Wayne had a lighted thing on a string he would swing around above his head. Once it caught a descending streamer and was extra cool.
There were many sing-alongs in this concert; when I saw them years ago they only had us sing to Yoshimi, but this time every other song Wayne wanted us to sing. They played a cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, complete with words on the screen.
For Free Radicals, Wayne busted out the double necked bass guitar, which was totally sweet, and for most of the time the movie playing in the background was that crazy japanese tv-show thing with the monitor lizard going after the girls with meat strapped on their heads (look it up). He also had us add a word to the song; we were to sing back not just "fanatical" after the chorus, but "fanatical, fuck!" haha.
Wayne kept shooting streamers everywhere, and many of them got caught in the lights hanging above the stage. He also at one point came out with a nun hand puppet, which also sang into the mic and was a little disturbing. Also, around the middle of the show Steve Drozd pulled out a fifth of Jack Daniels and took a mighty swig of it on stage, heh.
The glowsticks, which we'd had for a while, came into play for Vein of Stars, during which they turned off most of the lights on stage and instructed us to throw the glowsticks up on stage. Many of them just landed on the runway in front of the stage, and were thrown back into the audience to try again.
During another song, Wayne used his megaphone, which had additions on either side that, when lit, shot out sparks and smoke. Even a very young Jon Stewart made an appearance; they played a clip of him introing them from waaaay back when before they played She Don't Use Jelly on the Jon Stewart Show, before he was the host of the Daily Show.
In all, a very awesome show. Like I mentioned earlier, attendance was pretty poor, but even though that sucks for the festival it was good for us. And even if they were split up by a horrible middle act, TMBG and the Flaming Lips in one show was an awesome time.
It was supposed to be one of the hottest days of the summer, which aliste and I were not looking forward to, but we were hoping it wouldn't be too brutal. Even so, we decided to forgo getting there before doors and arrive just before Trampled by Turtles was supposed to play, even if it meant seeing TMBG and the Flaming Lips from a distance. Though we underestimated how annoying traffic would be on the toll road, we still made it just in time. I had to pick up my ticket at will call, and while we were there aliste asked them if we had been put on the VIP ticket list. We had asked Dan about this, and his reply was that he would ask, but we didn't know if he had or not. In any case, they radioed in about us, and they ended up walking us in; whether that meant we were on the list or what, we'll never know. When we got in we were going to try to head toward some building where we'd presumably get our VIP passes, but on the way we got side tracked by Dan. He was standing with a friend of his by the merch table, and we went over to talk to him. He commented on the poor attendance, making a joke we took seriously, because we live for the Word of Dan, heh. Anyway, we said our goodbyes and decided to go see TBT, whose set had just started. They were adorable, as usual, and pleasantly playing beneath a shaded tent.
After their set ended we walked to the main stage, where the band before TMBG was playing. The pit area was set up somwhat strangely, with this gigantic sort of runway cutting down the middle of it to the sound board. Most people entered the pit from stage left, and so the stage left side of the pit had a lot more people in it. We, however, walked over to stage right, and by some miracle managed to snag front row spots by standing behind the only two people that happened to leave after the band that was playing ended. While they were setting up for TMBG they also set up for the last two acts, which included big screens to either side of the stage and crazy lights. Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips came out and took a stroll down the runway, greeting fans. The people setting up lights and such for the other bands were taking a long time to set up, cutting into TMBG's set time, so Bob came out and yelled at them in his grumpy old man way.
Finally, TMBG came on. The stage was also set up such that the performers faced directly into the sun, which makes good light for pictures but is not so great for the bands. Everyone was wearing sunglasses except Linnell and Marty, and Flans commented, "if you turn around, there is free Lasic surgery with this concert." During the set up they had taken off and put on a highly reflective mylar sheet on Linnell's keyboard, and the ended up folding it back and leaving it on during the concert. Linnell expained that he liked the new heat shield, because "reentry is an issue for They Might Be Giants."
Other highlights:
Why Does the Sun Shine? was apropos, and Flans pointed at the sun, looking small, after "the sun is far away." He also flubbed the lyrics, explaining how the sun is large after Linnell prompted "the sun is hot," so we didn't get a list of random things that were gasses inside the sun.
After 33-second Boss of Me, Linnell commented that they had amp cords longer than that. But apparently not long enough, because during the "two guitars" section of Birdhouse, Flans and Dan tried to walk out into these little flower beds on either side of the stage. I guess Dan's cord wasn't long enough, causing him to crack up and abandon the flowers.
They played Drink! but changed the audience participation part from "drink drink!" to "no wait!" Flans: "I want to divide the audience in half, but I don't really know how to do it..." He had those to stage left of the runway say "no" and those to the right say "wait", which was kind of difficult to pull off. He noted that the stage left side had more people, but that stage right knows how to party, so we could hold our own. At first in the song I was too busy trying to take pictures, and automatically said "drink drink!" at the first occurance. Also during Drink!, Flans took the opporunity to wander around the stage area, messing with a camera tripod that was set up for later on and knocking it over.
Before they played Bee of the Bird of the Moth, they announced they were working on a new album with the Dust Bros, due out in 2009. Heh. Guess they figure they shouldn't get our hopes up. Of other songs I had not heard live before, they played We Live in a Dump, We're the Replacements and the Stone Pony.
They played Fingertips, and during "I don't understand you", Flans turned his cordless mic around, and we really couldn't understand him. He also made use of the runway during "I'm having a heart attack," walking out to the end and pointing to the sound guy as the "girl" his heart attacked. He then ran back up to the stage, hitting some fans hands on the way.
There was unfortunately no encore, most likely due to a lack of time since they started late.
Then there was Peeping Tom. It was not a good experience, and I should not like to speak of it again.
I decided that having scored such good spots on the front row, I wasn't leaving, but aliste decided to go sit toward the back for the Lips. I had seen the Lips once before about three years ago, so I knew what a spectacle it would be and was definitely psyched. While they were setting up Wayne himself came out to set things up, probably because so much of it was so complex that only he knew exactly how to do it. There were of course lots of balloons, even before the set started, though the big ones came out later. Wayne also came out and gave us a bunch of little glowsticks, which would come into play later. They had a giant screen set up behind the band that was patched in some of the time to the "Wayne Cam", in case you ever wanted to know what it would look like to be Wayne's microphone. Right before the show started they brought our the bubble. Wayne got in, they blew it up, and then he took a stroll around the runway.
Then the show started. When I saw them last, they favored fans in animal suits up on stage, but this time it was Santa Clauses vs. Martians, with a few superheroes thrown in. There was plenty of confetti (they had reloadable confetti cannons!), and streamers, and balloons, and balloons filled with confetti, and Wayne had a lighted thing on a string he would swing around above his head. Once it caught a descending streamer and was extra cool.
There were many sing-alongs in this concert; when I saw them years ago they only had us sing to Yoshimi, but this time every other song Wayne wanted us to sing. They played a cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, complete with words on the screen.
For Free Radicals, Wayne busted out the double necked bass guitar, which was totally sweet, and for most of the time the movie playing in the background was that crazy japanese tv-show thing with the monitor lizard going after the girls with meat strapped on their heads (look it up). He also had us add a word to the song; we were to sing back not just "fanatical" after the chorus, but "fanatical, fuck!" haha.
Wayne kept shooting streamers everywhere, and many of them got caught in the lights hanging above the stage. He also at one point came out with a nun hand puppet, which also sang into the mic and was a little disturbing. Also, around the middle of the show Steve Drozd pulled out a fifth of Jack Daniels and took a mighty swig of it on stage, heh.
The glowsticks, which we'd had for a while, came into play for Vein of Stars, during which they turned off most of the lights on stage and instructed us to throw the glowsticks up on stage. Many of them just landed on the runway in front of the stage, and were thrown back into the audience to try again.
During another song, Wayne used his megaphone, which had additions on either side that, when lit, shot out sparks and smoke. Even a very young Jon Stewart made an appearance; they played a clip of him introing them from waaaay back when before they played She Don't Use Jelly on the Jon Stewart Show, before he was the host of the Daily Show.
In all, a very awesome show. Like I mentioned earlier, attendance was pretty poor, but even though that sucks for the festival it was good for us. And even if they were split up by a horrible middle act, TMBG and the Flaming Lips in one show was an awesome time.