Live Show: 10/3/97

10/3/97

Buffalo, NY

Reviewed by: Chris O'Malley & Chad Maloney




The Details

I can't think of anything clever to say to start with, so I'll just start from the beginning. :)

Jo, Jen and I left Rochester around four in the afternoon, and headed right to downtown Buffalo. Once there, we met up with Chad and Sharilyn, and my friend Eric from college also showed up. Chad, Eric, Jo, Jen and I grabbed some food at a bar/grill across the street, realizing that we were way too early. :)

We made our way to The Tralf by eight or so. My friend Jim and his wife Catherine were waiting in line, as well as Zay, Katie, Jenn, Heather, Jered, and I'm sure others that I'm forgetting. Doors opened fairly soon thereafter; we proceeded inside and grabbed some tables. Mike and Kelly SantaLucia and Laurie arrived before the opening act went on.

The Tralf is a really nice club. There's a balcony area, plenty of tables and chairs, and the sound system is very nice. Jason and Rob finally showed up from NYC (I was worried that they wouldn't make it actually). Susan Tanner, from Bottom Line, said some hellos as well. Hell, there were so many people at this show that I know, I'm sure I'm forgetting people.

Hammel on Trial went on pretty much on time, by nine. The crowd seemed to like him, although he had to tone down his performance due to the all ages crowd. He once again (he did this in Albany too) made fun of people who are on the internet, but it was all in good fun.

Fruvous hit the stage a little past ten, and played for a little over two hours! Buffalo crowds are usually very receptive to Moxy, and this was no exception. Although I, at first, was a little upset about people standing in front of me while I was trying to sit at my table and enjoy the set, I accepted it and became a part of the crowd's exuberence.

After the set, we chatted with the guys, and, of course, each other. Some of us hadn't seen each other in a while, so this was catching up time. I scared Marcus by buying the baby-T shirts (don't ask), and all of us hung out till around one in the morning, at which time we were politely (I'm not being sarcastic), asked to leave.

Afterwards, I drove Jo and Jenn home, while Eric, Rob, and Jason followed me back to Rochester. Rob, J, Eric, and I grabbed a late snack and finally hit the hay by five in the morning.

One more show to go. Back to Buffalo, everyone!

From Chad Maloney:

The next morning came around with a nice (free) breakfast, some packing, and a trip out into the drizzle to the cars in the nice donut smelling Albany air. If someone knows why Albany smells like donuts, please share.

The drive to Buffalo wasn't so bad. A pretty straight shot with a stop at an Expressway service island so Jered could get some Chili Dogs and Jenn could partake of a bad batch of Sour-Patch kids. We left saying that we'd meet around 5 at the venue in case we got lost. One of the two cars got to the venue a little before the other and the other car got to learn how Michigan and New York have a little pact going and how it makes life a little nicer.

The Tralfamadore Cafe is on Main street in downtown Buffalo. 642 Main to be exact. Of course at 800 Main street, the street ends as far as car traffic goes. That threw midwestern boy for a loop so I circled around until I found a meter, fed it a bit and walked to where main street decided to end before the place I was going to. In place of the cars on Main, there was this Trolley thing and the venue was there on the second floor. I wandered up to check it out and talked to a couple of staffers about parking. They said stay at the meter and you'll be fine and I did and I was fine. Parking solved cheaply and easily. Meters don't charge after 5 and I got there at 5:15! Yay for me!

I sat around the front of the Tralf for awhile waiting for friendly Frufaces to venture. Chris, Jo, and Jennifer and one of Chris's friends, Eric came through the building behind me. We were out front talking. Sharilyn showed up while we were talking and went inside. The rest of us went over to a pub/food place across the trolley tracks (Breckenridge's or something maybe). Chris got his fish fry and the man painted on the wall with the pick axe and climbing rope was happy when Jo and Eric got the Avalanch beer. We talked for awhile and had a nice lazy meal and comforted Jennifer about the guys making fun of Starbucks when she works there =)

We went back across to the venue to find a small line forming and Laurie, Jered, Jenn, Sharilyn, Heatherrr, and other I don't know as well in it. Tonight was the all ages show and there were some groups competing in the sing pop songs the other group doesn't know battle. Katie got there and was able to sell my extra ticket to one of her friends. That was good. Ticketmaster didn't get me that badly. I also saw Beth that I met at Philly too. It entertained me that I was in a city I'd never been to and knew so many people from before. The doors opened and we walked in. Most of us were waylaid talking to Marcus in the coat room. Forunately Heatherrr and Sharilyn had the sense to keep going and get us some prime spots at the tables right between Murray and Jian.

Mike and Kelly SantaLucia showed up and it was great to finally meet the FruFam. I signed shirts (they got coool shirts) and we talked for a bit. We had three tables of Fruheads, two smaller tables and one long table. There were a lot of tables and the younger crowd didn't appreciate that much. The management tried to enforce the tables so people could watch, but it didn't work out that way.

Hammel came on right on time again and did a similar set to the night before. He started out by saying that this would be his first all ages show. I didn't believe him for a minute. And it took him three or four sentences before you told the audience F*** you and that was there. We got the blew the seal joke and more poking fun at computer people. You know, in prison they have... nevermind. I listened to Hammel lyrics completely this time. He is a darn good story teller with a lot to say. It was really good. He actually did break a string this time (the A) but he troopered on slamming the low E string and it lasted and he traded off for his backup guitar (which fortunately wasn't in hock at the time =)

In between Hammel and Fruvous, Jason and Rob showed up. They got tickets at the door and they had SRO (standing room only) written on them. We had saved them seats though, so all was well with them...

Fruvous did a long set, playing to the home crowd in Buffalo (really, they measure time by when they play in Buffalo. Before Buffalo, they are just warming up to Buffalo. After Buffalo, they are just keeping busy until they can get back to Buffalo). The set was very close to the previous night, but it was more energetic. I thought Albany was wonderful, but Buffalo made it look slow (kinda like when a snail is riding on a turle - wheeee!). They guys had a lot of great banter (and Murray had a Spector that looks a lot like his but Lazlo said it wasn't his).

Jian threw in Kid's Song instead of Ash Hash which was great. And before Saucep'n there was talk about how the band is pro-food. Food is good. Everyone needs food. We need to drive down the anti-food people. During BJ, Mike used the Megaphone and said Mozart released the Magic Flute which brought to mind a big CD release party for Mozart. Made me laugh a lot. Horseshoes was added into the first encore too and it was great to watch people's faces during Grunge of Spain when they realized what the words were. How many songs do you know with the word Crokinole in them?

The crowd loud and into it. Lots of high pitched shrieks, but this was the all ages show =) Hopefully the taping went well. We hung out afterwards till the lights were flashed and we were kicked out and everyone went their ways, some back to Rochester, others to their homes. Heatherrr, Jered, Jenn, Sharilyn and I stayed at Laurie's which was big and great and we stayed up late chatting, doing puzzles, and preparing for the surprise.

(Be sure to check out the articles from Artvoice and Gusto).


The Pictures

Click the description to get the pic:


The Music

Opened with The Set Closed with Encore 1 Encore 2

Misc. Info

Some other tidbits from the performance include:




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