this is where we had an episode of Rock School. the electric guitar wasn't tuned when Mike went to use it. Jian waxed British as he explained what "the lick" is and how it is used. i expected him to take it to a different level, but he didn't. whew! part of the lesson is that the guitarist and the piano player or "synthesizer player" can communicate with each other using licks between songs. during the first example, Mike played a lick that said there was a drink for Dave backstage. Dave says (in a British accent) "oh, is there one for me backstage?" Jian says "NO NIGEL! this is ROCK SCHOOL! we are teaching them 'the lick,' you've got to play one back. now do it." so they finally did it right. :)
Mike sang a song that he wrote for New Years Day, called A New Year's Prayer. it started out kinda goofy, but, it was really profound. my favorite lines (they aren't exact, but as close as i can get) are something like "Here's a prayer/And i believe in prayer." it was a wonderful addition to the show.
this was also my first time hearing Nuits de Reve live. this was, incidentally, the one song i cannot sing along with. soy una estudiante de espanol. :) but uh, what really intrigued me about this performance was Jian... was was going thru an absolute rainbow of emotions throughout the whole song. i haven't yet read a translation of it yet, but once i do i'm sure i'll have a better understanding of why this happened. ah well. it was beautiful even if i didn't understand it. :)
when Michy started, everyone was getting into it. everybody was dancing, the floor was turning into a trampoline again... even if you didn't want to move, you bounced, you had no choice. :) but uh, Dave broke a banjo string. all of a sudden the music stopped and the guys were looking at Dave and going "oohhhhhhhh" and making faces. i didn't even realize why. i caught on eventually... i was a little slow last night... but uh, yeah. so they did a Rolling Stones song and a Johnny Cash (i think that's what they said) song. we learned that that length of time is the perfect amount of time needed to change a banjo string.
other fun things that happened at times that i don't remember: Murray started to sing a backstreet boys song. Jian said "fuck you." umm... Murray began to sing "i'm crazy... crazy for killing that ferret." he and Dave continued in a very funny improv (Dave sang, Murray spoke):
M: i'm crazy... crazy for killing that ferret D: Murman, you're crazy M: oh stop D: crazy for killing that ferret M: he had it coming! D: and you're crazy, crazy for taking the leg off that guinea pig M: my pet snake had no legs! he needed it! D: oh Murman you're crazy, you've gotta stop mixin' and matchin' those animals M: (singing) i'm crazy for loving you
now i'll talk about the cher song. i was personally shocked that i knew all the words. *sigh* ah well. it was a fun song.
post-show. it was really crowded, and the only person who came out was Jian. he had a mob around him and Melissa and i decided to not even bother cuz the security guys were saying that the tralf was closing in ten minutes anyways. so, ya know, we'd spoken to him before, we didn't *need* to do it again. so we said our good-byes and waited in the lobby-type thing downstairs. Melissa and i are sitting there talking and blahblahblah, and i hear these boots clunking across the floor. i look up and i see Jian taking the escalotor down the door. *grin* a small sacrifice pays off, eh? we chatted for a few minutes until we got kicked out by a security guard.
all in all, fantabulous and definately worth the small trip to buffalo. and now i would like to thank anybody who actually read this. :)
From Dave:
Like John, I decided to de-lurk and share some of my accumulated knowledge with the group.
Henesey opened for a second time. (Good group.) This was all done on my Palm Pilot V (thanks to my wonderful wife for the christmas gift!!!!!!) Sometimes I capitalized, sometimes not. It was tough to write in the dark on a touch screen.
1. Poor Napoleon 2. Horseshoes 3. Fly 4. Present tense tureen 5. Johny saucepan A whole big shtick on sarcasm. 6. The Lazy Boy 7. Spider man 8. Sad girl 9. Pisco Bandito - Murray's acoustic stopped working in the middle Birthday of co-owner of Tralf 10. Boo-time Rock School Improv 11. Video Bargainville - Disco 12. Independence Day 13. My baby loves a bunch of authors 14. Get in the car medley (I didn't get the medley titles, sorry) 15. I will hold on Another song I didn't know, a cover that Mike sang. 16. Nuits de Rêve thanks to the die-hard fans! 17. Splatter splatter 18. Down the line 19. Dancing queen E1. Michigan militia - Dave broke a string at the very beginning, so it stopped very soon after the first chord. E1. Improv - medley (Rolling Stones & Johnny Cash) E2. Michigan militia - Go Toby! Quick string job! E3. Do you believe? - Cher E4. King of Spain E5. Green eggs & ham E6. Drinking song
Again, as always, this was an incredible performance. I have been to about 7 or 8 shows so far, and the crowd to this show was really responsive. The guys seemed to feed off of the crowd's energy. I also want to get in a word to the Tralf, if they read this. The waitress on the balcony was REALLY good.
Thanks for the time!
Dave (the tall part of the red hair couple)
From Denise:
hi. i'm denise. i've never written a review of a concert before, but i had some time and i felt like writing. my apologies for lack of organization.
i first heard of moxy fruvous when i was a senior in high school. it was the end of september when a friend of my brother's sang "king of spain" with an a capella choir at school. i ordered bargainville the next day.
2 years, 3 months, 5 concerts and 1800 miles since, i am pleased to say that i consider myself a bona fide fruhead.
my most recent experience was the new years events in buffalo new york. now, i'm from virginia beach, va, so buffalo is quite a ways away (650 miles as a matter of fact), and it was a big decision to spend my new years with the coolest band in the entire world, but it was a decision i was ready to make. i'll spare you the details of how it all came to be, but it ended up as a large-scale road trip involving two days of driving across 4 states for most, a flight crossing three time zones for one, and lots and lots of planning. our "posse" as jian called us, consisted of myself and my parents, my brother vinnie, his friend maggie, his and my friends ben, courtney, pete, and andrea, ben's girlfriend jen, ben's brother josh and his girlfriend kelly coming to a total of 12.
the group split up with 6 of us staying with my dad's best man about 10 min from downtown buffalo, and 6 of us staying in rochester with friends from school.
we went downtown friday afternoon to scope things out, and every time we got back to chippewa, my mother would say, "chippewa, chippewa" a la boo time on live noise.
i won't attempt to remember the set, i'll leave that job to one who got to the set lists before i, but i will tell what i thought of these, my fourth and fifth fruvous concerts, respectively, and the rest of the weekend that i feel in some way pertains to moxy fruvous.
first, i must plug hennessey (i probably just brutally murdered the spelling of their name) which was the best opening band of all time. they opened both nights, and were great both times, but i think the crowd saturday wasn't as receptive to them as friday's crowd. pamela had a wondrous voice and a great persona. several copies of their CD were bought by members of my "posse." (i've recently become obsessed with that word-- posse.)
opening with a beatles song is never a bad idea, and i think that the guys really did justice to nowhere man one of my fav lennon/mccartney numbers. i had never seen i love my boss live, but maggie who had not heard any of their music before the concert simply loved it, so i am glad they did it. i always feel like i'm holding my breath until they do king of spain and green eggs and ham, and these two concerts were no exception. i was actually surprised that they did any songs both nights, but not at all upset. i can always hear king of spain and green eggs and ham two nights in a row; also, pisco, bargainville, the drinking song, michigan militia, i will hold on, believe, and boo time. :) i love their cover of cher's believe; driving back today, courtney turned to me and said, "you know, i don't think a banjo is what cher had in mind when she wrote that, but they pulled it off." this was during our moxy fruv-a-thon where we listened to all the albums in chronological order during the 8 hour drive back to court's (which was followed by 4 more hours of driving for my folks and i). our entire "posse" loved the opening song saturday night because it contained the words "magic fingers" even though none of us knew the song. my friend ben's nickname for the past three years has been magic fingers.
this was the first time i'd been at a concert where they closed with the drinking song. i'd never seen it live before, but i'd heard that it's incredible. they closed both shows friday and saturday with the drinking song, and both nights, my "posse" formed a circle with arms on shoulders and swayed together while singing along. this brings me to a point i would like to make about the last concert i attended before these two at the tralf. i was at the 9:30 club november 20 with a group of 12 (some were the same as the group that came to buffalo) and we wanted to hear the drinking song. but they didn't play it, so after the last encore, when we saw some work lights off stage come on, we formed a circle and started singing the drinking song, and little by little, we had people joining us -- some even joining our circle -- until the entirety of the remaining audience was singing with us. the 9:30 club held the house lights until we finished. it was one of the most incredible moments of my young life.
i got to meet jian and talk for a bit saturday afternoon. we (maggie, courtney and i) explained about the group we were with when he inquired about our "posse." i told him that we were staying with a friend of the family named mucci (he thought that mucci was a terrific name), and he guessed that vinnie was somehow the connection to mucci (he was right). he said that he wanted to meet vinnie sr (my father), and after the concert saturday, he did in fact introduce himself to my father. we also told him that my brother had wanted his girlfriend to be with us because her birthday was new years eve, but she was in st. paul minnesota and he was in buffalo with us because he got his ticket before they got together. when jian saw him after saturday's concert, he asked, "why aren't you in st. paul?" but the best part of the conversation saturday afternoon was when jian complemented maggie, courtney and i on our ability to talk a lot about nothing. he also teased us when we said that half of our posse was staying in rochester because we're "all about not paying for hotels;" he teased me for saying "all about." i guess i should have mentioned that it's a virginia thing. :)
during the concert friday night when the audience was chanting "tobey! tobey! tobey!" my brother observed, "how many other bands are there where the audience chants the names of the roadies?" a very cool phenmomenom. my mother still can't get over the fact that the audience knows all they lyrics. (that's just because *she* doesn't know all the lyrics yet)
in addition, the murray crazy improv early in saturday's show was quite entertaining... crazy, you're crazy for cutting off the legs off your ferret.... or something along those lines. i live for moments like that. and also, the bit where jian began speaking with a brittish accent speaking about "rock school" and teaching the audience the art of the "guitar lick" was very fun.
my only criticism of the concerts is that i really really really wanted them to do message, and they didn't. i wanted them to do message at the 9:30 club, too, and they didn't.
i bought the "i love canadian boys" baby t shirt which i'd wanted since june, and i wore it saturday night, but i was a bit self-conscious because i didn't want to be "that guy" who wears the shirt of the band he's going to see to the concert. (if you don't get the allusion, watch the movie "p. c. u." starring jeremy priven.) but i justified it because i had not packed any short-sleeved shirts because i was going to buffalo and i didn't think it would be warm enough for short-sleeves. i guess while packing, i temporarily forgot i was going to two concerts.
well, now, pete and andrea are still in rochester, ben, josh, jen, and kelly are probably in maryland, vinnie and maggie are in connecticut, and court, my parents and i are in virginia. it's been a wonderful weekend that none of us will ever ever forget. it was the best way to "ring in" the new millenium (unless you argue that the new millenium doesn't start until 2001). it was soooo worth the 12 hour drive.
when my dad told his friends at his law firm that he was going to buffalo
to two concerts for new years with his kids, they were all very jealous.
they can't get their kids to spend time with them, and here we are, my
brother and i, including our parents on the trip. and we all had a great
time!
The Pictures
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Thanks to Paul for these:
- On the screen at the Tralf
- Mr. Cheese gets defensive
- Cheer for Murray!
- Happy birthday, Uncle Ange!
- Jian on the guitar
- Cheese is skeptical
Thanks to Kat for these: - Murray during Pisco
- At the end of the set...
- At the end of the set again...
The Music
Misc. Info
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
- Feel free to help contribute to this section!
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