Short review...
Vika and I left for Cambridge around seven, and made it to Harvard Square by eight-ish. It was POURING rain all day, and the drive was horrendous. We ran our tushies off from the parked car to the House of Blues; thank god doors were already open. They herded all the ticket holders in the basement by the box office...nothin' beats a bunch of really wet people in a warm room...ahhh humidity. Doors "opened" at nine, when they let all the people from the basement up to the second floor venue.
House of Blues is small, but a pretty good venue. The staff is really nice, too, which always helps. Had a drink, chatted with a bunch of different people. Martina Sorbara went on around 9:30 and played for about a half an hour. Fruvous came on stage around 10:30 or so. The set was great...mostly old standards, but still mixed up fairly well. They seemed to be having a lot of technical problems, but it didn't really hinder the music that much. It was cool hearing some c album tunes...I love Guinea Pig. Mike's voice is like butter! The set lasted about two hours or so.
Afterwards, a bunch of us hung out in the venue, chatting with the lads, and each other. After about an hour of that, Vika and I headed home, leaving the venue around one and being snug in bed by two-ish.
Damn good show. I can't believe it's been over a year since I saw Fruvous at the House of Blues, but they always seem to have really good and different shows there. Looking forward to Thursday's show...
From Alex:
So, who else wanted to throw the drunk guy out a window?
Anyway, the setlist for last night's show:
Jered (the wild boy) sahara "the kids are all right" jam -> "sugar sugar" too careful impromptu jam about the drunk guy in the audience laika sad girl lazy boy kick in the ass pisco boo time (with nods to Chris O and Vika) misstra know it all get in the car fly (dave broke a string during it, so they finished it acapella) michigan king of spain bj dancing queen medley disco video bargainville if only
"If Only" was great tonight, IMO. The band was having problems with the keyboard module, so they couldn't use the normal organ sound they usually use with the song. Instead, we got treated to a version with Dave on piano instead. To be honest, while I like the "original" version, I _really_ like the piano sound. It seems to work even better -- the piano seems more expressive, to me.
As for the "impromptu jam", there was this drunk dude that somehow slithered his way into the club. During "Too Careful", he apparently raised his hand for quite a while. Jian noticed and, after the song, asked him if he had a question for the band. His question: "Could you guys play music?", which was greeted with rousing boos and sneers from most of the audience, who, by that point, were tired of him anyway. The band then broke into a cute song about our new "special friend" which, among other things, mentioned him going out to the park and masturbating, but not enjoying that either.
Despite the drunk guy, the show was incredible. Tomorrow and Wednesday will hopefully be just as fun.
From Amy:
After driving around forever, we got lost. I was in the driver seat basically because I beat Anna to it. I was doing pretty good with the driving thing. Then, we pulled over to ask some guys how to get to the House of Blues when we heard a ca-chunk-type sound. I had kinda run over this sign that had fallen over and landed on the ground. When we pulled away, it turns out the sign said “No Parking.” Hahahaha. Well, we finally made it to the House of Blues and went inside to see what was going on. Anna and Mindy met up with their friend, Matt, who is pretty cool, kinda quiet, so I really can’t relay any stories or anything. We grabbed a table and ordered an appetizer and some drinks. After a bit, Matt sited Luella (I was a little busy paying attention to the guys walking through the door…what else is new?). She came over and sat with us. She’s chills. At 9:00 we decided to head upstairs and chill in the bathroom until they started to let people in…well, turns out that 9:00 was the time doors opened. Go figure.
The actual concert venue of the House of Blues is tight and tite. I can definitely see why there were only 200 tickets available. For those of you that weren’t there (and it’s safe to say almost all of you weren’t there since we didn’t see ya), the stage is on one side of the narrow hall and the bar is on the other. You enter by walking up stairs, coming onto the bar. The bathrooms and access to the “upstairs area” (aka, where the bands hang out and the sound booth) are behind the bar. Basically, if you stood anywhere in the front or second rows, you were stage Murray/Jian/Mike/Dave. It was that small. Plus, it was pretty warm in there.
By my awesome powers of persuasion and wonderful smile, I convinced Mindy, Anna, Matt, and Luella to stand “stage Dave.” They ever knew what hit them. J But that’s for later. Anyways, so we chill there. The bouncer guy, Sheppey, danced with Anna for a bit and shtuff. Martina Sorbora opened all three nights. I have to say that the more I hear her, the more I like her. By Thursday night I was really digging her music. Plus, I totally agree with her about Britney Spears—she definitely isn’t saving herself for marriage.
When the lads came on, we were all ready for a great concert and that’s just what they gave us. I can’t remember the setlist, but it was totally fun. Oh, I should mention that the concert did not run on Früvous time at all. There was like 30 minutes between getting there/Martina playing/Früvous’s set. I feel like I got spoiled with that.
The three of us danced the entire night. I had been breaking out my ghetto talk that Jordan has so thankfully influenced and then I got to break out my ghetto dancing. Aw yeah. Anyways, so I think I’ll share the banter that I can remember:
Oh, I have to mention the fact that practically everything said had been included in a conversation that the group of us had had previous to the shows…
~At the beginning, they ragged on Dave Matthews Band and Phish. Total issues there.
~During the intro to Disco Bargainville, everyone was calling out numbers other than 2…causing there to be three attempts to the song. After the third attempt, a “Roger” chant began. Which caused Jian to totally freak out. Something about him loosing control and feeling like he was on Jerry springer. Haha
~Best banter/improv of the night: Dave began talking about how this company was no longer sponsoring them and hence no more guitar strings. Dave said he was going to write them a bad letter. Then, the guys started to sing a song about it. Murray, being the awesome guy that he is, starts to list letters…and evil face with every letter said. When he ran out of “bad” letters, he was like, “good letters” but could only come up with one: A. Could that be A for Anna? Amy? We may never know the truth…
~It was announced that Mike is leaving the band in a couple of weeks, rendering the other three helpless without a band name. Mike had the rights to the name Moxy Früvous. In fact, Murray could no longer use his name because he sold the rights to the name Murray Foster to Mike.
~Bad incident, good reaction: This guy at the beginning of the show had his hand raised throughout the opening song, so Jian was wondering if he had a question or anything. With that, the guy asked if they played any good songs. Everyone booed him and Jian called him a dick to our loud burst of applause in support.
~There was a jam on the Jewish song, “Hava Nagila.” Forgive me for the spelling…Anna spelt it for me and I’m Catholic. So, please, all corrections should be sent to Anna since she’s the one that would benefit from this more than I would.
The girls really liked stage Dave and looked forward to chillin there the next night. As Luella put it, “It gave me a whole new perspective.” Alright! More points for stage Dave!
After the concert, we hung around in hopes of talking with one of the lads…figuring it would be Jian. I bought Jordan her copy of the C album cause I promised her I would get all four guys to sign it…my game plan was to try my hardest all three nights. Well, that mission was completed on the first night. All the guys hung out afterwards. It was so cool. I talked with all the guys. I was definitely impressed that Jian remembered my name since I have been referred to as “Jordan’s posse” on many occasions. Sorry, Jian, if you’re reading this…but, I was just really surprised that you remembered my name. It’s a good thing.
We left at some late/early time and got lost on our way back to the
hotel. Driving around the Boston area isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…
especially when there aren’t any street signs to lead us.
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
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