Short review...
After taking a long nap in the afternoon to plan for the late night ahead, Vika and I (after some sushi...yum) headed to Cambridge around 8:30 and made it to Harvard Square a little past nine. Finding parking, as on Tuesday night, proved to be no trouble at all, which was a pleasant surprise to me.
Doors were already open, so we headed upstairs to socialize before the show. Loren and Amanda were up from Virginia, so I spent a good chunk of time catching up with them. Martina Sorbara came on around ten and played for about a half an hour, just like the night before. Murray joined her on bass for two of her songs. I like her...she's kinda a cross between Jewel, Tori Amos and Ani.
Fruvous hit the stage around eleven and did a pretty different set than what they did Tuesday. Poor Napoleon, Misplaced, Bittersweet (my first time hearing it live), Homeward Bound were some of the highlights. It was also Jian's birthday, so some fans had a cupcake with a candle on it brought to the stage during the show.
Afterwards, we milled around for a while, saying our goodbyes. Probably won't be seeing Fruvous until after their autumn break since we won't be at Falconridge this year. Left the venue around two-ish and were asleep by three. Yikes.
Two very good shows, IMO. I like that Fruvous has enough material that they can do very different setlists when they place in one place, several nights in a row. See everyone soon!
From Alex:
Wow. This show's got to be the best I've ever been to, and definitely among the top couple I've ever heard. I can't quite remember the setlist, but there was so much stuff I've never heard live that i'll at least be able to name those.
The opener, Martina Sorbara (Sorbera?) was great tonight (she was more "on" tonight than the other two nights, I think. Her drummer was really getting into it too.) She brought a special guest ("Bad Jim" a.k.a. Murray Foster) on stage for a couple of songs, too, which really sounded a lot fuller and better with him on bass.
The guys were definitely having fun tonight. They opened with "Poor Napoleon", which I'd sorta requested Wednesday night. I was really happy to hear it, _especially_ as the first song; I think they do a great version of it.
The band played for over two hours, and didn't quite seem to care about the time. They came out for four encores. The setlist, what I can remember of it, goes:
Poor Napoleon (woo!)
River Valley
Splatter Splatter
Misplaced (with Dave on piano)
? [I forget what's here and my mics kept cutting out for some
reason. Growl. 8 minutes of... silence. I'm blaming the lady that
kept pushing past to get drinks.]
Ash Hash
Boss
Boo Time
Jockey Full of Bourbon
* Jian's birthday cupcake delivered by Jered...
Bittersweet (murray and dave) "I was planning on doing this for Anna's
birthday... but Anna's birthday was yesterday, so now it's
for Jian."
Homeward Bound (this was incredible...)
Michigan Militia ("time to bring da funk.")
Johnny Saucep'n (all three nights... but it's fun, and short, and thus
impossible to grow tired of...)
The Kids' Song (J: "Keith Spicer... crossed the country... with some of
his children, the Spicer girls..." Mi: "Get to know
Canada or shut up!")
Fly
My Poor Generation (complete with lesson in guitar tuning from Dave
"See, now that one sounds fine, right? Not a wave on
the ocean. Then listen to this... what the hell is
goin' on?")
King of Spain (a lot of fun... during the "breakdown" they tested the
theory that _any_ melody can go well with the breakdown by
doing about a half dozen little song snippets, including
"Hava Nagila" and "Teddy Bears Picnic"(!!!))
Green Eggs and Ham (which made heavy use of the "eff" word -- hey, it was
the 21+ night. . .)
Disco Video Bargainville (all three nights with this one too... New trend
emerging? Everyone chants "ro-ger! ro-ger! ro-ger!"
after "Just ask for Roger...." Hey, it beats
yelling "64!" after "played some Nintendo...")
Encore 1: Heatseeker Boy (catchy...)
Substitute
Encore 2: Believe (what the HELL? heh.)
The Drinking Song
This whole week was great, capped off by the incredible show tonight. And it was finals week, too. I had less finals than concerts this week. :)
From Amy:
Thursday was spent chillin in the hotel. We did run out to Wal-mart and found our needed supplies. Jian’s present would be finished and ready for him before the show! Yay! Our mission was done! “What were his presents?” you may ask… Well, we got him a red shirt that says, “I’m Just A Guy” on the front and “Ghomeshi” on the back. Aw yeah. It’s totally sexxy. Also, we bought him a bunch of Brintey Spears stuff to keep him entermused for a time during his touring. We met up with an old family friend of mine and had dinner that the House of Blues. He even paid for all of us…which he just met Mindy, Anna, Amanda, and Melissa. Such a cool guy. Oh, it should be mentioned that yes, we did get lost only because he was so into making fun of Mindy, Anna, and myself in the car ride over to HOB. Mindy and Anna totally dug him. J
We were a little concerned as to how we were to get Amanda into the show. See, she’s 18 years old and that night you had to be 21+ to get in. The thing is that they were checking IDs outside the doors and we told them that she was coming in to eat dinner. Which was totally true. But, when we walked upstairs for the show, they didn’t check for IDs or anything. Easy in.
We did try to convince Al (my friend) to come to the show with us, and he was intrigued considering it was fold music (his mom used to sing in a folk band), but he had to get up early the next morning for work. I’m sending him a cd to try and hook him that way.
So, the show. Fortunately for all of you I do have a setlist for this night and here it is:
“Porno” River Valley Splatter, Splatter Spiderman Misplaced I Love My Boss Ash Hash “Lady” Boo Time Jockey Full of Bourbon Bittersweet~for Anna’s birthday from Murray, sung by Murray and Dave only Homeward Bound~sung by Mike on lead and Jian Michigan Militia Johnny Saucep’n The Kid’s Song Fly My Poor Generation King of Spain/Green Eggs and Ham Disco Video Bargainville Believe Drinking Song
There was barely any banter during this night until about mid-way through.
Right when Murray was going to sing Bittersweet for Anna, this guy walked up on the stage, cake and candle in hand for Jian. It was midnight and Anna’s birthday was officially over and Jian’s had begun. Murray was like, well this was for Anna’s birthday, but well, Happy Birthday, Jian. This was such a beautiful version of Bittersweet. I literally teared up so I know that Anna was definitely touched. Following this awesome performance came Mike and Jian singing Simon and Garfunkel’s Homeward Bound. Could it get any better than this? During Michigan Militia, we turned the “Happy Birthday Tricia” to “Happy Birthday Anna” and then to “Happy Birthday Jian.”
At the break in Green Eggs and Ham Mike outperformed himself yet again. I swear, I’m beginning to look forward to this song just so I can see/hear what Mike will do next. When it came time to see what Dave’s wrongful assault on the Beatles did to Mike, Mike started to play the Phantom of the Opera then went into singing music from another broadway show…I believe it was Les Miserables…yes, it was. He was singing his version of Red and Black. It was great.
After the show, we hung around yet again. We had given Jian the shirt prior to the show in hopes that he would wear it during the show. He did have it on but then took it off according to him, due to advice given to him by Murray. He came right up to us and thanked us for the shirt. He said he would definitely be wearing it to a show. So, be on the lookout for it and send me pics! I wanna see what it looks like on him!
We gave him the other presents and he took them…but didn’t open them. He let them sit on the bar while he talked with the other people that were there. The group of us just hung around or whatever. Anna was merrily enjoying her happy 21st buzz. J After a bit, the bartender was trying to give away Jian’s presents, so I took them. Jian came looking for them a bit after that. We told him to open them and after a little of persuasion, he did. He was totally psyched over the presents. J And, Amanda gave him one of her Starbucks smocks with free coupons for a Starbucks drink. You know he liked that present. J He put the smock on and I took a picture. Aw yeah.
We left after that and yes, got lost on the way home. We got back to the hotel at 3:30am…with half an hour to spare for me to pack and get ready for the airport shuttle. It was picking me up at 4am so I could make my 6:15am flight home. Needless to say I didn’t get any sleep that night.
And, I forgot a lot of stuff in the hotel room—including Jian’s setlist from Wednesday night and my C album (don’t worry, Jodapuff! I gots yours!).
Well, that’s all for me for a bit. Whenever I get the other setlist, I’ll post it on the newsgroup so y’all can have it.
Later taters
I’m off to see Mickey Mouse tomorrow, so I have to get some shut eye.
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
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