After five years of Früvous shows, it was not until Night 3 of 3 @ The North Star Bar that a set list came into my possession (thanks again to Jen, Beth & Anita for making sure that happened - you're dolls!). So I am pleased to be able to share Jian's list with y'all:
1/2 Horse Splat If Only Sad Lazy Moon Kidz Booty Jockey Pork T. Homework (note: that translates to Homeward Bound) Michy Tureen Sauce Hold Nuits River Car Video ------- King Green Psycho.....etc. (The etc. was.....Allison)
This is also the first time I've written a show review, but Michaela Majoun, Morning Host @ 88.5 WXPN in Philadelphia, threw down the gauntlet last night while she was on stage by asking the guys if there would be a transcript of the show on fruvous.com by this morning. I hope this afternoon is good enough for Michaela and everyone else - after 5 hours of sleep for the 3rd night in a row, I'm back at my office trying to work and write this in my "spare" time. But after what must have been practically no sleep for her, Michaela was back on the air at 5 a.m. and sounding wonderful & witty as usual this morning. I'm happy to fulfill Michaela's challenge, although I think she was hoping it might not happen. ;-) Why is that?
Well, after Michigan Militia, Jian was making the nightly endorsement of XPN - expressing the band's opinion that it is the best station in North America and that they're thankful for the exposure they've gotten on XPN. He mentioned that Gene Shay had come out to Tuesday's show, thereby taking time out from the important task of writing jokes for the Philly Folk Fest (time well spent, as pointed out by Dave) - but that no one else at the station apparently had time in their busy schedules to do the same, and that Bruce Warren (XPN Programming Director/Producer) had not returned Jian's phone call. Jian speculated that perhaps Bruce thought he was calling to try and get a free lunch, but in fact Jian was calling simply to express the band's thanks. At that point, a female voice from mid-crowd pipped up with "F*** You!" - Jian asked, "Michaela? - no, that can't be Michaela with such a potty mouth!". But it was, in fact, Michaela, defending herself & XPN from what she referred to as the band's drubbing (and as promised, that is today's Word of the Day on Michaela's show). The guys implored Michaela to come up on stage; she did and looked fabu in a black knit suit with leopard print top. After a round of verbal jousting and hugs, it was insisted upon that she join them in a song. Despite her protests that she did not know the words to anything, she suggested "My Funny Valentine" hoping to just jump in and follow along - but they wanted her to sing lead and she had to stop them after a few lines 'cause she really didn't know the words. Finally, "Happy Birthday" was settled on (for the 10-year old Emily whose letter Jian read at the beginning of the show in which she asked them to play a song for her even though she wasn't there since she was only 10 - and it was also her birthday). So everyone sang "Happy Birthday to Emily", and Michaela returned to the audience amidst much applause.
Okay, what else happened besides that 10 minutes? Banter, improvs and notable highlights included the following. I'll look forward to someone with a better memory adding to what I recall.
* A jam featuring all the guys racking their brains to produce lines from various Kevin Costner movies (including "If you build it, they will come" from Dave and "This woman needs a bodyguard" from Murray").
*Another round of Mike vs. Murray on guitar during "Disco Video B-ville".
* An imposter king (Murray) emerging after Jian & Mike's intro to KoS - who promised big changes around here, one of hich would be that all the women of Philadelphia would wear their hair loosely around their shoulders. The real king, wiping smears of hummus from his face, which had been applied by the imposter, finally appeared from the downstairs green room and Dave explained that the imposter was a good foil in case there were any assassins in the audience.
* Mike's quick recovery from Mr. Cheese's denigration of the Beatles was followed by a particularly harsh & physical berating of Mr. Cheese by Mike - which had Murray & Jian laughing off to the side nearly in tears.
* It only took three tries, I think, before Jian was satisfied with his control of the audience and our "two" response at the start of "Video B-ville".
* Particularly beautiful renditions of "If Only You Knew", "Nuits de Reve", and the fabulous finale with many in the audience singing along to "Allison".
To my Frücontinuum friends, this was my first time of experiencing Früvous with people other than my own personal family of Früheads. After being together will you all for these shows at the North Star, I finally understand the reason for all the expressions of warm & fuzzy feelings enjoyed by this community that I've read about over the years. It was so nice to share the fun and be surrounded by such kind and friendly folks. Thanks to Fred & Sharon, Lori & Steve, Beth, Jen, Trace, Shelly and Anita..
Especially, my thanks to Dave, Mike, Jian & Murray for three fun and fabulous nights! Collectively and individually, you never cease to amaze.. Best wishes for an enjoyable hiatus.
From Amy:
maybe i'm in a funk
maybe i'm not used to social situations after spending the summer in a hermit-like state
maybe i was just that tired
maybe my fruvous time is coming to a close
maybe i just needed my peeps with me
but, i kinda wasn't feelin the groove last night. yes, in retrospect fruvous put out an awesome concert yet again. but, it just wasn't the same to be there by myself.
i had been debating over and over again whether or not i wanted to go to the philly show. i had already bought my ticket back in july or whatever and thought that some of my crew would be joining me, but they couldn't. there were a lot of issues with fake id's and work and all. so, i finally decided to go solo and meet up with lisa at the venue. so, after driving through endless traffic jams cause i decided to head out during rush hour...and had to drive through DC and baltimore...i reached the north star and headed inside. first impression: this is going to be just as cozy as the house of blues in cambridge. but, it was pretty neat. i chilled by the wall cause lisa hadn't arrived yet and the general feel of the group was chills. not too hard core. :-)
when martina came on, i went to look for lisa and found her and val at the bar. i met cal and kevin. thanks, kevin for the beer! you're so cool. it was nice to meet you. :-)
after a while, we headed inside and i met dawn. she's really cool as well. we pushed our way toward the front once fruvous was on stage. i couldn't tell you the order of the setlist cause i was zoning in and out of the concert (like i said, i think i was in a funk). but i can share some great highlights:
~after the first song, the guys went into some banter concerning americans and canadians...americans' lack of knowledge concerning our history and our general ignorance about canadian geography. spuh. all i have to say is that while jian was trying to say that nixon was running for president or whatever way back when, i was like, uhm, he ran for vice president then... and, when they said there were 12 provinces in canada, i was thinking that there were less than that. so, huh! i do know some stuff! spuh.
~jian read a letter from a girl named emily who's 10th birthday was yesterday. she asked if they could play I Will Hold On for her. jian was like, we're not going to play it now but we'll play it later on...i just didn't want to forget.
~jain was talking about on the first night he was saying how wxpn is the best north american radio station. sadly, there weren't any representatives from xpn there on either monday or tuesday night. there was a rep from wyup, the affiliate in pittsburgh, who was offended that he didn't say that their station was the best in north america. so, anyhow, the guys are all saying how xpn wasn't that great any more cause nobody showed up for their shows when all of a sudden one of the dj's from xpn started to yell from the back. the guys apologized and all that, brought her up on stage, they talked and stuff...tried to get her to sing, but she didn't know any words to any songs, so they got everyone to sing happy birthday to emily. so cute.
~during the kid's song, when the guys were supposd to say their favorite colors, murray said charteuse (spelling???) and that just stopped the song for the moment and they went into calling out different colors: mike, okra; murray, piss yellow (oh dear!). then, they went into an awesome jam...went through different things, suddenly went into a kevin costner theme: the postman, bull durham, bull run (???), the bodyguard. it was really great. jian was laying down some great bass or whatever you want to call it.
~during video bargainville, i must say that murray won last night's "competition" between him and mike. he was really groovin. it was great.
~the first encore was Kos/GEH. first, jian and mike came on stage and was going through the normal intro and announced the king of spain...i saw a guy with a hat on come running up and i was like, uhm, what happened to murray? turns out it was murray. "there's a new ruler in town and things are a changin." everyone started to boo. kinda funny. so, they bring dave out and he comes running up on stage with a bit of hummus smeared on his forehead. it was kinda concerning. jian was like, we're not even going to ask. so, they go into King of Spain. then, during GEH, when they said look what you did to mike, man, he was a riot last night. he comes out from behind the keyboard with a red towel on his head and saying stuff into his megaphone thingy. so hillarious. the, he went ghetto and started shouting profanities (words that can't even be written out in censors cause i know someone will be offended). it was a trip. he was pushing dave into the wall and then all of a sudden he started to do bill cosby impressions. it was a real hoot. everyone was laughing so hard that people were tearing up and everything.
~closed with elvis costello's allison
so, ya. i do remember a lot. but, the odd thing is that i faded in and out during their songs. i barely remember any of the songs they played.
i don't know what my problem was last night.
anywho, after the show, i chilled with dawn mostly until it was time for me to head on home. i thought that i might be able to make it back to the burg, but i started to get sleepy then saw this really bad accident...there was only a back seat and the trunk left to the car...the fire dept. was using the jaws of life to get the driver out of the car. i took that as my clue to pull over and sleep in the car. i slept until about 6:30 this morning then drove back during the morning hours.
overall, i'd say it was an awesome concert. i just wasn't there
mentally. hopefully i can enjoy the oberling concert more.
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
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