Moxy appeared at the Nassau Community College Folk Fest on Long Island, NY.
There was no encore to this set which ran almost 50 minutes. The crowd was ready for one, and screaming their heads off in anticipation, but then the MC came on stage and said something like, "well, if you want to see more of them, you'll have to go to Tramps on Friday night"... while we're all expecting her to say, "SCREAM a little LOUDER!" I hope the band didn't take this as a sign that the crowd wasn't into them - quite the contrary... I heard lots of groans as angry audience members picked up their cell phones to contact friends in high places to take this lady out.
Anyway, a great show all around. The sound in the place wasn't all that bad considering it was obviously not designed for music - at least not in its initial construction with about a 10 foot ceiling. Jian complained about the lighting from the start - they used a few BRIGHT spotlights from the rear of the room, plus LOTS of lights just over their heads... they were clearly blinded by them.
Very little chatter between songs in this one, as you might expect. It
seems that they keep it to a minimum when they know they've got a time
constraint to work with - and just try to get a full set of songs into
that time. No one could say they didn't accomplish that!
From Harry Strole:
Every year the good people at Nassau Concerts put on a folk festival at my alma mater, Nassau Community College (Go, uh, whatever the name of the football team is). There is always a couple of name acts on the bill, I've seen Dr. John and Roger McGuinn and others over the years and it's FREE. 1997 included Moxy Fruvous, with the support of the Nassau Concerts crew who all danced and went crazy right in front of me all night (and I thought no one on Long Island knew who they were).
They always seem to elicit the same reactions from the typical folk festival patron. First, the what's-this-stuff look. Next, they look like they're thinking "Hmm, I kinda like this." Then it's "Well other people are digging this, I guess I can." Then King Of Spain always gets the "Wow, this is great!" wide eyed look. Ah, Moxy Fruvous: the great old hippie sociology experiment, call the Science Department.
Personal highlights: great rendition of "B.J. Don't Cry," first time I heard "Lazlo's Career" and loved it and it's always great to hear "The Greatest Man In America" (though Long Island is a hot bed of Limaugh-like thinking, so some of the irony may have been lost in this stronghold of the GOP).
"Moxy Fruvous: This musically adept, lyrically astute foursome first burst
on the major label recording scene with 1993's "Bargainville," an album
that captured the band's disparate incluences all in one-it's rousing
performance style, its ability to write poignant pop and love songs and its
keen sense of satiric commentary. Their debut album achieved platinum
success in Canada and launched a touring schedule that covered most of the
past three years. Hailing from Toronto, band members Michael Ford, Murray
Foster, Jean Ghomeshi and David Matheson switch on and off between
instruments, creating a style that can best be compared to American band
They Might Be Giants. They have also become one of the favorite bands of
Nassau Concerts."
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
Back to the tour dates 1997 page