Another show, another road trip...

I endeavored to make the trip from Rochester to Albany, where Moxy was performing at Valentine's, a kind of seedy bar/music club. I left Rochester at three in the afternoon and got into Albany at around half past six. (Not bad time, actually) I was there way too early, as always. After sitting at the bar for a while, I unfortunately was roped into a conversation with some drunk old man about the impending revolution and the problems with the current American system of juris prudence. He was doing most, if not all, of the talking.

Thankfully, people my own age began to pour in. I noticed a couple of guys that I've seen at other shows, so I introduced myself to Joshua Kranz (affiliated with yeP!) and his friend (I can't remember his name for the life of me). We discussed recent shows and other related Frü-topics.

There were a LOT of under 21 people there, and the bar shoved them all in this small room that was not part of the bar area. Eventually, their numbers grew, and they began spilling into the bar and forming something I guess you might refer to as a line, in which I was not in, since I figured, "Well, I got here early enough, I'm not under 21, and the bouncer saw me here all this time, I should have no problem." As you'll see, I got lucky.

They started letting people in the line go upstairs to the music room at around 8:30. The bouncer told me that I couldn't just cut back into line without starting some kind of riot, but once he turned to walk away, I managed to squeeze back in. Hell, I was there an hour before everyone else!! :-)

The upstairs section of Valentine's is quite small. I found Marcus, said my hellos, and staked a place out on the floor about 30 feet from the stage, right in the center. Moxy took the stage a little bit after nine.

The set was a little shorter than I would've liked (don't you wish they would play for four hours?? :-) since this was the first show they did along with The Nields, so each band had equal stage time. Halfway through the set, some annoying woman came around and made us all move closer to the stage, in order to fit more people in. Ten minutes later she made us all stand up, lest we be "kicked out by the owner".

Moxy played for a little more than an hour. Fairly standard set; reflective of the new album tracks that they seem to be performing live as of late. They didn't have tons of time for encores, unfortunately. After talking with Marcus some more, and saying hello to Dave, I left Albany around eleven and got back into Rochester at 2:30 in the morning.

Next stop, the Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester triple crown number two!!

• The guys on stage
• Dave's new accordion
• Jian dances (from "I Love My Boss")
• Mike, with keyboard and megaphone in hand
• Murray holds a note (from "My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors")
  Thanks to Mike Scialdone for these:
• Wow! He tried them!
• The King!
• (For more of Mike's pics from this show, visit Captain Mikey's Moxy Fruvous Photo Gallery)

• Chatter
  • Jian: "Can we have your attention, there's Canadians in the room! Up here! We're the Nields, we're playing before Moxy Früvous. And we're good looking people aren't we? The Nields, best looking men and women this side of Toronto."
  • Murray: "I'm Katrina. I'm the singer. I'm the dancer."
  • Jian explains how it's great to be in Syracuse.
  • Murray and Jian discuss how a lot of people mistake the band for the Wallflowers, because of Dave's brooding sexuality.
  • Dave intros the band: "Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please put your hands together for the only band that still doesn't know how to snowboard in this day in age...Moxy Früvous!"
• Peace of Mind (Buy our brand new disc)
  • Mike: "Look at the colors; great colors; on our brand new disc!"

• Lazlo's Career
• B.J. Don't Cry
  • Dave pulls out his new, white accordion.
  • "banished him for life he did..."
  • "on the scene, it's Genesis"
  • "found a hooka and a brush"
  • The accordion isn't on during the beginning of the song, so during the solo Jian asks everyone to be real quiet so we could hear it. It finally comes on during the middle of the solo.
  • Mike uses his megaphone for the "Now on the scene, our wounded soul..." section.
  • "stuffs his letters full of Bogie's"
• Video Bargainville
• Chatter
  • Jian asks if we would mind if they did a song off stage.
  • Murray wants to stay on stage: "I was getting the weather report!"
  • Jian, thinking that the audience isn't used to Moxy: "Now the audience is saying, 'Can we leave? Why are they doing this to us?'"
• I Love My Boss (off mic, off stage)
  • Instead of Jian saying "Examples", he says something else like "New Loudon". This may be a reference a suburb of Albany...Loudonville
  • At the final pause in the song, the thundering music downstairs becomes very apparent, and Jian starts to dance along with it.
• Chatter
  • Murray: "Clearly, everyone was enamoured of our dancing, since no one could hear a note that was sung. But that's OK, we're great dancers"
  • Jian plugs the new album and ends up sounding like a radio announcer.
  • The other guys follow suit with similar DJ-sounding phrases:
  • Dave: "And Shawntel (sp?) will be up for ya in just a minute!!"
  • Mike: "Songs for the boss, songs about the boss, songs that the boss asked me to play!"
  • Murray: "It's all hits, all the time, 103 the Edge!!" (apparently, 103.9 in Albany is a pretty "alternarock" station)
  • Murray introduces the next song about being able to trash the planet with a clear conscience.
• You Will Go To The Moon
  • During the song, some of the staff came around and ask us all to move up (everyone was still sitting on the floor at this point) so we could fit more people in.
• Chatter
  • Murray: "That was a song featuring a mass migration. Lemmings looking for a cliff."
  • Jian: "Yeah, it was like: (sung)You Will Go To The Moon (spoken) 'Can you just move up a little bit please?!'"
  • Some discussion on-stage about what you call people from Albany.
  • Dave: "Revenge of the Albanites."
  • During this chatter, everyone is asked to stand up.
  • Jian: "Yeah, stand up! Stand up and be counted. You're part of the Früvous revolution."
  • Jian: "Here's a song from the new record (pronounced reckid), as you say it in New York."
• I've Gotta Get a Message To You
  • Mike says the "Swing it" line.
• Chatter
  • Jian talks about how Moxy has only played in Albany once before.
  • Jian: "We're new to this whole American country thing. That's what we are, in fact, American Country."
  • Dave breaks into "Sailing hardships through...".
  • Dave: "That's not country. I start singing a Canadian guy's song, Jesus. I could do a Shania Twain tune, but that's Canadian too."
  • Mike jumps into 'Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?' with his own lyric changes.
  • Jian, after discussing how the next song is about losing a relationship: "Yeah! Empowerment for the losers like us!"
• Fly
• Chatter
  • Jian intros the next song, and explains the problems occurring in Toronto regarding the Mega-City.
• Today's the Day that We Fight Back
• Chatter
  • Jian tells the crowd what the Temagami reference in the last song is all about.
  • Dave, with a New York City accent: "The next song is off the new record. It starts with a banjo riff, it's kind of a new form."
• Michigan Militia
• Chatter
  • Jian: "I understand that song will be the first single in your country. And ours."
  • Jian: "Here's a song about eating some food. 'Cause that's what we do up there, eh?"
  • During his first attempt at the flute opening, Jian has some problems with spit in the flute.
  • Murray and Jian discuss how in Grade 8 they knew a guy who never cleaned the spit valve on his sax.
• Johnny Saucep'n
• My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors
  • Jian, at the beginning of the song: "From here on in, it's groove time."
  • "Pulp Fiction"
• River Valley
• King of Spain
  • Jian does the standard intro. "Maybe you people can answer the following question?"
  • Jian: "Is it the little girl who hurt herself in the Olympics, but still soldiered on to win the gold medal in that horsie thing?"
  • Audience: "NO!"
  • Murray: "Wait, there's been a change of plans, it is her."
  • Jian: "Oh, ladies and gentlemen, Carrie Strug(sp?)."
  • Mike's intro: "Here comes the story about a guy, who when he's not proclaiming edicts over his entire kinglydom, he's sitting under the big RCA dog Nipper rolling up a big fat hoolie!"
  • Murray, during Dave's solo intro: "Transcripts of this song available in ASL."
  • Jian, during Dave's solo intro: "The King of Spain will be part of the Big Egg project."
  • "(Murray)There's a fish on your head...(Mike)Big fat hoolie!"
  • "(Dave)Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce to you...Fiona Apple!"
  • Mike tells Dave to "Eat Shit" when he's asking the audience if they want to know his story.
  • Murray: "He was never one of your better subjects."
  • Dave: "He was never one of my better conga players, let alone subjects."
• Green Eggs & Ham
  • "lot of left over hippies here" sugue
  • Jian: "You know, The Beatles, 'Daydream believer', 'Riders on the Storm', ..."
  • Murray: "Another Brick in the Wall"
  • Dave: "I liked all those songs. I just hated the mop-top fab four."
  • "I'd eat them in my Calvin Klein underwear"

• Love Potion #9 Medley - included bits from:
  • Ohio
  • Stayin' Alive
  • Jungle Boogie riff (on Dave's guitar)
  • "Do you eat, do you dream, do you eat anymore? Do you eat a lot of that smoked meat anymore?"
  • Who will save your soul?
  • Gotta Get Over Gretta
  • You Oughta Know
  • Mike: "I used to go crazy for W.C. Fields. Now I'm in love with four-fifths of the Nields."

• The Drinking Song

Some other tidbits from the performance include:

• Feel free to help contribute to this section!