This was definitely the best night of the three. The fruhead contingent was huge (nice cheer when Jian said thanks to "all of the have modem, will travel people", adding "you're f$#@ing nuts!")
Great Big Sea opened. It was the first time I'd heard them, and I had a great time. Great music and hyper fruheads *do* go well together!
Fruvous was the second act, but they were still an opener, so they had about a 35 minute set. They started with the first two songs from Wood, then went into BJ. Mike was having fun with Spiderman--he jumped into the crowd several times, and introduced Spiderman '98 (jhawk from MIT). Mike and jhawk did a spideydance in the middle of the floor.
Fruvous made the mistake of playing a set full of fun, upbeat songs that had the fruheads screaming for more when they left the stage (there was even a Conga Line on King of Spain..). Fans screamed for an encore for about 5 minutes, and by then, Buckwheat Zydeco's people had started changing the stage. Fruvous came onto the floor and had everyone gather around. Lit by three mini-Maglites, they did an off-mic I Love My Boss that got the best cheer of the night. It was certainly the most fun I've had seeing them do an opening set (MIT still wins overall).
Buckwheat Zydeco got the crowd going, but they were so loud I had to
move to the edge of the room to keep my ears from hurting. After a few
more songs, I followed some fruheads outside where Fruvous and most of
the fruheads were hanging out. After Buckwheat's set (which we could
hear perfectly from the street) the crowd broke up, and I went back to
NYC to crash before the return trip to Boston.
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
Back to the tour dates 1997 page