Back again today are ye? Yes I am. And today I bring good tidings and stories of last night's FruShow at the Galaxy in St. Louis.
After my first show in Bloomington (IN) last night, I made the trek to St. Louis to catch them again. The muses of entertainment smiled, and the show was put at midnight, plenty of time to make the 4 hour trip from Indianapolis. This time, I did the research and found out that the show was 18 and up (with an extra $2 cover for under 21), so I invited Andy and Alex (the two friends that got to drive around Bloomington last night while I saw the show and chatted with the guys). Andy came and we made the drive and met up with some of my other friends outside of St. Louis.
We showed at the Galaxy around 11:30 to check it out. No sign of an Ontario van or any of the FruFour, so we just waited around. The venue was pretty bad really. The stage was facing short ways in the long room, so the sound bounced straight back. Needless to say, the last night's venue was better suited for hearing what was actually going on. I chatted with Marcus a bit and got my stamp. He said they are treating tomorrow in Decatur as two shows (they are playing for an hour at 7 and an hour at 10), so I'm going to get 4 stamps in three days. That is efficiency. I think I could get an ass brand in a month if I kept that going.
The show started arund 12:15 and opened kinda slow. Dave had these plastic pants (billed as his bondage clothes before King of Spain) and was called Ethan Hawke. Mike was 70's and lived it up in style. Jian and Murray were dressed like Jian and Murray.
The crowd was decent sized, mostly standing in the small space in front of the stage. It seemed most of them were FruFans and not just people who were in the bar. That is different from yesterday. I didn't recognize the opening song and I don't remember much of the exact order of things, but we got pretty much all of Bargainville and YWGTTM, between last night and tonight. There wasn't much from Wood or B at all (just Fly and Tureen that I can recall... maybe one or two more, Johnny Saucep'n). The banter amongst the band wasn't as involved, and there were a couple people that were definitely not FruHeads complaining about the talk. A sampling of witty banter:
The cause for the night was the proliferation of the chair. The chair was always getting the wrong end of the deal. We don't treat chairs with respect and dignity and such. Murray pointed out (a couple times actually) that chairs are always waiting with outstretched arms. Kick In The Ass was deemed the song fo the chairs and Canada was deemed a metaphorical chair, the chair to the north that Americans can just use whenever they please.
The walls had these round circling red lights that went around and around all night. It was reasoned that once you had enough Ecstacy, and were tripping just right, the lights would stop. And, when the trip was really right, they'd start going around backwards, you know, like tires that are spinning the right speed seem to travel in reverse. Mike pointed out that in the southern hemisphere, they go the other way.
They played Darlington Darling, which was the song I didn't hear the first night that I really wanted to see. That made me happy. Authors came and was followed by River Valley, which I guess is the traditional way of doing it.
The crowd was a majority FruFans it seemed, and the show was different because of it. There were more medleys last night and longer ones and things like Spiderman that everyone would get, you know? Tonight was more Bargainville, and Dave had the hat.
We got two encores. Number one was King of Spain (led off with a little question and answer again) and then Billy Jean/Love Me, Love Me medley. Murray had a couple really funny zingers in the banter before King of Spain asking where the got the potty mouth from and finally blaming on the pants.
The second encore was the Drinking Song. Very nice closer and everyone enjoyed it. I was kinda disappointed at the lack of Green Eggs and Ham, because I had brought four people and I knew that was a good catcher. But I talked a couple into getting up to Decatur tomorrow.
Afterwards the guys were pretty busy talking to people. Mike hung out with Marcus at the Stuff Table. I never got to talk to Dave. Jian was glad Andy got in this time and thanked us for driving all the way. And I talked to Mike for awhile again and then Murray at the end. Murray said you get in free to shows if you draw blood (prompted by a discussion of a rumble in the back of the venue between FruFans and the bar goers). Especially works if you draw media attention...
Then, we went to Denny's. And now to Decatur...
From Bob:
Scheduled to be a midnight show, but it didn't actually get rolling until around 25 after. At about an hour and 45 minutes, the show didn't end until around quarter after 2... When The Galaxy was announced as the venue, I cringed, though I have to say that is the best I've ever heard that place sound. Sound near the stage is always terrible there (owing to bass being pumped out from below stage level with everything else coming from ceiling-mounted speakers 10 ft. over the edge of the stage, pointed at the back wall), but last night, near the soundboard anyway, it was actually better than tollerable. Kudos.
Running theme for the night was the lack of respect chairs get and how, in that respect, they are a metaphor for Canada. Opted not to go to Decatur today as we were warned that since it was a free show and they make sure the quality of their show is directly proportional to the ticket price, they weren't really going to try. ;)
Love Potion #9 - Ohio/Stayin Alive/Who Will Save Your Soul/Love Shack/ "She's outspoken"/You Oughta Know
Oh, and Bostonian guys working on the crossword puzzle (specifically the one submitting critiques of what is "wrong" with the clues...) - should Murray invite you down a dark alley, make sure he's not carrying a baseball bat. Trust me on this one. "Woman from Philadelphia" mentioned (though not by name ;) ) as getting close to solving it. Grand prize was announced - a date with Walter "Chekov" Koenig.
I'll still never understand why people pay $$ to get into a bar not knowing
who's playing and then talk over the music...
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
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