The show started promptly at approx. 7:45 pm when the band opened with "Lazlo's Career," and then going right into "BJ Don't Cry." Lyrics changed to Scritti Politti/Nicks Fat City (A local bar).
After those songs the bank welcomed everybody to Pittsburgh and then they started chatting about racist movies & Sally Field. Mike sang a song from the movie "Norma Rae." Next they started joking about the UPS strike and Dave teased, "How will I be able to get my weed back home?"
They next played "River Valley" (Notice the absence of "My Baby . . . Authors," thus proving that these songs are not always joined at the hip).
After "River Valley," in which Dave broke a string, Mike started singing an Anthony Newlee (SP??), from Herman's Hermits, reprise. They then mentioned that according to the set list, they were supposed to go directly into the next song, but didn't account for a broken string, so they re-started "River Valley" and segued directly into "Get In The Car."
Next came "Your New Boyfriend." After that song Murray was talking about performing so early in the evening that it was like a dinner theatre and since it wasn't dark yet, they could still see the folks in the audience and pointed to one guy in the audience and called him a Secret Service Agent. This got Mike rolling into a story about when they used to be called "The Chia Pets" and they played a gig for the International Socialists, in which Dave was a guest musician. They played the following numbers from their Chia days . . . "Something Deep Inside," "Secret Agent Man," and "Tempted By The Fruit Of Another." They did a great job on all these un-rehearsed songs too!! Mike then proceeded to finish his story about the Socialist gig when he asked his Dad to come to the show. His Dad wouldn't come because he felt the C.I.A. would be there.
Next came "Horseshoes," and after a little chatter about working in a Dog Food Store, came "I Love My Boss," in which Jian had a little microphone accident - he hit it off his teeth and said "OWW!!" and then restarted the song.
After this song Jian said "Thank You Philadelphia!!" I don't know if this was by mistake or if it was a joke.
Next Murray admitted that he had to burp during that last song, and that was something that they didn't teach him in A Cappella School. A little more chatter about A Cappella school ensued and then the sang "You Will Go To The Moon." They next did the reprise to YWGTTM with some instruments and then went into "Kick In The Ass."
After that song, they chatted about the 1992 musical they wrote about BJ and they sang a few songs from it including parts written for the Psychedelic Furs and David Bowie.
The next songs were "Fly," "Incredible Medicine Show," and "Darlington Darling."
Next came some chatter about their afternoon radio appearance on WYEP and the contest they ran for show tickets. They talked about Hockey and also the native American hero Sacajawea. Jian starts singing a song from the movie "Foul Play," complete with New York accent, and some more chatter about bad movies. Then they played "No No Raja."
Next the band was inturrupted by WYEP so they could have their raffle ticket drawing. The band picked a few names from the box, while playing a wedding march, said the contest was rigged and then went into "Michigan Militia," and then "Johnny SauceP'n."
Next they introduced tonight's special guest, which was accompanied by "King Of Spain," with Dave wearing his hat. Immediately following was "Green Eggs And Ham," with some mid-song banter about The Beatles/Pittsburgh/Lynn Swann/Rocky Blier/Terry Bradshaw and the band The Eagles. After the song they thanked the Pittsburgh Audience, invited them to come back for the December show, and then thanked the Rosebud staff and WYEP.
They then played the "Love Potion #9 Medly," which included the following (And one new major change) Love Potion #9/Ohio/Stayin' Alive/Who Will Save Jewel's Soul?/Indiana Wants Me - But I can't Go Back There/ Love Shack/You Oughta Know/"Merideth Brooks Is A Bitch." Note: My Daughter's name is Indiana and we requested the inclusion of "Indiana Wants Me" for her, which we are so happy that the band decided to do. Special thanks to Mike for that!!!
The band left the stage to a standing ovation and shortly returned to the stage. While getting his guitar on, Dave knocked the dinky red keyboard on the ground, and Jian replied "Well, that's the end of the tour!" Mike quickly started singing They Might Be Giants' "The End Of The Tour."
They finished off the night with the "Billy Jean Medley," which was their only encore. The crowd asked for more, but the management said no, because they had another band scheduled to play at ten, so I was dissapointed about not hearing "The Drinking Song" or any others they may have played, but it was still a really great show.
I earned my third FruHead stamp tonight and received my official pin. I can't wait to see them again.
From Susan Tanner:
On Thursday, they were guest DJs for about an hour at WYEP. It was interesting seeing what they wanted to play. Among Dave's picks was Medeski, Martin & Wood, Murray chose The Story, Jian had Vance Gilbert, the Neilds and Stevie Wonder, and Mike picked Midnight Oil. They also asked some rather interesting trivia questions for tickets to the show.
The venue, Rosebud, is in the warehouse district on Pittsburgh, and an interesting place. One wall is basically garage doors, which they open in the summer when the weather is nice. It was a beautiful evening, with the sun streaming in, and casting an orange glow over the room. Jian remarked that he wasn't used to playing during the daytime!
The show was advertised as 21+, but there were a few families there. It was cool that they weren't too strict with kids who were with their parents for the show. Rosebud is a mostly seated venue, as it is also a restaurant-type place, but they also had people standing along the bar areas.
They opened with "Lazlo" and went right into "BJ". Okay, again, it starts to get a bit hazy for me, as I had a few buyers and store managers in tow, and I played label girl. I think I remember most of their set, but not in order. It consisted of:
(see below)
Love Potion was the last number, and after they finished, the entire audience stood up and gave them a standing ovation. I was so heartened by this. Everyone was really having a great time; lots of dancing and cheers. There were two guys in front of me who high-fived each other and sang along through a lot of the show. It turned out that they were two of the contest winners.
The band only did one encore: the Billie Jean medley. I could tell that there were quite a few people who hadn't heard them do this before, since there was a good amount of laughter when the "Lovefool" bit kicked in, as well as the "Rudy" bit.
They all came out and met fans, but only briefly, as they had to high-tail it out and start the drive to Northampton. Saw Sandy from Ohio, but I didn't recognize anyone else. I had a blast (as usual), and left with great comments from the store managers and buyers who came along to witness the invasion!
Susan from BLRC
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
Back to the tour dates 1997 page