Well... I certainly hope that when I'm ready to post this thing it doesn't bomb like it did the last time.
We got to Carleton around 7:40, slightly early since it was a residence students only show and the only thing they have to do is walk down the hallway to get to the hall where the guys were playing. Getting to Carleton had been interesting, travelling around trouble spots in traffic due to the storm. This was the same storm that slowed the band down on their commute and delayed the start of the show. Doors opened at 9:30, slightly later than the 8 p.m. advertised around campus and on the tickets.
I had the pleasure of sharing a Moxy concert with my girlfriend, sister and her boyfriend, all of whom have heard me overplay the band in the car and at home. We made our way right to the front, and remained standing for awhile.
About 15 mins after the doors opened, a thin man dressed in dark colours made his way onto the stage and started singing in a low, satiny voice. As I was thinking who the hell this person could be, it came to me that maybe this was Tory Cassis. Since the residence students' ass. had not booked an opener, this person would have had to be someone who came with the band. After the first few songs, he introduced himself, and I was right! :) Apparently, Tory has been in T.O. with the guys, and came up to Ottawa with them to do this show. Once I knew who it was, I turned to my girlfriend -- remembering Tory's view on playing to seated audiences, and promptly sat down. By the end of the next song, the only people standing were those with drinks or getting drinks. :) I am in complete agreement with all those who have said that Tory's voice is to DIE for. I can't wait for Feb. to see how the guys will tie him into the F&FFC concert.
The guys hit the stage around 11, and played for 90 mins. They played a set that was slightly different from most that I read. They were well rested, perhaps even more so since it took them 9.5 hours to drive from T.O., meaning lots of idle time... The crowd was fairly responsive, but not as responsive as other Ottawa crowds have been. Most rezzies are from outta town, and many are also from out of province, who call home places west of Manitoba, where frankly the band just hasn't been touring much since 1992. So as the booze flowed, there were a lot more calls from the audience to hear Bargainville era stuff such as KoS, GE&H and the DS. At one point early in the show, the guys were even handed shooters, on the condition that the play the Drinking Song. All in all though, they did get into the band and the songs, especially the part of the set after Fly.
The humour of Moxy Fruvous never ceases to amaze me, and they whipped out a few good ones throughout the night. They had been interviewed by the residence newspaper "The Resin" previous to the show, and Murray commented that upon reading the paper, it seemed more like a drinking manual. All the who, what, when, where and why of drinking. More importantly added Mike, it told you what to do when you ran out of drink. This thread ran throught the rest of the show, with constant references, to "leafs," bongs, resin, scraping the resin, collecting resin... etc etc etc. They even did an impromtu ode to the resin, with each band member adding his own verse.
They could not resist commenting on the zippergate/Bill Clinton/sex thing going on in the US. Jian said that it was sad that Clinton might be remembered for his "shit sex instead of his shit policies." Dave wondered if Canada would be a more politically exciting country if our head of government, Jean Chretien, decided to take a boy/girl sex toy for his own enjoyment. Mike denied that this was necessary, as Chretien got his sexual thrills from strangling protesters at rallies -- alluding to an incident on Feb. 15, 1996 when Chretien did just that.
The song intros were predictable from my point of view, but a Moxy fan like myself was a rarity at this concert. When I was speaking with Jian, he asked me whether or not I knew of any other net/Fruheads that were there tonight, and I was pretty sure I was the only one. Jian did the stereo that rocks intro for Lazy Boy, heh... then the crowd forgot to cheer at the line in the song. There was an anti-monarchist intro to KoS, with the spin being "we used to know a Monarch who was cool.." They intro'd Johnny Saucep'n as a "pro-food movement" rallying song. The spokesman for the movement was Murray, who had been saved (??) and came up with a poignant one-word slogan: "EAT!" I felt a little awkward during that song when I attempted the hand-jive, only to have people around me give me looks. This resulted in doing a mini-hand jive that wasn't quite as noticeable.
It was cool to hear Pscyho Killer in the encore, since I had never heard that song performed by anyone. They also did Jockey Full of Bourbon, which I had never heard live. I grabbed the setlist off the stage after the show, which was easy since I was the only person who apparently thought of grabbing it. I can imagine the maul of people that willbe dashing for the list in Feb. :) The paper used for the setlist had drawings on the back, I could make out "Fruvous Greetings for '98." It seemed to be some kind of card, so I guess it was either a NYE card or something for the next Quill.
And so I eagerly await F&FFC in February. There's now only a month left until
the convention, and it should be a blast. Keep you radios tuned to CBC next
week.. it should be interesting to see how they condense the Winnipeg show to
52 minutes.
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
Back to the tour dates 1998 page