I was definitely looking forward to this show with great anticipation. I mean, come on, this was *MIT*, where that oh so famous Fru-concert happened last year around the same time. After this second annual MIT performance, I can definitely see a good trend forming.
Vika, Jess, Sarah, Cheryl and I had some dinner at The Middle East before the show. While walking from the restaurant to the student center at MIT, we actually ran into Fruvous (quite literally) on the street. As a result, we knew we definitely wouldn't (or couldn't) be late to the show, since they were walking away from MIT at the time. Once on the campus (around seven), we met up with a *bunch* of people, including Chad, Laurie, Ken, Tracy, Dan J, Jered, Adam, Moz, Josh, Sheryl, Christy, and many others I'm sure I'm forgetting.
Doors opened fairly promptly and we got in no problem; even the metal detectors weren't an issue, really. I wasn't at last year's MIT show, so I didn't know what to expect really. The concert room itself is quite large, but it filled up quickly. In fact, when we arrived on campus, there were already signs saying "Sold Out".
Honest Bob and Factory-to-Dealer Incentives went on around 8:30. It was pretty loud, and since I was waiting for some other people to show, I didn't really get to hear much of them, but from what I did hear, they seemed pretty cool. Very unique. While they were playing, Chris T, Zard, Jo, Chris/Moe, and some more people showed up. The venue got very packed very quickly.
The new merch man has taken his place in the ranks of Fruvous. His name is Dave Tobey, and Jian mentioned that everyone pretty much calls him 'Toby'. Very cool and very nice guy. He was quite busy selling the newest merch reflecting the upcoming release of Live Noise, and handing out Fru-Miles cards (the newest incentive plan from Moxy).
Fruvous came on stage around ten, and played for a little more than two hours. The opening song (extended 'Sahara') was amazing and set the tone for the show as "this is going to be different than a normal Fruovus show". And it was. Tons of impromptu numbers, great banter between songs, and other unexpected treasures. The crowd and their reaction to the concert redefined the word "entusiasm". It was a lot of fun, and Fruvous hopes to make the MIT show an annual event. During the course of the show, Jason R, Rob, Ella, and Lisa showed up. It was too bad that they couldn't have seen the whole set, but they managed to catch the most important stuff.
After the show, we were all made to leave fairly quickly so they could clean up the venue. Outside (and it was a very nice night, btw), everyone chatted, and Mike and Jian came out to say hello and talk to fans. By around 1:30 or so, people started saying their goodbyes and heading back to their respective places for sleep, that precious commodity we all get too little of.
A bunch of us (Josh, Sheryl, Rob, Tracy, Ken, myself) headed back to Frucasa for some much needed rest. Hit the sack around 2:30 in the morning myself. Not bad. Today (Saturday), a bunch of Fruheads headed to Northampton to see Burlap to Cashmere. Me? I'm sitting here typing this review! :-)
Hope to see everyone at next year's MIT show!!
From Zard Snodgrass:
Well, I'll try to do a review, although abbreviated, since I do want to get a little sleep... :-) (plus, you may have noticed that I always have a hard time remembering details!)
Anywho, after flying up Friday morning, and having time to browse in Cambridge for cheap books and used CD's, I went to pick up Doug and Chris T at Logan just in time to hoist our little tails to MIT and hop into line for Customs (remembering to stow my Swiss Army knife in a friend's car), pick up our tickets, get matched with kind students who adopted us (thanks, everyone at MIT and neighboring schools for being so cool about tickets/buddying up, etc. - it all went seamlessly!!).
Honest Bob was good - some songs better than others (granted, one of those was a Nine Inch Nails cover that went entirely over my head!), but some were downright brilliant! Such as one with all these chemistry references that the crowd loved, and one loping covers bit that ended up doing Trio's Da Da Da (which I would've NEVER thought I'd hear live!). Bob kindly said at the end that they were going to do one more song, and then they'd make way for Fruvous, and that THEY were probably looking forward to seeing Fruvous more than we all were. :-) They were also happy to be billed as "special guests" for the very first time...
So, everything went dark, and one deep burgundy-purple light came on, as one note from a keyboard came mezmerizingly out of the speakers. Then Jian and Murray made their way out on stage, Jian sitting down at the dumbek, and Mur picking up the bass. Not a word was said, and they settled into an EXTENDED middle-eastern jam with dumbek and bass. I was thinking it sounded like Sahara, but I thought they were just going to do an extended instrumental tease and then go into something else (like they sometimes do Spidey on accordian before cutting into Jockey), but it just went on and on. Mike came out and started off at the bongos (congas, whatever...), which allowed Jian to eventually switch to the drum kit without a noticeable break in percussion, and Dave came out on a new guitar! (Les Paul, I'm told by those in the know - sounds very good!!) Then Dave switched to accordian, Mike took over the guitar, and they went into the vocals of Sahara. There was no megaphone reading, just more jamming at that point. The entire thing went on about 10 minutes (shades of Inna-Gadda-Davita, anyone??), and was just incredible!! What a start to a show! Then they kicked straight into Jockey, and it just went on from there!
I'll let others post the setlist, but my absolute favorite part was one run of about 4 jams, all together. Jian was going into some song, and noticed that he'd lost a ring, so they stopped and did some ring-seeking music while he hunted for it - he lept into the crowd and ran around "hunting" for it, then got back up on stage, still not having found it. Someone from the audience offered him a flashlight, to help look on stage, and the guys were having a little chuckle about someone having a flashlight on hand, when a loud voice from the crowd said "EVERYONE has a flashlight at MIT!" Well, that struck them as funny, so they went into a long jam about just that - Everyone Has a Flashlight, Everyone Has a Flashlight, Everyone Has a Flashlight, At MIT. Meanwhile, lots of folks in the crowd pulled out their flashlights, and started swaying them over their heads in true folkie fashion, but instead of lighters! It was brilliant! After that, they did move on, and went into a song (spacing on which), and at the end of it, Jian went to wipe his face with his towel, and found the ring there, so then they started a "The Ring Is Found, On the Ground, and It's Round" song, in the style of musicals. That got them going off on how you could do a whole "Lord of the Rings" musical, since there's so much material, and so many lyrics already there, so Mike started a Bilbo Baggins song jam! Whew!! Unbelievable run of 4 different tunes, totally off-the-cuff, with some pretty good lyrics for super-speed, no time for recovery... It was everything that a Frushow stands for!! Yay! Everyone was laughing their butts off...
The show itself went on for over 2 hours, and at least half an hour of that was jamming and joking - MIT really is magical for these guys... (Later, the next day, walking down the street w/a group of Fruheads, we walked past a parked car with MIT stickers and a homegrown Fruvous bumper sticker - whose was that? We left a note! Let me know if it was you!)
The rest of the weekend was spent with Fruhead friends, just hanging out in non-Fruvous-related (or tangentially related, ie: listening to yeP! CD's...) ways, and it was a blast! It's so nice to realize how much so many of us have in common, and that Fruvous is a way of tying us together, but it's not the be-all and the end-all of the ways we can connect. :-)
/me, signing off with warm fuzzies of a great weekend all 'round. See some of you at the DC Tower in-store! Enjoy, those of you who'll be at the NYC in-store!!
From Josh Woodward:
Yet another wonderful Fru-filled weekend! After making the trip out east from Ohio in May to see one Fruvous mecca -- the Iron Horse -- I finally made it to the other -- MIT! As a birthday present to fellow BGSFru Sheryl, I agreed to make the 1,700 mile drive to the show. Was it worth it? Of course. :-)
My new car, Cedric, got us to Frucasa at 4:00 am Friday morning, after 16 hours of straight driving and getting lost in Boston ("It's a one-way street, but don't worry -- we don't have many cars out patroling tonight" -- Boston PD). After some sleep, we headed downtown to see some sites, and then to Harvard Square, and finally to MIT. Not only is MIT a Fruvous mecca, but it's a general geek mecca, so we felt right at home. The weather was just perfect for a nice day playing around Boston.
When the time drew near, we hopped in line and there met up with most of the East coast crew (seeing all of you guys is worth the trip alone!). Amazingly, Chad Maloney made the trip as well, and I met two very cool new Fruheads who flew in from Columbus, OH -- Miriam Libicki and her mom.
A near-catastrophe then occured: I went to pick up tickets for myself and Sheryl, got them, and a few seconds later, they took away the counter and hung signs all over: "Moxy Fruvous - SOLD OUT". Talk about dodging the bullet. Note to self: ALWAYS buy tickets ahead of time. I feel terrible for those who weren't as lucky as us. :-\
New merchandise! Unfortunately, Live Noise wasn't available, but there was enough new stuff to keep us happy! The Frumiles card is now in full swing until the end of 1999, or the end of the millineum, whichever comes last? (oops, guys!) Anyway, there are new colored T-shirts which look like the Fruhead shirts but that say "Moxy Fruvous" instead of "Fruhead" and have the Bargainville "Fruvous" definition on the back. And, there's a Live Noise T-shirt with the picture of a guy and a microphone on the front and "Moxy Fruvous" on the back. There may have been another new T -- I don't remember. But the big news is the new guy who is selling the new stuff. His name is Dave "Mr. Klaw" Toby. *grins* He seems really cool.
"You are now all temporary residents of Mesapotamia". The security was like I'd imagined -- metal detectors and all. It took awhile to filter all the people into the venue (I heard it holds 500 people - is this right?) At any rate, it was in fact packed in there. The room itself was nothing stunning. Just a big, but nice box.
Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives kicked things off. I have had a copy of Honest Bob's opening act for Fruvous at MIT last year and love it. So we were a little prepared for the insanity, but were caught off guard by a few new songs, as well as a 50'sish cover of Nine Inch Nails "Head Like a Hole", which had most of us on the floor laughing. My Dinner With Laurie had a nice extended ending with lots of teases. They're a great band; hope they get their CD out soon. :) The Honest Bob set: LSC Theme; Don't Look Right; You Don't Love Me Yet; Purple Yesterday; All of the Cool Girls; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; Triple Point; Organism; In the Fridge; Nothing New to Say; Head Like a Hole; My Dinner with Laurie / Bitch / Da Da Da; Long Distance Relationship.
While Fruvous was setting up, I noticed some oddities. The dumbek and chair were set up already up front. There is a new electric guitar replacing the old one -- a sweet red Les Paul (which sounded great, BTW). And there was something on the keyboard, looked like a key was pushed down.
Fruvous set for those who want to cut to the chase:
Student Center - MIT; Boston, MA: 05/15/97
Sahara (Jammed Version) / Jockey / Medicine / Sad Girl / Boss /
Boo Time / BJ / Video / Half As Much* / Message (A Cappella) /
Kids / GMIA / I'll Hold You* / Raja / King->Green / Michy /
Saucep'n / Psycho Killer
E1: Authors->Car
E2: Drinking
The lights go down, and an ominous red light fills the stage. A single note fades in the speakers (the keyboard had the note taped down). Jian and Murray strut on stage alone. Murray picks up his pass and Jian sits by the dumbek and starts playing a haunting rhythm. Murray begins a bass line reminicient of... SAHARA??? My 2nd favorite live song, which I haven't heard in almost a year live? This was too cool. The sound evolves into an amazing groove, and the two of them are joined by Dave and Mike within a few minutes. Dave grabs the keyboard and starts playing thick chords over the beat, and Mike heads to the bongos to accentuate Jian's tribal beat. This mindblowing combination continues for a few minutes, evolving into an amazing climax as Jian moved over to his drums, and soon Mike grapped the new guitar, and dave the accordion (the groove continuing over all this) and the song kicks into a full-scale Sahara. The whole song lasted at least 10 minutes -- I'd never seen Phis.. errr.. Fruvous jam like this. It was quite seriously the most amazing live thing I've ever seen them do. So here I am, my mind blown by this wonderfully dark jam, when Jian and Murr kick into..
JOCKEY FULL OF BOURBON! A wonderful compliment to Sahara, and executed perfectly. The new guitar really helps the sound on this one. The 1-2 punch of these openers was too good to be true. Unfortunately, the mood was broken with the next song -- Medicine Show.
Sad Girl came next. This song has really grown on me. I am really curious to see how this will sound on CD. Next came Boss. Then, Boo Time, with a great reference to the MIT roof & tunnel hackers. After this, Jian went on an extended political rant, and into a song which had nothing to do with his points (or _did_ it? hehe): BJ. Vid Bargainville was next. Yeah.
Then came the next suprise of the night: a brand new song, which only Mike's chia pet has heard before: Half as Much. My honest opinion is that the song needs to stay with the chia pet for awhile; it needs some work. It's an upbeat song that taps into the recent 70's motif they've been using. It was hard to understand the lyrics, though, and very rough around the edges. Once it evolves, maybe it'll grow on me, though. It just didn't seem very original to me -- it needs that "Fruvous feel".
The instruments go down and I prepare for Moon or something, but instead I'm suprised by that soulful finger snapping -- it's a cappella Message time! Yay! Very nice stuff. Kids' song was next -- hilarious version. Then Greatest Man.
Brand new song #2 was introduced next. It's called "I'll Hold You", and I loved it right off the bat. It was delightfully corny ("I'll hold your breath until you turn blue" was roughly one line). My favorite of the 4 new songs by far. The sound was a little like.. hmm.. Matthew Sweet? Or the Candy Butchers for those familiar. Good stuff.
Unfortunately, the rest of the set was really typical compared to the first part: Raja, King->Green, Michy, Sauce, Psycho / E1: Authors->Car / E2: Drink
Overall -- the first 2/3 of the show was excellent! Mind-blowing opening, great energy level. The last 1/3 of the show was really "normal", which is still great. But the energy level of the band seemed to drop around Raja (which is understandable given the extreme length of the show and the heat of the room, and the energy level of the first part of the set).
A huge highlight was the impromptu songs. Jian lost one of his rings at one point. So of course, the other guys made a quick song about it. While looking for it, Jian thinks someone in the audience had found it, so he pseudo-stage-dives into the crowd. Turns out the guy was just offering him a flashlight to look for it with. Jian realized that "Everyone at MIT has a flashlight", so they play a song about that -- while numerous people throughout the audience flip their flashlights on into the air. Hilarious! Once he found his ring, perhaps the best impromptu bit of the night came with a song with a Western feel about him finding his ring.
There was tons of great banter which we've come to expect from MIT, and an apology that the new CD wasn't available at the show (since the record company didn't want it out before the release date.. damn red tape).
The security cleared out the venue in a hurry, but we all stayed and played outside until about 1:30 when we headed back to Frucasa. After a lot of talking, reading the new Quill and the Live Noise CD liner, we finally crashed for some well-needed sleep. We wake up, sit around and talk and listen to music for a few hours, and then Sheryl and I headed out. The ride home was nice, but long. Thanks to a rest stop and Cedric's ultra-reclining seats, we enjoyed a good 6 hours of sleep before finishing the journey and making it home before 11:00.
What a weekend. I love this band. :-)
From Colleen Campbell:
Good things come to those who wait. . .especially those who wait for a year. I'd been raving about last year's MIT show since it happened and hadn't seen the same level of rapport and interaction with the audience until the March Iron Horse show; so I've been counting down for the last several months on this. It was, in a word, worth the wait.
Zard has given a very good description of the opening to the show--drone plus Mur and Jian on bass and doumbec, then Mike on bongos and Dave on woodblock; then Jian switched to drum kit, Mike to a metal shaker, Dave to guitar, Mike to guitar, and Dave to accordian. All of this was seamless in sound, mesmeric, full-bodied--and, like Zard, I loved the sound of the new red guitar. I was totally unable to analyze what was going on at the time, though; I was just boggling as I realized that it was going to segue into Sahara. With doumbec. *whimper* That made the show for me, right there. I could have left happy after that. Fortunately, I wasn't too tempted to. :) I know this would be difficult to pull off at a lot of shows, using up 10 minutes on a song when you only have an hour and a half to play, but for everyone else's sake, I really hope this shows up again.
The guys were *so* on. They had this crowd in the palm of their hands, they knew it, and they ran with it. The show ran the longest of any I've ever attended--I think about 2 1/4 hours--and had more jams and impromptu songs than any I've ever heard of--so many that I think they had to drop at least one song from the setlist! There were the four "Ring Cycle" songs (*grin*), a song for Murray as concocted by Mike (Mike: o/~ "Murray is going to hell." Murray: "I like my song!" Jian: "Well, you sang it in your sleep last night."), and at least one other at some point. After "Everyone has a flashlight at MIT," Murray scolded us, "We practice and practice, and you cheer the loudest for twelve-bar blues." Which of course got another huge cheer--sort of like the previous year's raucous applause for "You really are geeks!"
There were a lot of references to last year's show, actually--it was clear they'd enjoyed it as much as we had. Jian spoke of how much he'd looked to playing here at Harvard and. . . uh. . .oops. Mike threw in a lyric about the fictitious MIT personage, Jack Florey (I can't remember if it was an improptu tune or a variation on BJ or what), which garnered cheers--and I noticed that a large number of the MIT students had on Jack Florey shirts themselves. Someone sent white chocolate up to the stage unprompted--shades of last year's "spice trade" line after Jian said he'd marry someone and give them his house for white chocolate. Overall, I'd say, the show was highly flavored by the fact that they loved this crowd, they'd loved it the year before and knew that not only *could* they get away with anything, they were fully expected to.
We got three new songs, all sung by Jian. "Sad girl" is growing on me. "Half as much" followed "Everyone's got a flashlight at MIT," and I'm told that it's normally different, that it mimicked the sound from that, but as it was, it really didn't do anything for me--the tune wasn't really inspired and the lyrics (of which I could understand surprisingly few) weren't really Fruvously ingenious or deep. They said it was the first time they'd played it for humans, though (Mike: "We've played it for our Chia-pet farm before"), so many it'll just take a bit of work. I liked the last one, "I'll hold you," better, which had witty bits like "I'll hold your breath unless it makes you blue," but I still expect them to venture further afield, subject-matter-wise, than love songs.
The hijinks were running strong, as usual. One of the most amazing ones came in the middle of "Green Eggs and Ham": Mike asked Dave if his back was hurting, verified that it wasn't, and then jumped on him, piggyback. Then they went into "Come together," with Mike leaping insanely around the stage like a spring-wound toy, yowling lyrics. This is the fourth instance I've heard of them doing impromptu Beatles covers in the last month--"Love me do," "Please please me," and "When I saw her standing there"--and I wonder what's keeping them from rehearsing and including one in the setlist! I vote for "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da" myself. ..
I didn't see a setlist, but someone else said it ended the show with "Gulf War Song," and they closed on "Drinking song" instead. I love GWS, but I can't say I'm disappointed: the vibe of confraternity and audience participation was so strong a through-line for the show, it felt very right to sway and sing along with "Drinking song."
I was disappointed, though, that we weren't able to get Live Noise at the show (and Jian apologized sincerely and profusely that it had been advertised as such and not fulfilled), but we did get plenty of information about it. It's distributed by BMG (someone correct me on this if I'm wrong) in America, so it should be available everywhere; and from what I've been hearing, it looks like there's going to be a big promotional push on it in the States too. There were t-shirts and posters available for the new album, though, and so many people were getting them that Dave Toby, the new merch guy ("I'm the new Marcus" he said) was swamped--first time I've had to wait in a line to get my car stamped! It's a cute new stamp on the FruMiles card, too: bare feet.
This was kind of like FruCon 2 for me, surrounded by some 30-40 people I knew (and putting a dozen of them up that night at FruCasa!). It was great to see Doug Levy, now from California, and some of the Midwest contingent (Sheryl, Josh, and Chad) here; they reminded us that we need to reciprocate and road trip to them next time. They're right! I haven't seen a show in the Midwest in a year and a half. . . Everyone was hobnobbing after the show, buying yeP!'s new live double-CD (which we played the next morning and enjoyed), and suffering police brutality (okay, okay. . .they were just kind of strong-armed about getting us out, when the show ran late).
And the cameraderie ran well past the day of the show too. For many months now, I've been hearing from Fruheads that we should get together specifically to enjoy each others' company, aside from meeting for a day or weekend of shows. The MIT show was on Friday night, but many of us spent Saturday and Sunday together as well, going to the Iron Horse for a Burlap to Cashmere show on Saturday night and then down to Hartford for a rock fest on Sunday. Which brings me to another point:
The main reason I wanted to go to the rock fest was for Barenaked Ladies (though I enjoyed Two Skinee J's and Cherry Poppin' Daddies too, loved hearing Mighty Mighty Bosstones as we walked up, and was very disappointed that K's Choice's plane got stuck in Atlanta). Thirty-five times I've seen Fruvous, and never BNL. And they, too, made it worth the wait: they put on a great, energetic, quirky, self-deprecating, alternatingly silly and beautiful show, including most of my favorites (though it was a typical short festival set of about 70 minutes), doing plenty of impromptu, and doing just enough instrument switching (piano/ accordian, electric/upright bass, electric/acoustic guitar) to remind me of Fruvous's show. Are they the same? No, and I'll never be a follower of BNL the way I am of Fruvous. But are they rather similar? Yes; I can't gauge just how similar in a short set at a rock stadium, where they're not likely to interact with the crowd or talk lengthily. But yes. They even got very similar starts (demo tapes, multi-album deals, etc) and BNL doesn't get much air play in the states, either. So why is BNL billed as "modern rock" and Fruvous as "folk"? Hmmmm. . .
Okay, enough. Congrats for making it through all my ramblings--and for pete's sake, come to next year's MIT show. I promise, it'll be worth it. :)
From Gordon:
OK so I guess now I get it, this MIT mystique, this supposed "we try harder" attitude when they step into the hallowed halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, La Sala de Puerto Rico hosted this evenings affair.
After security measures worthy of a world class airport (I felt like I was flying to Puerto Rico, not just going to la sala) I made my way over to the merchandise table only to find that Live Noise was not available. This would of course make it easier to sell the double live yeP! CDs I was carrying (to order yours, www.cs.umass.edu/~jg/yep.html for instructions) as the money that was brought to buy Live Noise could easily be spent on Bosco's Magic Shop.
After going inside la sala, I began to speak Spanish to people. After I annoyed as many people as possible with this practice, I reverted to English and kept my friends.
The opening band was Honest Bob and the Factory to Dealer Incentives (I saw their name and thought it was Bob Roberts and... which I think is a better name actually). I appreciated their lyrical excellence - I found their music average, but the lyrics "saved" them. I would guess their music would grow on me and I would not be averse to seeing them another time, as long as the bass player doesn't get to sing this time.
The lights went down. The crowd went crazy. A bizarre synthesized tone came over the speakers. This is Moxy Fruvous? Jian and Murray came out. Jian grabbed the doubek (spelling? CeeCee?) and played along with Murray in a very excellent jam. Dave and Mike eventually came out. Dave started playing some feedbacky stuff on the guitar, Jian moved over to the regular drum kit. This sounded like a Phish funk jam at this point. This is Moxy Fruvous! Sahara! First time hearing this one live in a long time and it is such an excellent song. Maybe they'll use it as an opener the whole tour. You won't catch me complaining!
The sell-out crowd of over 500 (including the many policemen who probably wouldn't have remained in good humour had they had a song sung to them, as the one in Amherst had. These guys looked mean) was really into this show. There was a palpable energy in the air, the likes of which I had not felt before. At no point in this show did the band slow down. We did not hear Fly or Horseshoes, for example. A slow song somewhere in this set would have broken the mood. This was to be a show at a higher place.
We heard some new songs this night:
Sad Girl, which I would have to say is "Beatlesque" and this is not a bad thing. Of course what pop song in this day and age isn't Beatlesque? What an overused term. I promise I will never call a song Beatlesque again, until next week, maybe.
Half as Much reminded me immediately of another band, what with the harmonized lead vocals and all. It was at home the next day that my brother pinpointed just what I had in mind - Little River Band. Think Help is on the Way - straight ahead pop song with some interesting melodic detours.
I Will Hold You was another new song which I enjoyed very much. It had a lot of neat harmonies and lyrical structure. I'll look forward to hearing it again. It didn't much remind me of anyone! It wasn't even Beatlesque!
Jian had a lot to say tonight. He talked to us about what is happening in Indonesia. He told us an embarrassing story about the new merch guy (welcome Dave Tobey to the frufold). I am not sure, but it seemed like some other members of the band wanted to get on with it already at times.
After much Fruvolity over Jian's ring (see below setlist for some semblance of detail on this), we got to the home stretch of the show. The Not the Beatles portion of the show led into a Come Together cover which Mr. Cheese sang and then tried to use as proof that the Beatles are no good. As was said, for someone who doesn't like the Beatles, he knows an awful lot of their music!
After that settled down, Dave brought out the banjo for a smokin' Michigan Militia and a sizzling Johnny Saucep'n. Then we had the now normal Psycho Killer closer, the Authors/Get in the Car encore and the Drinking Song. And it was over. Until next year. Or next week.
The songs:
Doubek/Bass Jam -> (I don't usually get to use those things with Fruvous) Sahara Jockey Full of Bourbon Incredible Medicine Show Sad Girl I Love My Boss (it's time to retire this one) Boo Time - Mike traded hats with a guy in the audience who was wearing a Fedora with a feather in it...a much nicer hat than Mike's and now a souvenir!) BJ Video Bargainville Looking for the Ring - Jian went jumping into the audience because he lost a ring. The band, of course, played a song for him while he was looking. Flashlights at MIT - a few people handed Jian a flashlight and I don't know it was but someone commented that everyone has a flashlight at MIT....and a song broke out. Everyone who actually had a flashlight began waving them around. Turned out there weren't actually that many. Half as Much Message (a cappella) My Ring Has Been Found - Jian found the ring inside his towel, which of course meant that there had to be a song about it. This was announced to be part of the upcoming Fruvous musical, Lord of the Rings. (Not part of their version of Wagner's Ring Cycle as had been previously reported) Bilbo Baggins - OK only one verse, sung by Mike, but it deserves mention. Kids Song Greatest Man in America - perhaps a surprise? It was to me! I Will Hold You No No Raja King of Spain -> Green Eggs -> Come Together -> Green Eggs Michigan Militia Johnny Saucep'n Psycho Killer ENCORE: Authors Get in the Car ENCORE 2: Drinking Song
From Miriam Libicki:
Many many people have written many reviews of this awesome show, but all the times I have read reviews by people who went to shows that I didn't depressed me no end. Most of the reviews were very thorough so I will focus more on the experiences of a young Frumaiden, being an Orthodox Jew & going to a Friday night concert, or, if you will, the elations & anxieties of a Fruvous fangirl who has not seen a show since midNovember.....Excuse the unreviewlike style, as the following is liberally excerpted from a journal entry.
It sounds very strange to most people, but the real reason I went to Boston last weekend was because Moxy Fruvous was playing at MIT. We (my mother&I) of course spent many many times the actual price of the actual tickets getting to & staying in Boston for a weekend but I hadn't seen Moxy Fruvous since November & my mother had promised me this concert from way back (don't ask me how I managed this, even I don't remember).
The concert was on a Friday night, which posed a myriad of problems because that's Shabbos (Jewish Sabbath, day of rest, etc.). This means my mother & I couldn't drive to the concert, buy tickets, carry the college ID needed to get in, buy any merchandise or food after the show, get any autographs or give the band anything. I knew it would be worth it though; this is Moxy Fruvous we're talking about.
In anticipation, we made all the arrangements we could. Our hotel was within walking distance of the venue, & we arranged to attend Friday night services & dinner at the MIT Hillel. We bought our tickets earlier that week & reserved them at the door. On Friday afternoon after we flew in we went to La Sala De Puerto Rico with a copy of Green Eggs & Ham in Hebrew.
When we came in, they were doing a sound check (because it had been a ritually sad time of year until the day before, I for all intents & purposes had not heard music since early April) & when I heard "Get in the Car" going at full tilt & caught a sidelong glance at *Moxy Fruvous* when the road assistant type person (His name, I later found out is Dave Toby; he's new & really cool) opened the big wooden door to get me a pen so I could sign the inside cover, my heart started pounding & my feet started joggling (no easy thing when you are standing up) & that did not let up for the two hours until I was back in La Sala De Puerto Rico.
We went back to our hotel room & I inserted my student ID card (gotten just this week for use at the concert) under the laces of my Converse Chuck T (you are allowed to carry things if you are wearing them) & went to the Hillel for prayers.
The prayer service was nice with a lot of singing & I tried to think about God & Shabbos for a little while at least (I am sorry if I am boring/offending anyone with all this religion stuff). Of course, through every pause my feet were tapping away & my brain was going moxyfruvousmoxyfruvousmoxyfruvousmoxyfruvous....
We ate at a table with some people. My mother seemed to be enjoying herself, but I couldn't pay attention. At five minutes 'til, as the soup was being served, I couldn't stand it any longer & I walked over to the looooong looong line (the show was sold out & I hoped feverishly that we really reserved tickets).
I went through the metal detector & pointed my toe at the people at the door & got my ticket & paper bracelet....The opening act was Honest Bob & the something something something, I think they were MIT students & they were way better than my experiences with Moxy Fruvous opening acts which is to say passably good. Most of us started dancing right off.
Moxy Fruvous came on fairly late as usual & they started off with Sahara except they had this red light shining down & long note & band members coming up one at a time & drumming for a long time in the beginning & it was very cool & suspenseful & I couldn't tell what it was for the longest time.
They sang a lot of songs that I've heard of but never heard, like the Kids' Song, including Teletubbies reference (as something Murray liked & something everyone else hated); I Love my Boss; The Greatest Man in America & most memorably Psycho Killer (it's a cover but I don't know of whom & it has got a very headstickable chorus). I also heard Jian's new song Sad Girl (it caused Jian to play guitar & Murray to take over the drums & afterward Murray said that drums were the funnest instrument; you just get to _hit_ them, another Frulad said "Yes, I've always thought that if we were the Muppets you would be Animal." Murray admitted that he was more often compared to Sam (he said Bill, perhaps symbolically) the Eagle) & it was pretty. Also I heard a song allegedly premiered at this concert called Half as Much which I am Having trouble remembering. The Hold song was sweet & gorgeous. Through everything, I was dancing in my little (not to say little as in my movements were inexpansive; nothing could be less true) flaily manaical way, which I never knew I had in me until I attended my first Moxy show. Except for when I was clapping and/or screaming.
One neato digression at the concert that other people haven't mentioned was when Dave said something cute & one of the lads sang "Dave-O!" & another said "He _will_ get his own sitcom yet. " After this they sang the Dave-O theme song, which involved getting off a plane. Then, so Murray wouldn't feel left out, Mike said that he had a song, too. He sang something about Murray losing his glass of milk in the snow. It was a tragic song but Murray said he liked it.
Another really funny thing was Jian's story about crossing the border for this concert, in which the border guard, upon their driving up, barked "Whaddaya want!" (chipper Oliver Twist voice: "We're going to AMERICA, sir! ") Jian tried to answer this question by describing his band, and the guard forgot about the whole immigration business in favor of making small talk (or in this case, small grunts).
After the show I talked to Josh Woodward & Sheryl, fellow Ohioans (I fully plan to hit them up for rides in the future) whom I had met briefly earlier. Very cool people. As I stood in line to get my FruMiles card (Toby signed it for me because I couldn't write), Josh ran up & tossed me a completely unprovoked Coke. I think I like this Fruhead business.
The security guards herded us outside where my mother & I talked to a bunch of people, most notably Jian. He complimented my boogieing. Ohhh...(Miriam dies). I saw the famed Colleen Campbell but was to intimidated to introduce myself.
The rest of my & my mother's weekend in Boston was fun, but this review has
gone on long enough. Until June 9th (in COLUMBUS!!! Miriam dies some more)...
....
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
Back to the tour dates 1998 page
