I had never been to an in-store before, but had (obviously) heard a lot about them. This was going to be fun...
Vika, Mary and I headed down to the Record Archive around 11 on a clear, sunny Saturday morning. In the parking lot, we met up with Mike Scialdone and Rosemary. I've lived in Rochester all my life, but have never been to this particular record store. Once inside, I was amazed at how cool the place actually is. Lots of chairs to sit in; very homey; cool stuff on the walls. We staked out a place pretty much in the center in front of a six-inch high stage in the back of the store.
Let's see...who was there? Chris and Zard drove up from Washington, Chris/Moe, Jo, Jen/Chris, Spidey, Dan Godwin, Christine K & Michelle, AJ, and a ton of others. The place was pretty packed.
After a quick intro from the store owner(s), Fruvous came on stage around 12:30 and played for about forty-five minutes to an hour. It was a great set. I haven't seen a show where I was that close to them and could see _everything_ they were doing on the instruments in a long time. The place was so packed that running around the crowd was not as much of an option for the band, but Jian did walk into the audience a little bit during Boss.
After the set, the guys sat and did autographs for a _very_ long line of fans and shoppers. A bunch of us hung out with Toby and ate some of the birthday cake that graced the set (one of the women who works there had her birthday that day).
Left the store around two or so, and headed back to my apartment, and then in turn to the Lilac Festival...
From an attachment to a 'Live Noise' poster at the store promoting the show:
"...like watching someone running a musical blender with the top off, spraying wet chunks of folk and jazz and rap and blues and funk and God-know-what else all over the kitchen." (J. Eric Smith, Metroland, Albany, NY)
From Tanner:
Given that I had to work at five o'clock on Saturday night (Service Merchandise is no fun, let me tell you), I was overjoyed to find out about the Record Archive In-store bit. Bonnie and I arrived at about ten after twelve and subsequently ran (not literally) into Scott and his friends. I joined Scott for a fry run to Wendy's, during the course of which we found Brad and his entourage. We got back to RA just as the Frulads were taking the stage. The boys did a great job, going just as all-out as they would at any full-blown concert. The set was fabulous, including personal favorites such as the a cappella Message, the jazz Boo Time, Authors, Boss, and the classic Love potion medley. The birthday-celebration-turned-oldies-montage was a hoot, complete with the Beatles and Doo Wah Diddy. I wish I could've made the show that night, since I hear they actually did Sahara, another favorite. Sigh.
Ah well. Lafayette Square's only another week away.
From A.J. LoCicero:
Well, I'm sitting here yawning, probably because I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last weekend, but you know what? I didn't really notice it either! I had an incredibly fun time. 2 and a half shows in 2 days. Getting to spend some fairly quality time with fabulous people. I only wish Lisa could have been there, but then she's not complaining--She was doing the same thing, only with TV show fans. Chaqu'un son Goute!
(A.J. decides to finish this later and take a nap)
FRIDAY
Anyway, When I first set off on Friday, there was some question in my mind whether I'd ever get off the ground (so to speak). A quick check of my finances revealed the need for a much more thorough check of my finances which, in turn, revealed that I actually had no finances, and really should not be going. Well as they say in Madagascar: Screw that! A few hours and some monetary sleight of hand later I set off in the red Neon R/T for New York state, singing along to the likes of the Hollies and the Knickerbockers (a one hit wonder group that did the song Lies, that nearly everyone believes is by the Beatles, but it isn't). It was nearly 10 PM. I had also delayed my departure long enough to get a reservation at a hotel near Corfu, about 40 Minutes from Rochester. This turned out to be a fantastic idea, as everything in the area was sold out, and I didn't get in until around 3 am.
SATURDAY
Saturday I woke at 9, half an hour before the wake up call I'd asked for. I got dressed and headed out to Rochester. I found the Record Archive with little or no trouble. Arriving about 40 minutes before the scheduled start time, I went into the Wendy's next door for some breakfast. I half expected the place to be thronged with frufans, but in fact, there turned out to be none in there but me. Anyway, after my greasy breakfast, I moved the car, snagging one of the last spots next to the store, and headed inside. There I found a throng of fans filling the front of each of the 3 isles. I did a quick perusal of the cd bins to determine exactly what kind of store this was. It was around this time that I was first spotted by Vika, then Zard, then Rosemary. After some initial greetings, we decided that Rosemary had the best spot (doesn't she always) and so we headed over to the left side of the store right near the front to join Mary Krause who was kind enough to hold the spot. (We being Rosemary, Myself, Zard, Chris T. and anyone else I might be forgetting.) Vika had herself a choice spot in the middle, about 2 cm in front of Chris O. Since this location held some extra benefits for her (not to mention for Chris), she wisely hung on to it. :) We settled in, with me wedged into a little niche next to the CD bin, so I would be out of the way of the (shorter) people behind me.
Fruvous came on not too terribly late, and did a wonderful high
energy set. The sound was excellent (except for some technical
difficulties). Others have reviewed the actual set, so I won't
go into detail. My biggest memories: The birthday for the woman
who (owns?) the store (24 years old and running a business! I
whispered to Rosemary "Ok, now I feel like an underachiever" to
which she replied something like "Yeah, tell me about it!").
Being frustrated wanting to dance, but being wedged in so that I
could only bounce slightly (perhaps that explains the extra
dancing I seem to have done later that afternoon!). Meeting Dave
(called Toby to avoid confusion), the Merch Man, remeeting Chris
O. (He didn't really remember me from frucon, but that's ok, he
had a lot of people meeting him that day plus the trauma of the
ass brand!) :) And finally, I recall the size of the line for
autographs. Practically out the door! Needless to say, we
didn't stand around to wait in that.
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
Back to the tour dates 1998 page