On Wednesday morning, I was setting up my VCR to tape First Up at noon and I noticed that Global was off the air. All I was getting was a dark blur. I hoped that the problem was fixed by noon or I would miss the MF appearance.
As I left for school, I reminded my mom not to play with the VCR because I was taping something. All that day, I hoped and prayed that Global would be back on line in time.
When I finally got home that night, my mom told me that she had been keeping an eye on Global all day and that the picture wasn't restored until about 12:30. I asked if it missed Moxy Früvous. She teased me for a few minuets, pretending like I had missed them, before she finally told me that they were on during the last half of the show. She said that they did 'Jockey Full of Bourbon'. She also told me that when she was a little kid, 'hey little bird, fly away home' was a song that she and her friends jumped roped to. I thought that was kind of cool.
I sat in my living room and rewound the tape. As I did so, my entire family decided they would watch it with me. When I got to the beginning of the interview and started to play it, my family started talking. I paused the tape and told them to shut up. They shut up and I pressed play again. As soon as I did, they started talking again. I paused again and told them (a little less politely) to shut up. I reminded them that it wasn't as if I could turn on Much Music or MTV any time I felt like it and see MF. I emplored my family to be quiet and played the tape again.
As it started, Bob MacAdory, one of the hosts introduced them and showed a close up of a copy of Live Noise. He asked Mike how you really pronounce 'Früvous' and Mike said it with a heavy German sound. Bob said he remember his high school German too. He talked with Mike for a minuet about the great fan followings in the cities were Live Noise was recorded. Then he started talking to Dave. He asked Dave about the spontaneity of a Moxy Früvous show, about how they don't rehearse their lines or read off of auto cues. Dave looked toward the camera, squinted and pretended to read, 'No, we never actually read off of auto cues'. It was really cute. After chatting with Dave, Bob asked Jian if he had fun doing this CD. Jian said yes because it show what he's good at. Like the fact the he's the interesting, charismatic guy. I'm thinking, yeah, and he's real modest too. Then Bob kind of smacked a cymbal and said something like 'you go around and hit these things'. Then he lifted up the edge of the cymbal like it was a lid and said 'is it pot roast again tonight?'. They had a good laugh at that and then Jian talked a bit more about Live Noise. Bob goes 'I didn't want a three hour speech pal.' To which, Jian responded by looking in the camera and said. 'It's available now at HMV'. Bob then talked to Murray for a minute. Bob asked if he sang on the corner of Hampton avenue. Murray said he still occasionally does.
Bob then went back to Mike and asked what they were going to perform. Mike said that it was a song written by one of their heroes, Tom Waits, called Jockey full of Bourbon. Bob moved out of the way and they did the song. There where a lot of great close up shots of each of the guys. When Mike was singing the lead, they camera was on him. He looked right into it and gave that illusion where, no matter where you are in the room, his eyes followed you. It was really cool.
My mom also had mentioned they performed again at the end of the show. As I was fast-forwarding, my dad asked if that was all of a drum set they ever used. He wanted to know if Jian ever had like a throne that he sat on virtually surrounded by drums. I said that was it. He found that kind of interesting.
They did an a capella version of I've Gotta Get a Message To You at the very end of the show. When the camera was on Jian while he was singing the lead, he looked every were but at the camera. It was a little distracting especially since you just had Mike looking straight at you five minuets ago. During one of the close ups of Murray, my mom says, 'Jeez he looks like Dwight Schultz'. I looked closer and realized that she was right. Dwight Schultz was they guy that played Barckely on Star Trek:The Next Generation, and I think he was also on The A-Team. Unfortunately, the very end of the song was cut off because the show ran out of time. After it was over, my dad asked if her was correct in assuming that Früvous started out as a capella street performers. I said they were indeed buskers with little or no instrumentation. He also found that interesting. Overall, it was a pretty cool show.
Without Wax
Jillian Warring
Some other tidbits from the performance include: