Hi, all! Just got back from the great show tonight in Cleveland at Case Western. Nice place, but they were set up on the floor with no stage. At least the audience cooperated and sat down on the floor! The show was free to students and $3 for everyone else, so a bargain either way!

The setlist:

Message (a capella)
Sahara (normal)
Laika
Half As Much
Medicine Show
I Love My Boss
Horseshoes
Cheek To Cheek (!)
Spidey
Sad Girl
Pisco Bandito
Boo Time ("That song was about smoking grass." -- Mike)
Kids Song
I Will Hold On
Kingreen
Jam->Michigan Militia
Love Potion #9

E1: Car/Psycho
E2: Drinkee

From Lace:

I actually wrote the majority of this around 4am when I got home Weds., but the 2 hour intravenous caffiene drip that is Fruvous quickly wore off and I decided to go to bed.

All in all, a fantastic show. I was a bit worried at first, since it was basically in a basement with everything set up on the floor, but the acoustics were good, vocals were great, they were really on (full moon maybe?), and personally, I liked sitting on the floor. The lack of stage gave a different feeling to everything, it's much nicer being on the same level. Plus, even though I got there at the last minute, I still got a seat in the front row. Can't beat that.

When they came on "stage", we all stood, and were quickly instructed to sit back down for the sake of the back rows. Mi:(I'm "condensing, it's the way of the future!") "If you're sitting, you can dance on your ass" "Later in the show, we'll ask everyone to stand, and then the people in back won't have anything to do." "And then there'll be a riot." Someone in back was holding up a sign, which, according to the person to my right, said she wanted to have some frulad's baby. "Sorry, we can't read that one."

(acapella) Message
Sahara -Alas, no dumbek, it's just not the same without it. But wonderful
nonetheless.
Laika -Great speedy little version of one I've been wanting to hear. "We
thought we'd play that because someone had a sign requesting it..... uh, no,
still can't see that other sign." Entropy tease, up to James Joule line.
Lots of banter about CWRU, including about what they thought it sounded
like, Mi: "It sounds like a wine.. The Sautern is wonderful, have you tried
the Case Western Reserve?" Mur "Case Western Reserve, the finest in tractor
parts for over 70 years.". Jian asked what the deal was with the neon around
the park benches, and what exactly that plalce was called. "Public Square?
They really got creative with that one. It's like in Toledo, they have the
Sports Arena. Yeah, I'm going to the *Grocery Store*, and I'll stop by the
*Public Square* before I go to the *Sports Arena*." This came up several
times throughout the show. D: "And we'll go to Au Bon Pain for *sandwich*."
J: "Who are you voting for? *Legislator*." Mur: "I voted for *Candidate*
last year."
Half As Much
Dave pulls out the accordian to great applause. Mur: "That's one of the
signs of the apocalypse, an accordian getting a cheer." "Look, we have the
polka appreciation society in attendance tonight." Cue the polka music and
Dave starts singing in German. "When Y2K hits, the accordian will be the
only instrument that'll still function. That'll drive em right over the
edge." "And they'll no longer have the ability to alter people's
appearances. " "Oh nice segue!"
Medicine
Boss - No intro, sad puppy by Jian and look of general confusion by others
before last "boss" Bit which might've been here- comments are made on Mur's
doing that raising the roof move. "It was awkward, and I imagine it looked
awkward as well." Mike says he's been leaving his shoelaces untied lately
and thinks it'll catch on.
"And now a song that's on two of our albums, including our latest disc..."
Mur: "Frumania - Greatest Hits 1977-1997"
Horseshoes -Just beautiful.
Cheek To Cheek -I thought this was great. "I like to take her dancing/I like
to kiss her face/But what I really like to do is [can't remember] Case" Moxy
Fruvous is actually a swing band! "The clock is ticking on the fad." Mur:
"It's about 11:48 on the swing clock."
Spidey
Sad Girl - I'm really beginning to like this one. "Suave" bit. "We're a much
better swing band when we're not playing our own instuments."
"Something has not been represented in popular music. Horses [bit of 'ridin
in the desert...'] have been, dogs and cats have... but not the fish."
Pisco -My other favorite new song. I always have the chorus running through
my head for days after I hear it.
Boo-Murray forgot his hat. Yes Mur, we were laughing. "North Ohio... me oh
my oh.......getting kinda sore on the Erie shore" Mi:"That song was about
smokin grass" "But they don't do that in Ohio." "Then we're letting them
know what's out there."
Comission intro and small fit of excitement by myself because the other song
I wanted to hear was-
The Kids Song -"Who wasn't asked?" J:"The extremely flat footed?" Mi:"No,
the platapus comission, as they're known, were asked." It's just so much fun
and the visuals are priceless.  "Taupe!" "Food that isn't Barney."
"Another new song, a bittersweet song... No, not Bittersweet, I said it was
a new song."
I Will Hold On - ah, my favorite of the new songs. I just love it.
Now there's a great summation of a frushow, laughing so hard you could cry
one moment, and the room is suddenly placid and maybe you're keeping up the
tears for other reasons the next.*
Anti-monarchy intro. The audience was queried on something, and when
everyone answered with "YEAH", Jian said it needed to be more staccato, this
continued until we were down to a "Y!" "Which is far more efficient.. From
now on, everyone should jsut answer with "Y!" and "N!"
KoS "Riot!">GE&H Mi: "I've got one thing to say to you. S. O. S. Same. Old.
Shit." Mur: "A pox on the house of cheese!" There was also a improv with the
lads "Y!"ing and "N!"ing.
Michy
(B.J. is on the setlist here but wasn't played)
#9 - Stayin Alive/Who Will Save Your Soul/Thank U/Barbie Girl
-----
Mur: "If you have any pent up boogie, get rid of it now. It's dangerous to
keep that stuff bottled up."
Car
Then there was..well, I can't remember how it started...  M: "After the
show, you can ask for a backrub... or a backrub plus." J: "Or sexual
intercourse. Can we say that on campus? Right, we just can't say fucked."
This led to sucking and fucking, an album called Intercourse and Murray
singing "in and out and in and out.."
Psycho -Half a dozen false starts.
-----
Everyone stands. "The whole crowd is taller than us!"
Drink-I love putting my arm around someone I don't know, and singing and
swaying. I apparantly have no concept of personal space.

The "security" was downright rude, shoving people out ther door, so I din't get to say hi to anyone, and I quickly lost track of those I thought were from the ng. I've come to the conclusion I'm never going to meet any of you. So I ran to the car yelling "It's too cold!" and I think, finally, this is where the review ends.

Lace ("Is Lacey really your name?" "um, yes it is." "What a beautiful name." aw, gotta love that Tobey.)

From Lawrence:

ok, so the subject line is a little bit ambiguous. I just got back from Cleveland, where Moxy Fruvous have, once again, impressed me beyond previously being impressed by anything before. Wow.

firsrt of all, the ratio of non-students to students looked to be about 1:1, which seemed to bother the staff slightly (they divided us into two mobs... er, lines, at the beginning and seemed surprised that there were more people there who weren't students)

It was a really different set than most I've seen (ok, so I've only seen 5, but still - I'm working on it :)

they came on stage and immediately told the standing audience members to sit down, and talked about that for a bit, before one of them (Jian, I think) said something to the effect of "You know, the last thing we said before we came out here was that we weren't going to talk before playing a song..." and then they did the wonderful a capella version (do they ever do any other version anymore?) of Message.

After this came the short version of Sahara, followed by Laika. At this point, there hadn't been much talking, but Jian joked that Laika had been requested by a guy holding up a sign in the back, at which point, some people with actual signs decided to make their presence known by asking for Entropy, which we got the first verse or so of. this blended into a short improv about CWRU, and Half as Much.

Somewhere in there, they made some guy stop videotaping from up close, and made him stand in the back where they couldn't see the red light, and so Murray would be out of the frame...

then Dave picked up the accordion for the first time in the show, to much applause, and it was pointed out that all the electronic instruments will be affected by Y2K, and that the accordion will be all that's left. and that it also won't be possible to do face altering surgery after 2000, which led nicely into the Incredible Medicine Show, which was wonderful (my first time hearing it live, so doubly so :)

we then got the no intro I Love My Boss, and the short intro Horseshoes. at this point, I could really tell that most of the audience was singing along...

then they did another song, and I have no clue what it was. they mentioned Case Western in it, but that's just the standard local reference thing going on... can anyone else who was there help me out on this one?

and Mike disappeared into the audience... for Spiderman, after which, Jian said something like "Spidey... we love you!" which I take as some sort of TMBG reference, whether deliberate or not. :) Either way, I enjoyed it.

then came an improv about suuave... (at least that's all I wrote down about it) and Sad Girl, which I'd only heard once before, but somehow was able to remember most of. :) and continuing with the new song thread, they played Pisco Bandito, which I find to be one of the most enjoyable new songs... and again, a large portion of the audience was singing with this one.

they then picked up the hats, and for a while, I wasn't sure what they were going to do - Mike looked like he was hunching over to do his Grandpa Fruvous thing, but Dave retrieved the keyboard and launched into Boo Time... I forget most of the lines, but at the very end, one of them commented "That's a song about smoking grass. Which I guess people don't do in Ohio... but they like to listen to songs about it." (paraphrased)

and the Kids' Song, with its usual intro, and some references to misheard song lyrics ("The girl with colitis goes by") and many things in the song replaced with Barney...

and they introduced the last of the new songs for the evening, I Will Hold On... "It's a bittersweet kind of song..." (audience member who will remain nameless) "BITTERSWEET!" "No, it's not Bittersweet, unfortunately... that's not a NEW song!" I really enjoyed this song. It's exactly the style that all my favorite songs are. :) and there's something about the way Jian emotes it in concert, too...

and then the King of Spain. somewhere during the intro for this, the audience was asked for feedback on something. and we all screamed "YES!" (because that was the answer to whatever question was being asked) but it was decided that we needed to do it "more staccato." and it eventually turned into a really quick "Y...!" (so as to distinguish it from "N...!")

let's see... during the song... "It's laissez faire, I'm not wearing underwear..." and after the genius line, "RIOT!" and, as "usual," it led into the short version of Green Eggs and Ham, during which, the "Y...!" thing resurfaced, and turned into a fairly lengthy improv number...

and then... "Ladies and gentlemen... MICHIGAN MILTITIA!" which led into the obvious song, but would have been much funnier if it hadn't. :)

and the main set ended with the Love Potion #9 medley, which might have also had some "Y...!" references in it.

They came back and did Get in the Car and Psycho Killer... during Psycho Killer, Mike's D string broke, which made it kind of interesting for those of us trying to watch chords. :) and at the end, when Jian tried to push his mic away, he accidentally knocked it over... fortunately, the audience was there to remedy this. :)

between encores this time, instead of just clapping and yelling, the audience was chanting "Y...!" repeatedly. when they returned, the comment was "ahhh, they learn quickly." and there was a reference to "The Knights who no longer say 'Ni.'"

They then played the Drinking Song, with much singing and swaying by the audience... great fun.

all in all, a great show. now to look forward to New Year's. :)

another note, regarding the subject line... at some point, they brought up the fact that Cleveland has a "Public Square." and apparently that's its official name. They went on to say that another city has "Sports Arena," and went a little overboard with the generic names... ("I'm going to see movie at theater." and things like that... "Who plays at Sports Arena? Team... they play game, of course!" "We're wearing clothes!")

maybe I should go to Buffalo.... if I had the cash...

Thanks to Lace for this one:
• Murray's setlist

Some other tidbits from the performance include:

• Feel free to help contribute to this section!