Won't do a full-out review, but thought I'd share a highlight or two...
Moments before the guys were to get on-stage, the power in the neighborhood went out. Now, most bands faced with that kind of challenge would probably stay in their dressing room and cower. Or go home. But not Moxy Fruvous. With only the club's emergency exit lighting and a small flashlight, the guys came out on stage. Jian joked that they found out the power was out in the neighborhood so they couldn't do the show, "but we get paid anyway." Then they opted to do a couple of a capella songs. We were treated to the gospel version of Message, which definitely got the crowd's attention. That was followed by Gordon Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain. And a few minutes later the power came back, the guys left the stage and we all went home.
Just kidding. The "real" show began a few minutes later. It was a good mix of the old and new. Thought the crowd really responded to Pisco Bandito. But at the end of the encore, I'm not sure the Los Angelenos knew what to make of the Drinking Song. (Maybe because it didn't mention wine?) It was nice to hear songs like Stuck in the 90s, which hasn't been in the set list very much the past year.
Best part for me: driving up and seeing "Moxy Fruvous" on the Roxy marquee. For those of us in LA, that's pretty significant. At least back when I worked here in local radio, that Roxy marquee was pretty important. Did anyone get a picture of it? I didn't bring my camera.
Let's hope they come back here soon.
From Nick:
I can't forget to mention the Fru-dolls placed on stage for each of the guys! I didn't get to speak with the nice young woman who made them, But they were very amusing and well-crafted too! The band enjoyed 'em.
For everyone's amusement, here is the full set list:
(anteluminal) I Gotta Get a Message to You Early Morning Rain (golden Gord) Main set: Sahara Jockey Full of Bourbon Horseshoes Sad Girl Pisco Bandito You Will Go to the Moon Stuck in the 90's Sleepy Drinker Boo Time (carpe hemp!) I Will Hold On Michigan Militia Johnny Saucep'n King of Spain Green Eggs & Ham Love Potion #9 medley (Stayin' Alive) Encore Psycho Killer The Drinking Song
From Jordan:
Voodoo Blackout ‘99
THE PEOPLE:
Tyler, proved to be a really groovy traveling partner.
Kat, thanks for playing chauffeur!
Doors, i think she should be titled leader of the LA posse
"Little chad," woo, what a misnomer... i felt so short around you and tyler! Garit, cool to have another TMBG fan in the audience! and to all else that i didn't bother talking to (yeahyeah, there were a lot of ya!)... hope you had a blast :)
OPENING BANDS:
Blu Slushi. eh.
P3: groovy band. Made me long for the days of "baby-moshing" actually. (i shouldn't say that, i'll bet frufans are as anti-moshing as giantsfans). I guess i would've been more into their set if i wasn't so anxious for the frulads. They were cool tho, very big on Canada :)
THE DOLLS: "not dolls! action figures"
This was seriously one of the best parts of the show. After Cal and Co. set up the stage Kat quickly placed each of the dolls (one resembling each of the four frulads) on the stage, with all leaning against the mic stands except lil-jian who was being a bit disobedient but Kat set him against the drum with no problems.
Unfortunately the power went out right after they were all set up there and when the boys came on stage they didn't notice them immediately. Mike was probably first to see his doll and the look on his face just can't be described in words but he seemed pretty entertained with it (to say the least).
to whomever asked if there were pictures... believe me... K@ got an amazing picture of 'em before the show but i don't want to ruin the surprise (*grin*). i tried to snap a few of the dolls onstage (especially mike and the action figure fun) but one can only hope that any of those pics came out.
we'll get back to the dolls later:
WAIT, YOU MEAN IT'S ABOUT THE MUSIC?
Jian came on stage with a bit about how the americans turned the power out on the poor canadians, but they were getting paid anyways so "goodnight" with the cutest grin and a wave :) "but no matter what happens, your parking will be validated"
Jian, went into the whole, if someone from Spin magazine is here... "we won't be sounding like the rock extravaganza that we are... they're like... 'oh fuck, it's acoustic' but we're not!" and shining his flashlight at murray (who didn't seem too pleased that he was doing so) "does this look like an acoustic face?"
"we'll be playing songs that aren't on the set so that if the lights come on we'll be playing the set unimpaired" (liars... i'll get back to that tho).
Moxy Unplugged at the Roxy:
"these are the shit songs"
*I Gotta Get a Message to You
Right about now, they all noticed the dolls. laughter and giggles from our portion of the audience, confusion and questioning from the rest of the audience. Despite the requests from the crowd "jenny washington'" etc. we were treated to: *Early Morning Rain Murray is such a cutie! Dave playin geetar. the power came on in the middle of this to great amounts of cheering :)
Main set:
Murray noticed his doll, grinned, and they went into:
*Sahara
*Jockey Full of Bourbon
"Good to see americans here, despite the energy shortage" (ouch) ---Talk show fun "So did anything weird happen on your tour?" Jian says, "well, like we were in LA... and we were like upstairs, and like um, we were like... you have to talk like this..." mike cuts him off and says "and certain military groups had taken a machete to the main power line and... " Dave comes in with "and there were like voodoo dolls on the stage" (loud cheers). Dave checked to see if his "voodoo doll" was anatomically correct, which, by the end of the night, all except for murray (and possibly mike?) did as well. *Horseshoes ---"we're not on tour right now... just doing a one off as we say in the business" dave then proceeded to make a joke about "one off" and murray cliamed that it was the puppet that said it. "all kinds of things are gonna happen tonight with the voodoo puppets" "new album in march" *Sad Girl ---trip to Ontario Canada, not California *Pisco Bandito ---"tonights theme: American presidents... Groger Cleveland" "ya know some people know him as 'Grover Cleveland'" "there was no 13th president, they just skipped it" ---Murray explained that the pitch pipe went through the laundry. Jian commented "the G is filled with lint" (grin). and dave asked "what speed was it on 'hot dry' or tumble dry'" and Murray claimed "Polyester" "oh so that would explain your shirt" "yes, it takes no prisoners" So they tune to the G String (grin, sorry, i had to do it). Murray then played his G (grin) and it sounded like geese. :) *You Will Go to the Moon Jian and Mike seemed to really be enjoying themselves here. I'd never seen them so energy-filled... i wanna know what they were drinking :) ---Someone in the audience offered Murray their pitch pipe "ya know, some bands fans offer them drugs. Other bands fans give us pitchpipes" ---Jian then went into the whole "ya know there are people that came to see us and then, ya know, they're more enthusiastic...don't pander... but uhm, then there's the other people that are totally unsure of whether or not they should like us" ---Impeachment trial. *Stuck in the 90's made my night :) ---Murray asks "is that really what i look like? shag for hair?" Mike then says "yeah well the dave one was lying face down over here for awhile and i'm trying to concentrate on the song and i'm thinking oh it's dave, it looks just like him, dave must be down in the lower stage level... i think he's dead" ---Jian picks his up and says "mine looks like cher" *Sleepy Drinker awesome song... very groovy :) It just makes Mike look like my dad even more tho... creepy. *Boo Time "feelin a lil mal in southern cal" *I Will Hold On yay! :P ---Jian jokes about losing his concentration cuz of dave's doll stradling the mic stand. dave then said "he looks exactly like me" "he's got the same clothing on" (which he did). Mike grabs lil-mike and claims "It's me, i'm just farther away" holding the doll out. *Michigan Militia banjo feedback! ---Protesting the anit-food people with the slogan "EET" *Johnny Saucep'n hehee... jian played the wrong note at one point and grinned a lil...very cute :) ---"who's never seen moxy fruvous before? whoa, who's never even heard of moxy fruvous before?" one guy yells. jian says "thank you sir for your honesty, are you john glenn? an american of integrity" ---Mike then plays action figure... "you're aaaaall... mother fuckers!" very amusing... :) *King of Spain *Green Eggs & Ham *Love Potion #9 medley
Encore:
*Psycho Killer
Jian was super funny during this... :)
*The Drinking Song
yeahyeah, so people were talking.
i snagged Jian's setlist (as always), anyways it had "2 CAREFUL" listed after Jockey, "BOOTY" was after sleepy, and BJ was supposed to be played after green eggs and ham but no :(
Okay so post-show fun. I got a picture with each of the boys... that was
cool. Jian continues to impress me... but i've already spent several
e-mails explaining why he "rocks my world" and i'm sure you kids are sick
of hearing it *grin* But, as far as the whole, "jian scent" thread. Just
face it... he smells good, he looks *extremely* good, we all know that he
sounds great, (other two senses, i'm not gonna go into that *grin*), he's
smart, funny, and just an all around super cool guy. what more can be said
than he rocks my world?
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
Back to the tour dates 1999 page