Hello, all! After not planning on going, Sara and I on a whim decided to try to brave the students-only show at the University of Rochester. It's about a 6.5 hour drive to Rochester from BG, and we had to drive back after the show, but luckily the show was at 6:00 (we made it back around 2:30).
UR is a very pretty campus, obviously a fairly rich private school. I knew Rochester was a hippie haven, but this confirmed this in a big way. *Lots* of drunks running around, but most were just having a good time and not being disruptive (there were, of course, acceptions). The opener went on at 5, and it was the lead guy from the band Yolk. Not bad, but I had my attention on claiming a sweet spot for taping and eating mass amounts of that wonderful Rochester fried dough. Mmmmmm..... *drool*
Anyway, Fruvous. The set:
MICHIGAN A few Mike flubs, but fairly energetic. Murray's bass was PUMPIN. JOCKEY LOTS of either Mike flubs or just Mike playing with the lyrics. TUREEN SAUCEP'N After Saucep'n, Jian screamed "JOSH WOODWARD" instead of "JOHNNY SAUCEPN!". I have no idea why.. I don't see how he could have seen me in the sea of drunks. Pretty funny anyway. WHEN SHE TALKS Ugh, this song is unchanged since pre-studio except for a new piano line Mike plays on top of the organ part (high octaves on the root note of each measure). And they confirmed it'd be on the new album. PISCO BANDITO This was fun despite Jian's guitar not being on. A little sloppy, but fun. The Strudel bridge remains post-recording! Yay! They also confirmed this'd be on the upcoming album, entitled "Cancion Por Mi Padre". BOSS "KICK THE MOOSE" LOL.. this was *hilarious*. There was a girl with a big purple moose up front who tossed it onstage. They continued to launch into an improv about this and invited the "most sexist jock types at UR" to come up on stage and see how far they can kick the moose. HALF AS MUCH IF ONLY Slightly rearranged -- a little more laid back instrumentally. MINNIE The Chelsea verse is finally replaced! Great rhymes here. MISSTRA WOW.. great version. Murr's bass solo was.. WOW. RIVER CAR SHIT SPIDERMAN HAPPY TOGETHER-> A little noodling with this song and the fact that Rochester is the 14th, not 12th best school in NY. HOLD The little verse mimic harmonies are gone. :-( KING GREEN BJ PSYCHO Encore: DANCING BROWN EYED GIRL Intro by Jian: here's a song that fits with the drinking theme of the night. Then Dave launches into BEG and leaves Jian with a puzzled look. DRINKING The audience mostly sucked for this one. Lots of talking. Ahwell, it was a nice ending. "There will be no more encores, Springton!"
Decent show overall, but they seemed a little rusty on the not-new stuff. But it was nice, because this was #50 show for me. No longer must I aim for the ass brand! Well, hmm.. not that I have one, but you know. :)
Ok, I'm tired. Bye :)
From Fiona:
The U of R show was a great show. For me, that has a lot to do with the people I go with and those I meet at the show, the stuff we get up to that er.. I wouldn't necessarily want the Frulads to read *g* (Although we've been pretty tame the last couple of times. Fear Fort Erie - the Trouble Trio reunion.) The setlist for this show was fairly standard, but as always, there were highlights.
When She Talks. *ahem* I was the only one who cheered when the song was announced, which was perhaps predictable as U of R seemed to be a Bargainville audience. I was VERY glad this showed up both in the soundcheck and in the show. It had been reported on IRC that it might get left out of the album and I'd hate to see the guys cave like that.
If *they* like it enough to keep playing it they should stick by it, even if those of us who have heard and like it are in the minority. This is a song of a type that's seldom written or sung by male performers... or really females either, and it's about TIME someone did. And I freely admit I don't wholly get the song. The lines "Words passed on a boat/I remember every note" and "Vision of the sea/My lasting memory" seem to indicate something beyond my personal interpretation. I'm working on it.
Kick the Moose was just great. I wasn't entirely sure the audience would cooperate.. either someone would keep the moose, or they'd keep throwing it back after the bit was over, but they behaved themselves, and the music the guys played was fun.
I love Half as Much. I have to go memorize the lyrics sometime because I keep missing most of them, but I think it rocks.
Speaking of songs that keep being performed despite negative feedback, I still get a twinge of regret every time they do If Only as a group. I'll get over it eventually, I suppose.
The Chelsea verse of Minnie has finally worn out its welcome, as has the "Energizer" bit. Originality is *good*
Mistra was just another spot where the fact that Murray was having a great night was highlighted. I'm not a Bass Expert like some *g* but he was having fun.
"The Spidey" was er.. interesting. I'm sure it will catch on.
YAY Brown-Eyed Girl. Such a treat.
I was kind of hoping they wouldn't end with the Drinking Song, but then what *could* they have ended with. It's really sad when the audience just doesn't get that song. We talked afterwards about the number of very drunk off-campus U of R students who might drive home that night.
So set-wise it was a good show, the guys were very 'on', and there there were a couple of good improvs. But what made it for me were the little things. All the Früheads. Amy's dumbek. The subs before the show and hanging out at Aladdin's after the show. Baby Bytor. The ammf stickers. The great weather. (I'm Canadian, it was not *cold*) My first time on the GO train. Hugs. Stories. The soundcheck. Fun stuff.
The one downer was the yelling. "I love you Jean! I love YOU" - very drunk woman who started this as the guys took the stage and alternated this with the request "RIVER VALLEEEE!" "KING OF SPAIN" - very often during the show, including a couple of songs after they'd played KoS. Jian shot that particular individual a look. etc etc. So I have a question, or perhaps a challenge for you all. What are the top 5 best ways to shut these people up? If it's *your* ear someone's yelling in, what do you do to make them stop?
From Leon Perkins:
Great concert. Despite previously posted concerns, the campus security was pretty cool about the non-students present. Most of the good-sized crowd seemed to be both UR students and Fruvous fans anyway which was cool. As UR alums we didn't feel bad about crashing the "students only" concert. We got to relive the glories of D-Day--2000 inebriated students, the smell of trampled grass and stale beer...I also recall the strange sensation of having a hangover at 8PM...
As you can tell, the crowd was in a good mood and reasonably well behaved with a few exceptions. The guys kept the tempo mostly upbeat for the crowd. One cool episode included someone throwing a stuffed purple mose up on the stage. A groove of "Kiss the Moose, K-K-Kiss the Moose" turned into "Kick the Moose" and Jian invited two annoyingly macho, football, fratboy types up on the stage to compete to see who could kick the moose farthest into the crowd. Only afterward did he reveal the the prize was going to be sex with all of the band members after the show! This game gave Jian ample opportunity to say some pretty rude things about annoyingly macho football fratboy types, but the ones I saw there didn't seem to mind (or notice) so I guess that was just as well.
From Matthew Wiser:
First, Hi to the few people I met. This concert was great! I was kind of worryed that the drunkeness would be a problem, but for the most part it wasn't. There were many drunks, but they were happy drunks. I was impressed. I'm sure someone will post a setlist, which would be helpful, as I have only a sketchy memeory of which songs were played. Here's what I know. They opened with Michigan Milita, which was very well done. Heard Half as Much and loved it. Finally heard The Present Tense Turean, which was quite pogoish. There was disscussion about Cafeateria food that led into Johnny Sauc'pan, a fun way to pump up the crowd. Then it was time for Kick the Moose, which stunned me. I convinced the two girls with the moose that the band would probably go along with kissing the moose, as we had beeen seeing how many people would kiss it. The song ended up sounding almost like a They Might Be Giants song, but it was almost frightening how well it worked, considering the difficulty of doing a song about a stuffed purple moose. I was quite happy. I loved them playing You and Me by the Turtles, and playing with lyrics being U of R being either the 12th or 14th coolest school in New York, considering that Jian already commented on it. Later they confused me to no end by putting on the hats and not doing Boo Time. Towards the end they played a short version of Green Eggs and Ham, which won them a lot of new fans. Towards the end, I was surprised to hear Pyscho Killer, given what happened this week. I actually commented to someone that I didn't think I'd hear it. At the end were Brown Eyed girl, and of course, the Drinking Song, which was perfect. After the show, I talked with Jian, who somehow remembered me, and thanked him for the whole moose thing. Probably what I was most impressed by was the fact that except for the drinking sing, they stayed away from the slow stuff. I think it was the right decision, evven though I love Fly and Horseshoes. It could have turned from a happy drunk crowd to a depressed drunk crowd very easily.
Matt, proud to attend a school that's definatly in the top 15 in New York
From Cathy Fahey:
This is my first review I've written, so be gentle :)
As a UR student I was estatic to find out that Moxy was going to play on D-Day. After spending the afternoon pleasantly tipsy, my friends and I lugged our couch over to the front of the stage around 5 o'clock to get a good view.
I'm not going to bother with a set list, because I'm sure someone already has, but the songs were good. I'm glad they stuck with upbeat songs. I heard a few of their new songs back in november, but hearing them again was great. I can't wait till the new album comes out.
The "kick the moose" bit was wonderful. It really brought the audience into the show. And Mike doing "Minnie the Moocher" with references to Rochester and the Gennese River was just too funny. My favorite part was when they did "King of Spain." Drama House (where I used to live on campus) always ends their parties with "King of Spain", and finally getting to hear it live on campus with all my d-house friends was amazing.
All in all, I thought it was one of their better concerts. They reesponded to the audience better than usual, in my opinion. I could feel the crowd enjoying themselves and having fun with the band.
Moxy Fruvous was the best choice for a D-Day band the university has made in recent years. The Ramones came the year before my freshman year. Two years ago we had Collective Soul and last year there was Wycleff Jean. D-Day is supposed to be a release from the hard work and stress of the schoolyear before doing finals. It's a time of reveling and drinking. It's the one time of the year that the student body gets together and has fun, together. Moxy, because they are a great band, and great performers, realized that and taylored their show to fit.
It was awesome. And it spoiled me for whatever band the university gets next year.
Cathy, eagerly waiting for her film to be developed so that she can put her pictures of D-Day on her webpage :)
From Paul Mischler:
Well, this is my first attempt at writing a review, so go easy on me!
Some of the more memorable events of the day:
Michelle being sucked into the chair of death in my apartment :-)
Somebody... *cough* adi *cough* fru *cough* leaving some mud footprints on my carpet. My roommates are hounding me about that one :-)
DiBellas for lunch.... Yummy :-) (DiBellas = Di Best!)
All of us coming up with stories about how we are really U of R students. Michelle is Amy & JP's mom, i'm an engineer, Chrissy is a flute major at Eastman.
Oh, then there was that picture of Chrissy and Jian in an... interesting... situation.
Since Chrissy couldn't come up with the blackmail money, I have decided to post the image to the net... So, here it is. (Chrissy will probably kill me for this... but... oh well!) http://www.rit.edu/~pmm9979/images/chrissy_jian.gif
Dandelion Day at U of R...
"2000 drunk students, 1 campus." - Jian
Other reviewers mention how bad the drunks were... poor Michelle with that girl screaming "River Valley" and "Drinking Song" in her ear all evening. Poor child.
At one point, Jian pointed out that it was supposed to be _only_ U of R students there, and that all the outsiders should be beaten. It was at this moment that I realized that my RIT lanyard was hanging out of my pocket. I decided then would be a _very_ good opportunity to put it away.
A great set by the lads in this show, although I think it started a little slow. One of the funny improv's was the 'Kick The Moose' sketch. Somebody threw a stuffed moose onto the stage, and after playing with it for a little while, Jian (or mIke) invited 2 jock/fraternity types onto the stage to see who could drop kick it farther into the audience. The second guy was so drunk that he couldn't even kick it off the stage :-)
After the show, I managed to get a security guard to get me a setlist from the show. (my first set list :-) A Murray Setlist. (I plan to frame it :-)
Anyways, it was great seeing all of you Früpeople out there, Amy, JP, Chrissy, Dan Godwin, Fiona, and big thanks to michelle for driving the Frübus around :-)
From Sung Hwang:
Well this also will be my first concert review ever. I thought the
concert was great. I can also give some light to some of the happenings
with the show. I have to say the funniest thing was the Kiss(which became
kick) the Moose episode. The owner of the alleged moose is a friend of
mine, Sharon Szymkowicz,(hey sharon). She was trying to see how many
people she can get to kiss the moose, this moose was kinda loose :).
Well, it came to our attention that it would be great to have the band
kissing the moose, imagine Jian and Mike with a moose on their lips.
Maybe it was funnier because everyone was having lot of fun(and getting
drunk i guess was a factor too). Oh and to clear up the second guy who
kicked the moose, he wasn't drunk, he was trying to be nice and make sure
the moose got to the right person. Hey Todd.. You're cool. See ya'll at
the WBER show.
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
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