Greetings from New Jersey! I'm too tired for a full review, but here's tonight's setlist

1/2
Horse
2 Care
Video - disco
Boss
Wenchy
Indy
Rush
Minnie - 
	~Grampa Fruvous was tired of boardwalkin
	Tired of staring, and tired of gawkin'
	He wanted to do something erotic and baffy
	So he stripped naked and covered himself in salt water taffy~

	~.......down in Atlantic City
	Saw people losing fortunes, it just wasn't pretty
	Me and my pals lost 7,000 dollars between us
	All to build a monument to Donald Trump's penis~
Michy
Sauce
Fly
Nuits 
King/Green
Splatter
Car

1st Encore
Billie Jian
Brown Eyed Girl - not on setlist, but they did this w/Trout Fishing

2nd Encore
IWHO
MPG

From Kate:

Hey there. Thought I’d check in with my review of the O.C. show. It was a lovely day on the Boardwalk. We ate at a good but too expensive for boardwalk food Italian place and stared longingly at Gillian’s Island’s waterslides. It was a mini-high school reunion for me; I counted at least 8 people I had gone to high school with at the show and countless more traipsing up and down the boards. Ocean City is kinda the place to be for the summer when you go to high school in the Philadelphia area; it’s not as dry as some people think :).

Anyway, I went and got my stamp from Rochester’s Kimberly Sucy who was filling in on stamp duty that night. Eventually Christie, Colin (Cleary, my best friend - not Stanutz :), and I headed inside to claim our lovely second-row Stage Dave seats.

XPN’s Kathy O’Connell (host of Kids’ Corner) was our host for the evening, bringing Trout Fishing in America on around 8:30. They played quite a few songs, but I only recognized the “Throw Him/Her/It Out the Window” polka, “My Hair Had a Party Last Night,” and “Eleanor Rigby,” which they claimed to have written for John Lennon long ago. A good opening set; it was obvious that they had many fans in the audience :).

After a short break Kathy said “those words that come so easily to [her] lips – Ladies and Gentlemen, Moxy Früvous!”

At that, the four of them came parading onto the stage through the split in the curtain upstage center. Jian made a grand entrance thrusting two inflatable aliens (one purple, one green, given to him by Leah Bender) into the air. He propped each against a monitor.

(From Leah Bender)

>From: "Leah Bender" 
>Subject: RE: OC Review (do I even need to warn you :)
>To: ammf@fruvous.com
>Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 04:09:43 GMT
>
>>two inflatable aliens (one purple, one green, given to him by Leah
>>Bender)
>
>Well, I wish I could take credit for those aliens, but I can't.  They
>were 
given 
>
>to the guys by my best friend, Stephanie Strenger (SaphiraCa on IRC). 
>There were two more that they didn't bring out... a blue one and another
>green 
one.  

>For the entire story, ask her...  I'm just the friend who stood nearby,
>blithering... hehe 
>
>Also, it wasn't purple... it was pink, dammit!  :)

(End Leah Bender's corrections)

No review would be complete without talk of their clothing, of course. Murray was wearing the blood-red button-down shirt and jeans, Jian was wearing what appeared to be a grammar school or Township Rec. soccer/basketball/baseball t-shirt that said “Vernon” on the front and “Sarah” and “8” (I think) on the back. I think Mike was wearing his Essex County Sherrif’s Department shirt, and Dave was wearing khakis, t-shirt, and oxford and a bucket hat :).

They launched into “Half as Much” pretty directly as I remember, then dropped the energy level pretty suddenly for “Horseshoes,” something I wasn’ t really expecting. I figured they’d play three up-tempo songs then break for their usual “Three Songs Then Talking” pattern. Nice to hear it, though :). Then came my new favorite Früvous treat – “Disco Bargainville,” complete with Murray striking a John Travolta pose as Dave came in on keyboard with the “Godfather” theme :). He (Murray) wasn’t nearly as animated during the song as he had been at SSS, but it was still fantastic.

After DB, they cut off to talk a bit. Jian said that they were glad to be in Ocean City . . . sort of. They were glad to be playing for “[us] fine people . . . but what the hell is that?! We don’t have that in Canada,” he said as he made a sweeping arm motion behind him to indicate the boardwalk. He complained about having to pay $6 for a slice of pizza. Somehow, this led into an intro to “Boss.” This was particularly funny, because they couldn’t seem to get started :). First Jian couldn’t hear the note, so the audience began attempting to hum it. “No really, you’ve got it,” said Murray. “If we were looking for the fourth, that is.” To which Jian replied “The flat fourth.” Murray looked at him and retorted, “Meaning the third.” “The avant garde like to call it the flat fourth,” replied Jian through a fit of laughter. He regained his composure and got ready to start – and saw a guy standing on his chair waving a massive Canadian flag. Eventually they did end up starting :).

Then Jian launched into one of the longest introductions I’ve ever heard him do. He started out by saying that someone in Northampton had asked him to explain the next song. A loud cheer went up at the word Northampton, so he said it again to the same response. Dave tried too by saying something about Vladvistock, which met the same reaction. At any rate, Jian went on to describe “When She Talks” as a song about a relationship with a person so powerful that the persona finds that he actually listens to her. It also speaks, he said, to the notion of just how much people really listen to each other in general. The most startling statement of the intro was that the persona of the song is also slightly frustrated that he knows that he’ll never be able to possess the woman in question. Just more reason for me to defend this song – though it’s simple, it’s full of complex meaning. I like my songs that way, thanks :).

“Independence Day” followed. I love the song, but there was nothing especially noteable about it this particular night.

Mike then started talking about how the band has been travelling America for a few years now, and there is one man they can’t get away from. “Greatest Man in America” followed, with John Sununu filling in for Oliver North as “quite a nice man, too.”

“Minnie the Moocher” followed with Mike getting his Ocean Cities mixed up by making a reference to Minnie’s heart being as big as a bucket of crab cakes. Toward the end of the song (after the scatting – no Energizer tonight, by the way), Mike grabbed the green alien, dipped it, and sang passionately at its face. He then threw it on the ground, said something about the WWF, and jumped in the air, coming down near it, but not on it. Scared the piss out of me, though – I hate the sound of things popping :P.

“Michigan Militia” followed, and . . . it was “Michigan Militia.” This song has lost it’s appeal to me.

Then there was “Johnny Saucep’n,” which got a huge response. “Fly” (which I kinda hadn’t heard in a while) was next.

Then the second big revelation of the evening came out. Jian went back to the riser at the rear of the stage and sat down. Mike started tuning his guitar and I thought I recognized the chords that were issuing forth. “Nah, they wouldn’t do this here . . .” I thought to myself. “Here’s a song that Jian wrote in London, England . . . or at least that’s where he played it for us. Over time it got turned into a different language.” They played “Nuits.” I’m still in a bit of shock, over the song itself and a little from finding out that Jian had written it. I had just always assumed it was Mike. It was lovely; I didn’t even mind the slight trouble Dave was having with the electric.

Then came “King of Spain.” Jian began with his traditional litany of important political figures and urged us to stand. He introduced Mike to give the introduction and began running around in circles on the stage – literally running. I think he was kind of tickled to have all that space to play in :). Dave – er, the King, appeared through the upstage curtain in a leather jacket and the old Tibetan hat.

During the “not the Beatles” break in GE&H, Jian commented “Mr. Cheese, you’ re an asshole.” Noticing the significant number of children in the audience, he added “That’s right kids – asshole.” He went on to berate the King for mocking the Beatles when he new full well that Ezra and Keith of Trout Fishing had written “Eleanor Rigby.”

They started in on “Splatter, Splatter,” but had to stop to adjust the volume on the keyboard. “Suddenly we’re in Westminster Abbey,” said Dave. They played it and “Get In the Car” as the end-of-set drive.

Their first encore was the “Billie Jean” medley, which made me really happy. Someone mentioned at some point that one of their setlists had denoted “Lose That Girl” as the second encore, but it ended up being a rousing rendition of “Brown Eyed Girl” featuring Trout Fishing in America. Murray deferred to Ezra for the bass part; they explained the next morning that it was because he actually knew the riff :). Bizarrely, Murray picked up the guitar and Mike a tambourine. It was stupendous; Mike and Keith alternated lead on the verses and Murray and Keith got into a little Huey Lewis and the News-esque back and forth choreography :). What fun.

The last two encores were both from “Thornhill.” I think they were out to sell a lot of albums :). Both “I Will Hold On” and “My Poor Generation” were just lovely. And that’s how it ended.

Altogether, it was a great show. The guys were the most energetic I’ve seen them in a while. I’ve also never seen such an energetic crowd, filling the aisles and cheering as each song was introed. It was pretty great :).

We got out of there pretty early so I could rest up for my Point adventure. Pulled into the driveway around 1:30. Nice to have a show right around the corner :).

• Half As Much

• Horseshoes
• You Can't Be Too Careful
• Video Bargainville (Godfather Disco Version)
• I Love My Boss
• When She Talks
• Independence Day
• The Greatest Man in America
• Minnie the Moocher
• Michigan Militia
• Johnny Saucep'n
• Fly
• Nuits de Rêve
• King of Spain
• Green Eggs & Ham (short version)
• Splatter Splatter

• Get in the Car

• Billie Jean Medley
• Brown Eyed Girl (w/ Trout Fishing in America)

• I Will Hold On
• My Poor Generation

Some other tidbits from the performance include:

• Feel free to help contribute to this section!