ok, lots has already been said about Rochester (none of it coincides with my opinion of it, but I don't feel like being negative at the moment, so I'll just leave it at this: Früvous played an excellent set and were very "on," but nothing else was right)
so I drove to Montreal after Rochester, and, after getting lost and not really understanding people or signs, I found the venue, then found Früheads, then found food. We got into the venue and noticed that no one was up near the stage - there were tables around the edges and in the balcony, and a somewhat small open space that we all ended up standing in.
Tory (or "Torry," as the tickets said) Cassis opened and was quite excellent. The audience was mostly appreciative.
the setlist, and then some comments:
half horse bj if only lazy boy pisco morphee (!!!) hold mpg river minnie splatter tureen sauce fly nuits king authors car psycho -- michigan billie jean -- gulf
this was an incredible show. they were amazingly on, and the improvs and tangents were... plentiful. there was an extremely long improv after BJ that was a reggae song "in Montreal... in Montreal... Montreal, Jamaica..." and was absolutely hilarious.
and they played Morphee! I couldn't believe this... it was incredible to watch - Murray and Dave on acoustic guitars, Dave using his finger picks, and Murray pickless. Mike introduced the song in French and was heckled about his accent. afterwards they mentioned that that afternoon had been the first time they'd even played the song in six years. (it sounded really good for
minnie the moocher was... disturbing, to say the least... we were practically on the floor laughing for parts of it. and it was completely new... nothing recycled.
nuits de reve was about the best I've ever seen it. possibly something to do with the excellent sound they had going that night.
king of spain with the Canadian intro... I didn't know who some of the people Jian named were, but the "close!" one was Mike Harris, instead of George W. Bush.
Gulf War Song off mic was a great closer, although it was a little hard for them to get started - there was a lot of heckling and a bunch of people shouting for the Drinking Song. Jian then, speaking in French, promised The Drinking Song for the next night... they finally got started and everyone was quiet during it. I was right in front of Murray, so I got the bass part full force and it was wonderful.
um, I can't remember much else... there was quite a bit of heckling, but for
the most part the audience was well behaved...
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
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