"Anyone perfect must be Ronnie."
-Ed Robertson, BNL BLAM Tour, Manchester NH 10/23/06
I am exhausted but overjoyed. Last night's BNL concert was one of the best ever. EVER I tells ya. Dispute it and I will have to give you a full frontal wedgie. For all of you who may have grown convinced that my love for Guster had eclipsed my love for the boys from Scarborough, think again. This show was tremendous, and I can't wait for the next. I'm pissed that I'm not at tonight's show, and I'm pissed that I'm not going to NYC
I invited TracyLee, who lives near Manchester and digs a good rock show (Thanks for coming Tracy) and my dangling ticket situation was taken care of. We had Jess, Kay, Jacob, Geoff and Courtney, as well as Mrs. the Kayla and myself. We got there in time to meet up with TracyLee and get my batches of tickets from Mathmarieand brand new auntie CMM (she got me 4 tickets for Agganis in Boston). And a good time was being had by all over pizza and soda before the show.
Former Soul Coughing Frontman Mike Doughty was the opener, and he was great, quirky, fun, silly. For hours after the show I was thinking about bacon that was too much for the pan to handle.
Guess you had to be there.
Nicely mixed, Mr. Doughty. Nicely mixed.
It was a good time. I enjoyed his set, and his techno-folk stylings. He has a great deep voice... I would have LOVED to have heard Super Bon Bon because it is my favorite song of his. He did a cover of Kenny Rogers "The Gambler" and I so wanted him to do the hand clapping thing and have the audience echo him, but he didn't. Still, it was a good opener, and BNL took the stage shortly after he wrapped up.
I was honestly worried about taking Geoff to a rock show. I thought it might be way WAY too much stimuli for him to handle. Especially at 8pm... but man he loved it. He was totally digging on Mike Doughty, and knew one of the songs from listening to the local radio station ("Bottom of a Well").
Before BNL took the stage, they had a little multimedia presentation running on the screens playing on the title of the new album.
the first screen showed: Barenaked Ladies Are Me.
Then, after the "Me" they added words like, Meticulous, Metonym, Metrosexual! And the audience ate it up. It turned to Barenaked Ladies are Mentally Ill. Barenaked Ladies are Messing with you! and finally -- Barenaked Ladies are Here!
Steve and Ed were in their "traditional places." Instead of Stage Left or Right, BNL fans refer to "Stage Steve" or "Stage Ed."
This time, we were up the center more on the Ed side, so I managed to get a lot of shots of him in all his amazing gorgeousness. Especially with his new purple and white girl guitar. Hotness. I swear.
The artwork from the album was echoed all through the set, form the vertical columns in the back drop to the rock star stage risers on either side of the stage, to the fronts of the light riggings above the crowd. It was at times surreal and at times very Beatles Revolver.
And it was absolutely beautiful.
I was in awe just sitting there watching how the lighting played across the entire set up. Halfway through the show, the five central columns rotated to a LED driven light display that rained or pulsated or spelled out words as the band played along.
The guys did several songs off of the new CD, which I blogged about a couple of weeks ago in (ridiculous) depth. As I'd hoped -- they performed "Maybe You're Right" and yes, I sang right along the way I told you I would (If you read the linked to above entry) and managed to do it without crying. And I sang the trumpet part with Steve. It was an amazing performance, an amazing evening, and an amazing experience for this fat fangrrrl. I can't wait for more.
It crossed my mind that this is the second time I've seen them kick off a tour. In 2003 when they started the E4E tour I saw them at the Orpheum. Long time readers may recall how I ripped my pants at that show. Classic (a)musingsness there ... (I need to finish the 2003 archives so you can read my horror show entry about my pants and the Orpheum...)
Getting the kinks out is something that can only happen life and in person. And I think that the audience for BNL is wonderful, supportive and kind. When they screw up, they laugh. And the audience laughs too. And they stand there and say "Hey, I messed up so bad... because Ed confused me!" and then they argue about it. And everyone enjoys a good giggle.
Last night was no exception, from Steve messing up the lyrics to Enid, to Ed playing all the wrong chords on a song, Steve following him, and Jim not even playing the right Bass for that particular tune. Ed's guitar didn't work on one song, and then his microphone cut out on another, so the audience sang for him.
Any other band and they'd get bent out of shape about the errors.
BNL rides with it, and the fans enjoy the gaffes. In fact, it goes to prove that they're doing it all live and doing it right there -- and doing it for people who appreciate the effort and the fun.
All told, by the time they make it cross country, all the kinks will be worked out and it might not be as drop dead funny, but it will still be a good time.
Geoff fell asleep during the latter half of the main set, and he woke up in time for the final encore. I took a million and a half pictures, of course, and they are here if you are interested. By far, I think they are the absolute best pictures I've managed to get at a BNL show. And I'm quite proud of them. So yeah -- go look if you want.
We got home about midnight. The girls immediately fell to bed, as did Geoff. I screwed around with my pictures and built the flickr set and had a great assed time checking them out and reliving all the humor of the evening.
We didn't stalk the band the way we wanted, but we sure had a great time no matter what. All told, it was a spectacular evening. Courtney's first show, Geoff & Jacob's first -- lots of different T-shirts bought, lots of laughs, lots of fun. I couldn't have been happier when I fell into bed, with songs and laughter spinning through my mind. Thinking of Ed and his brand new purple and white guitar, the funny head piece from Kevin's guitar set, the excellent Bluegrass set. All the jokes about a breakdancer named Ronnie... the fact that we made Ed laugh (we did, me and Jess) when he looked at us after singing the quote at the top of the page and we hit the ground laughing our asses off. It was a great great night.
Setlist for 10/23/06
Wind It Up
Old Apartment
Sound Of Your Voice
Enid
These Apples
Straw Hat & Old Dirty Hank
Some Fantastic
Baby Seat
Upside Down
Peterborough and the Kawarthas
Down To Earth
Acoustic Set Bluegrass Style:
Alternative Girlfriend
Everything Had changed
It's All Been Done
Maybe You're Right
Angry People
Pinch Me
Take It Back
One Week
Too Little Too Late
Brian
Easy
Falling For The First Time
Million Dollars
The title of the entry tonight is all thanks to Jess, who spoonerismed the "Weiners and Beans" rap to "Beaners and Weens" much to our squealing delight.
Gotta love you some Jess.
There is more to tell, but I'll write another entry. I have a saga about Courtney and this morning getting off to school. But don't want to sully the joy of this entry with the aftermath of what happens when you bring a tardy 15 year old to the high school.
All told, best concert ever. I know I've said that so many times that it has lost all meaning. But. You know. Best concert ever.
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