"What Ryan Miller is to Guster, David Ortiz is to the Red Sox."
Good gravy, what a weekend. Guster blew into town and brought all the gorgeous spring weather with them. And made my head explode not from allergies, but from awesome rockness that could not be beat.
These folks flew all the way from Washington and Oregon. That, my friends, that is hardcore. You think I'm crazy. I'm pedestrian compared to the hardcoreness of Sarah and Bev. I "know" them from a discussion board, and from flickr, and over the past few months felt comfortable enough that I'd even welcome them into my house if they needed a place to stay. But they opted for a hotel in the city, and I delivered them there and we made plans to meet up before the show to chat and eat.
The Guster show that night was tremendous. Another gusterboard member, Crystal, drove up from NJ and sat with us. We didn't put our backends in our seats the whole night, even though we were up in the mezzanine.
They opened the show with a really cool "ESPN SportsCenter" breaking news exclusive film, which was by far one of the funniest things ever. It had the crowd reeling. I give kudos to ESPN for participating in the madness and helping to make this video possible.
My favorite part is Brian climbing through the Green Monster. That slayed me. Watch and enjoy.
They closed the show with "Jesus on the Radio," sung at the edge of the stage with no amplification at all. Just their guitars, their voices, and Brian on the tambourine. Folks in the audience were asked to be dead quiet so they could get through it, and I think that even way out in the last row of the hall the song could be heard. And the audience was really quiet and respectful and they got through all the way to the end before the crowd went nuts. There were a few jackasses who yelled out during the song, but those were so few and far between that I was impressed with the audience restraint and their willingness to not sing along, not clap, and not make any noise. It's hard to get 2500 people to be that still for that long... even though it is a very short song.
I met a few other people from the board like Gustergerm, our esteemed moderator, and my girls Mathmarie and CMM who I always get to see whenever BNL or Guster are around. All told we had a great night, and I was stoked when I got home and could not fall asleep for anything.
Saturday during the day Jess and I went and checked out bridesmaid dresses for the wedding of the century coming up in September. More on that experience at another time.
She, Geoff and I met up with Suzanne, Kayla and Courtney and we headed into the city to meet up with Bev and Sarah, and a few people from the discussion board. There was Cynthiadogmom (who says she's changing her name to Cowbell girl since she lost her dog a few months back) and Crystal and her boyfriend Dom, and a girl named Allison (Its8fas on the discussion board), and Maryanna and the lovely Kristy Rose again. A great meal and good time was had by all. I had made a reservation for 12 and boy am I glad we had more than enough people show up, because I would have felt like a tool hogging up a huge table in a really busy theatre district restaurant...
We didn't bother with the opener on Friday night (Mason Jennings) and I almost wish we didn't bother with the Saturday opener, but they were praised and well recommended by a few people so I wanted to give them a chance. They're called The Format, and I really just didn't like them. Their sound was too loud and distorted, and even if the sound had been good, I don't know that I'd care for them. I liked the first song they did, but after that it was ... meh.
Guster took the stage and rebroadcast the ESPN again blew the roof off the joint. There were some incredible surprises, including the title track to their very first CD (Parachute). They don't play a lot of their older stuff. I've read in interviews that they feel the songs sound sophomoric and dated... but there is NOTHING at all like their layered harmonies when Adam and Ryan sing together. More often now, it's all Ryan and little harmonizing. Which breaks my heart. When I hear things like Parachute or Eden, I just love it. They sound soooooo good together. So my heart leapt when I heard the opening chords, and I almost cried.
Top all that off, Ryan announces that they have a special guest to "take an encore" for the band because they've gotta go.
Bob Saget.
Yes. THE Bob Saget, known by some as the America's Favorite Dad Danny Tanner on "Full House," and the insufferable host of "America's Funniest Home Videos"; known to others as one filthy, nasty, dirty stand up comic who is not at all like that famous dad role, unless Danny Tanner starts molesting the neighbor's kids.
I cannot imagine what people must think if they go to his stand up shows EXPECTING the nice, All-American super dad Bob Saget, and they get the raunchy, dirty Bob. How must they react? It has to be funny to witness.
The crowd thought at first that it was a huge joke, as Ryan encouraged them to chant "Sa-Get! Sa-Get!" over and over. Josh and Scooter came out with this huge Bob Saget banner and pom-poms, and the audience was dying laughing. I thought Brian was going to bust through the banner and then sing for us (oh, how I've longed to hear the warbly tones of the drummer singing a cover version of a Pearl Jam or Prince song...) but when I realized he was still sitting behind the drum kit, I knew something else had to be going on.
Sure enough. Bam. Bob Saget comes jumping through the banner. And the crowd goes wild. He didn't sing, or perform or anything. He high-fived a bunch of people in the front row and then shook hands with the band and left. Photos and discussion to be found here. I don't want to hot-link directly to the Bob Saget pictures, and they don't have a way on the board to break out just the one entry with the Saget photos, so you have to go to page 2 of the thread ato enjoy.
At the end, they dedicated "Happier" to their "good friend, Bob Saget," and it was just a drop dead riot.
Sarah grabbed me at the end of the show and said she'd won a meet & greet raffle, so she'd be going back stage to do so. I couldn't believe her freaking luck. She flies all the way here from the West Coast and wins the meet and greet. I had purchased a print of the tour poster for the show (it is a gorgeous take off of the old Guiness Stout ads with the toucan balancing the glass of stout on his beak, and instead of "Guinness is good for you" it says "Guster is good for you") and it was in my car for safe keeping until after the show, when I was going to stalk the boys. I couldn't go grab it, because she had to go -- but I did have my copy of Improper Bostonian with the "Guster Grows Up" cover story, with them dressed up in costumes in my backpack (thank you Amy for giving that to me). I handed it to Sarah and asked if she wouldn't mind getting it signed. And she did it for me. I so wish I'd had the poster! But this'll do.
The poster is gorgeous and I'm going to get it matted and framed -- and hope to someday get it signed at a show or via stalking the boys ... someday. In the meantime. I'm just so tickled that she scored and got to meet with them.
We stuck around until about 11:15 and Geoff was just beat and whiney. I could have stood there all night, but it was time to be a parent and take care of the kiddies and go. Sarah came out not too long after us (we were just getting on Storrow when she rang me) and we decided that today she and Bev will ride up the train here to come see the north shore and go to three states in 10 minutes. That's the beauty of Northeast Massachusetts. You can cross into NH and be in Maine in a matter of moments. then I'll cruise them back down the coast to check out the ocean and whatnot. Waiting to hear from them now.
Alright. There's non-guster content to discuss, but I'll save that for later. All told -- this was the funnest weekend. And I'm still smiling.
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