It's actually now 1:10 am on 10/22/03 and I need to get in bed because 6:30am is going to come very early. We're home, and this is a quick note.
Before I pass out from exhaustion, my initial impressions of the Barenaked Ladies show: In case you are unaware, BNL released a new CD Everything To Everyone, and their mission on this tour is to play every song off of said new CD, and then over the course of the coming months play every song they've ever written at least one time.
Steve is in amazing form. Ed's crazy mohawk thing is slightly disturbing but I can do the same thing to my son's hair so that's kind of cool. Jim wore orange. Kevin is gorgeous and talented. Tyler? Rocks harder than ever.
They were joined by Tiny dressed as "The Lord" in long flowing white gown, beard and hair. I thought he was Father Time initially until Ed properly introduced him. He was quite funny, and I must say that there must be some sort of reason behind Tiny dressing up as God that stems from the picketers outside the Orpheum Theatre.
I shouldn't say picketers really, like there was some sort of Anti-BNL contingent marching up and down Tremont Street. There were two or three guys handing out pamphlets about Jesus and letting us know BNL was pretty much evil.
I think they're confused. Marilyn Manson will be there Thursday. That's the crowd to go cater to with pamphlets, m'kay? There wasn't anything evil going on per se. And Ed only swore once because he couldn't remember what key to play one of the new songs. Can't say as I blame him.
Anyway -- God was there, and he sat in for Tyler on drums at one point and was tremendously good. Thumbs up for God's percussion stylings. There were lots of good God jokes, about God having a sense of humor and carrying Tyler through a song in a "Footprints" kind of way. Tiny rocks.
They indeed played every song off of the new CD, some standard powerhouse tunes as well as not oft heard bits as well. The audience was very subdued for many of the new songs, especially for the really quiet gentle ones, specifically "War on Drugs" which is a total buzzkill in a rock show crowd. They lost a lot of people's attentions. Most people either haven't heard the CD, haven't downloaded it, have only heard the Chimps tune on the radio, or just had no clue why they were there in the first place.
I bought the CD at lunch time today, and listened to it several times... the Chimps tune was the big hit of the new stuff, obviously. The crowd loved it. We'll all be sick of it in no time. Jessica's favorite is "Shopping" it made her laugh but I do believe that they mean it very satirically. Possibly a slam on the culture of spending that we in the West enjoy, make all your troubles go away buy going to the mall. Lalalalalalalalaaaa!!!!! It was the crowd favorite I think. But I digress.
I didn't bring a notepad to write the entire set list down, I lifted the set list off of one of the BNL forums and here's the link. I'd like to give them props for taking the time to post it.
They opened with Testing 123, and Maybe Katie, both were amazing. The surprise tunes to me were Stomach Vs. Heart and Fight the Power. Blew me away with that. I was the only one in our section who knew any of the words. So funny to hear white guys singing Fight the Power. Snarf.
They did a very nice rendition of the song "Next Time," which started out acoustic and quiet and eventually rose up with percussion and noise and ... Steve just singing the shit out of that thing. Gah he was in great form. I liked it much better than the version on the album.
When they did Celebrity and sang the line about being Phil Esposito, the Boston Crowd went nuts. DijonKetchup should be happy to know. Grin.
They opened up the floor to questions after doing a really interesting and intimite "Prairie Home Companion" style one microphone 5 gathered round blue grass kind of bit with For You, Hello City (which the entire crowd sang, including my kid who knows EVERY word, shock shock amaze!) and One Week (of all things) most notably. Ed referred to doing it "Old School," like the grand ole opry would do. It was really cute, but very very hard to hear the vocals.
After intermission and the prairie home companion set, they opened the floor to questions. Audience members got to pitch inquiries to the band, one was about what "I live with it every day" is about, if it's a true story. A girl asked Jim to strip tease for her friend because they needed a stripper for her bachelorette party. He didn't get naked but sure did dance. Someone else said that he wanted to come on stage and play tambourine along with Tyler, and chose "Alcohol" to play along to. They didn't do the whole song, and it turned into them chanting his name along while he rocked out. Quite funny.
Tremendous encore performances, Old Apartment and Brian Wilson most notably. And kudos to them for performing a song they state they've never played before a live audience -- Long Way Back Home. Heartbreaking. A great song to end a concert with, and they should play it every single time they play out.And now a little rant at my own expense, which you will hopefully find amusing.
The Orpheum Theatre in Boston sucks concert hall ASS. I ripped my pants when I sat down in my seat, not because I'm a lard ass but because this big crappy spring was sticking up out of the cushion.
It took them 20 minutes to get someone up there with duct tape and a fucking piece of cardboard to cover up the hole. Meanwhile I'm standing there pulling my sweater down over my air conditioned left cheek. I complained to someone higher up in the organization and she asked me "well, what do you want from us? What do you expect me to do?"
???
My goodness. Nice customer service. Why not offer me 20 bucks or something for my pants, bitch. I was being incredibly nice instead of some absolute off the hook bitchwanker, and I almost launched. But I said, y'know what? Fuck it. I'll just go back to my painfully hot seat and enjoy the show.
10 minutes later a guy comes to replace the cushion. I told him to forget it, the show was about to start, that the cardboard and duct tape suit me just fine and to just have a nice night. He shrugged and walked away. Did this woman honestly think after I informed her that the seat had been patched that my life would be better if I had a new seat? Not unless it was jet cooled and filled with beer and a groovy straw it wouldn't. Gah.
I plan on mailing them to the box office and telling them that the pockets in the pants held money at one point, money which will never darken the coffers of their falling down hot as blue bloody blazes establishment ever again as long as I live. And, if they think I'm being rude, wait until Thursday night when Marilyn Manson's fans rip THEIR pants on the circa 1877 cushions and get all goth, dark, scary and satanic on their pimpy asses. Ha!
It took longer to get out of the building than it did to get home.
And on that note... I really have to go to bed. All I have to say is they rocked my ripped pants off.
Andi and Linda -- if you read this. Dude. I hate that I bought the BNL fan club tickets for Hammerstein instead of for myself at Orpheum. Fan club tickets are in the front rows. I would have been spitting, slobbering distance from the stage if I'd bought them for me.
Damn. You better worship me for life. And, Andi -- bring that future phone and take hundreds of pictures. Call me and hold the phone up if they play Break your heart, What a good boy, Wrap your arms around me and/or When I fall. So I can cry and cry.
And I'm so looking forward to Hartford when I get to see them with my fan club seats. Hot Damn.Setlist 10/21/03 lifted from the forum
First Set
Testing 1, 2, 3
Maybe Katie
Celebrity
Too Little Too Late
Next Time
Unfinished
Aluminum
Fight the Power
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Take It Outside
War On Drugs
Upside Down
Second Set (Prairie Home Companion Style):
Roadrunner
For You
Hello City
One Week
Q&A Session
Alcohol (sort of)
It's All Been Done (featuring God on Drums)
Another Postcard
Second Best
Great Provider
Have You Seen My Love
Stomach vs Heart
Shopping
First Encore:
Long Way Back Home
Brian Wilson
Second Encore:
Old Apartment
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