Thank You Portland and Seattle

By JoCo April 29, 2008

Another great trip to the beautiful Northwest – full houses, enthusiastic crowds, and a lot of that general calm and pleasant feeling I get when I’m there (do you all have industrial pumps filling the air with Ativan mist or something?). Plus on Saturday night in Seattle, Paul and Storm and I were privileged to share the stage with Molly, aka Sweetafton23. I have linked to two videos as proof, but she did a total of four songs – I’m sure the other two will turn up somewhere or other. Thank you Molly for making that show extra fun. And thank you to everyone who came out to see us. This weekend is Minneapolis, Madison and Chicago, or what like to call the Steadily Diminishing Appreciation for the Song “Curl” Tour.

Tom Cruise Crazy (with Molly on uke and singing, the rest of us doing our best to keep up):

My Monkey (with Molly on uke, me on Tenori-On, and all FOUR of us on vocals):

Comments

Alec says

What's the nifty rhythm-pad-thing you're using there?

Mark Gordon says

Great job, Molly! Love the hats!

Janet says

Wow. That was EXCELLENT, folks! Bravura performance. You all deserve many bananas!!

Marysusan says

A wonderful performance that has got me salivating for your return to a NY stage in June that much more....

Exiton says

Awesome performance but We had to drive all the way from Vancouver to see it, well i guess it's not that far. Hope your planing on visiting your fans to the north soon.

Derek says

The Portland show was awesome. I'll be telling people for a long time about how I got to see Jonathan Coulton drink water out of a pitcher. Can't wait until you're back in Oregon.

Also you should totally hype the comedic timing of the thing you use to play Mr Fancy Pants. "Pants"

Javier says

JoCo,

In YouTube, you can create a playlist, add whatever videos you want to the playlist, then instead of embedding two separate videos, you can embed the playlist on your blog and the videos will play sequentially. FYI

It's awesome that you let Molly sing on stage. That is just soooo cool. How many artists would do that for a fan?

Trampas says

This is a PRIME example of how JoCo is different from any other artist out there. Emily's been on stage for Code Monkey, Molly's been on stage... JoCo isn't just performing up there. He's letting the people who love him be involved in a wholly immersive way.

His music doesn't stop when he records it. It evolves with his fans, and can become something even more than it was.

Thanks JoCo, for making music so good that inspires the rest of us to want to be a part of it!

Lex says

Alec:
"What’s the nifty rhythm-pad-thing you’re using there?"
That's a Tenori-On, a somewhat complex little device that JoCo bought when he was over in London. Looks like he's improved on it since then.

Great to see the 4-part harmony going on there as well!

Super Dave says

For what it's worth, I've always loved Curl. You guys do it justice live too, so keep playing it!

Cambiata says

That's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I hope I get to see the other two songs.

Also, this is a good example of why JoCo rose the ranks to become world emperor in 2018.

Molly says

Splitting hairs: We all kinda had a fifth song.

Billy D says

I can't wait until Thursday when you come to Minneapolis! It's also the First of May that day!

Ninja says

Next time you come to Seattle, 21+ shows will be outlawed. You will have to allow us over 16 to see it.

Doug says

Nice job throwing her off of the lyrics on "Tom Cruise Crazy".
Very nice performance.

MatildaZQ says

Hey! You have no idea how much joy I brought into the lives of my Aunt and her husband (they live in the 'burbs of Chicago, with the shop vac on, natch) when I played "Curl" for them at the family Christmas party. They totally curl for beer.

Gingerlink says

Those were both brilliant!

Good to see you're improving on the tenori-on as well, although I don't think anything will match up for the first time you used it for code monkey ;)

elliomeg says

Excellent show! Molly was a fantastic surprise. It was so great I had to stop lurking (after almost a year!) and actually post. I wanted to share footage with others who are at least as obsessed as I am.

Check out: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7BD31CC687DEA53B

PS – I echo Exiton: Please come to Vancouver! Please…

Kerrin says

That Tenori-on is even more awesome now you have had time to master it.

Ben_S says

Those videos were amazing, good to see the return of the tenori-on on stage. I still think having it tied around your neck would look cooler though, go darth vader look. I echo what everyone else has said above, great stuff.

winegeek says

Thank you for playing "When you go" and "I'm your moon" in Portland. They are well-crafted and beautiful songs. Put a smile on my face.

However, I was disappointed with (and frankly, embarassed by) some people in the Portland crowd. One of the things I like about your performances is your comedic banter and interacting with the audiences. This time, it just seemed to fuel these folks. Maybe it was the beer? Maybe it was the first time some of these people turned off their computers and emerged from their mom's basements to go to a concert? Anyway, please don't hold it against us here in Portland. Most of us are polite, self-aware, and considerate of others...and are also proud to call ourselves geeks!

Jim says

That was straight up AMAZING. Molly's got a hell of a lot of talent to hold her own alongside JoCo+Paul+Storm -- and you guys harmonize like nobody's business.

Well done, all. :D

oddrat says

Everybody Mangoes!

Brie says

Thank YOU for coming to Portland! I had a great time on Friday night. I'd definitely work the merch table for you again. And bring you fancy glasses of water. :)

SevinPackage says

I managed to film the whole show on saturday night, and I should be getting the good footage on the 'tubes within a week... The first set of footage will be the songs Molly performed in, because she actually seemed interested in getting a copy of my amateur camerawork (she might not have felt so sure about that if she'd seen my previous work, but this time wasn't bad).

Great show, everyone!

Roman V. says

I've always really liked "My Monkey." When I started seeing video of Paul and Storm accompanying you I immediately thought you can pull of "My Monkey," but I feat mistaken.... Until now.

Chris Hartzog says

"......a lot of that general calm and pleasant feeling I get when I’m there (do you all have industrial pumps filling the air with Ativan mist or something?)....'

No, it's just the west coast laid back life. Still, I guess it is pretty amazing given that Seattle is the home of Starbucks, an espresso stand on every corner and lots of sleep deprived Microsofties running around in their Birkenstocks and socks....

Glad you had a good time....wish I could have made it to the show. Maybe next time tho...

Kevin says

Great to hear My Monkey live!

james says

Molly has her own performance page on eventful now. DEMAND IT!
It's under Sweet Afton 23

Andrea says

Brilliant! But what, you didn't lure her into your van and bring her with you to the Midwest so I could see all this brilliance for myself? I guess those Seattle types like to hog all the Molly to themselves.

Michael says

Woot for Paul S and Jon C together!

I sang with Paul in college. I am glad to see he's still doing what he loves and is great at. OASAASLLS!

Jeremy says

My appreciation for "Curl" is undiminished. Undiminished, do you hear? UNDIMINISHED.

:)

Chris says

I love your songs and performance *thumbs up* greetings from germany :)

Wedge says

I was at the Sunday Seattle show, it was most excellent! One of the best live shows of any kind I've been to.

Paul and Storm were tremendously awesome as well.

Karstan says

Well... I was at the Portland show... and it was awesome... but now I feel ripped off that Molly somehow magically appeared in Seattle... but not good ol' PDX. What's so special about Seattle that Molly had to fly OVER Portland from LA to do a show there? NOTHING! NOTHING, I SAY! I demand Molly's presence in Portland immediately! (JoCo and company can come too).

Javier says

# Molly Says:
April 29th, 2008 at 9:22 pm

Splitting hairs: We all kinda had a fifth song.

I just saw the video (I'd link to it but YouTube is down at the moment--right after I watched the video, go figure) so now I know what you're talking about. ;-)

Liasa says

The show was awesome! I don't think I've laughed so hard in years. I brought my parents who only knew a few of your songs to the show and they LOVED it! (and so did I) Thanks for the fun time!

Alex says

I knew the first time I saw the Tenori-On that JoCo NEEDED it... I am overjoyed to discover that need has been filled. :)

:)

Alex

Yu says

Sweet use of the TENORI-ON! I finally see it in non-electro/club music. It does make sense to use it as the primary instrument, replacing the guitar for that. It does seem to require extensive use of your digits with all those buttons...