Oy Loyk Oyrland
October 25th, 2008
I’m currently in a hotel in Glasgow counting CDs and half-listening to the television. I can’t tell if it’s the jet lag or all the Irn Bru I drank during my set at Oran Mor tonight, but I’m not so sleepy even though it’s past midnight. It doesn’t help that there’s some kind of wedding in this hotel and a bunch of kids in suits are running up and down the halls randomly banging on doors (not as relaxing as it sounds).
Both shows have been amazing – the crowd in Dublin sang everything all the way through very loudly, which was great. I played Danny Boy, which is such a beautiful song I couldn’t resist even though I knew it was going to make the audience groan. And groan they did, but they sang anyway. I wish I could have spent more time in Dublin – I was staying with friends of friends who are actual Irish people, and they were very nice and fun.
Today I had a frenetic day of traveling and a second great show here in Glasgow. The crowd was less sing-y to be sure, but no less kind and enthusiastic. Also there was steak pie and Irn Bru and Tablet. I had no set list because the only pen I had in the green room was broken (I wish I made this excuse up but it’s true), so I kind of made it up as I went along, took a few requests, played some songs I probably should have practiced before playing in public.
Manchester on Wednesday!
Set list was approx 1-1:30
nice spread of songs at the manchester gig too.
I was an honour to help run the merch stall last nice and super nice to meet Amber, Jonathan, Paul, Storm and all the rest of the backstage crew at manchester!
Here’s hoping you don’t wait too long for another UK tour!
Just to say, was incredably awesome on you to drop in on the Neil Gaiman talk Jonathan! I was torn between which one to go to, unfortunately my girlfriend held the casting vote, but it made my day (or week, month, year, I suppose) that I got to see the three of you as well as Neil! You should make a habit of it. Better still, if you tour here again, the other half has promised she’ll be dragged along to see you, after loving Skullcrusher Mountain, even with he dodgy acoustics in that hall.
Thanks again!
You and Paul & Storm dropping in and opening for Neil was wonderfully strange and amazing. I love Skullcrusher Mountain, it’s so quirky and fun! You’ve got me and my flatmate singing along to it, and we’ve ordered the boxset cause we can’t wait to hear more.
Just to say I was at Neil’s reading in Manchester and it was wonderful to see the three of you – (I was one of the woment sitting in the front row and signing along to Skullcrusher Mountain…..) Nest time you tour in the UK you come to Bristol, OK?
top gig in manchester, loved it
what was that iphone program?
and pleeeeeeeeease record neil gaiman doing that spoken word thing sometime, its like ‘thriller’ for the noughties!
Saw the London gig last night and it was awesome! If I closed my eyes it was just like listening to my ipod
Seriously though, big THANKS for coming over to the UK. I still can’t quite believe it, it’s like a crazy ninja monkey zombie dream thing. Very very cool. Had a fantastic time!
Just got back to Norfolk after the London gig, absolutely amazing!
I’d love a download of the remixed Fancy Pants, it had me in awe and stitches simultaneously.
Come back soon! (Dejected arr…)
Glaslow is a great city. I envy you Jonathan Coulton.
Saw you at the manchester gig on wednesday, seriously one of the best gigs ive ever been to, seriously you were amazing, come back soon please please please
I’d completely forgotten about the comedy remix of Fancy Pants! I am now giggling to myself, bouncing around and occasionally going “fancy pants!”. It is a good thing the boyfriend knows what I’m talking about or the men in white coats would be on their way already…
Any chance you guys can come to Cambridge next time? It took me three hours to get home on Thursday night, which is odd as the train OUGHT to take only 45 mins. *shrug*
Gig at Shepherd’s Bush was fantastic, and I have been humming various songs to myself ever since. Come back soon! Fantastic stuff
)
Incidentally, is it just me who gets a mental image of frilly French knickers from “Mr Fancy Pants”? (I suspect this must be at least partially due to the fact that for English people, pants are underwear rather than trousers, and thus fancy pants must be of the lacy lingerie variety)
Hey JoCo! I tried to make it down to Dublin but in a terrible combination of short notice and lack of money/transportation I couldn’t go.
Any plans for Belfast, Northern Ireland?
Plenty of code monkeys and zombies here! Promise.
Since I seem to be the only one voting on Eventful for JoCo to come to Sweden, I had to fly to Dublin to see him. It was however, as I expected, totally worth it. I got to experience the complete disregard for the stage-audience boundaries that the Irish host, which made the gig more of a choir-event and a conversation between artist and fans than pure performance. Don’t get me wrong-this was in no way negative. Instead, I believe I have been part of something kind of unique. Also, Mr Coulton graciously accepted the IKEA-tshirt I brought him, but to my horror he hadn’t included the song in the playlist…so the joke kind of sunk. Finally, one of the highlights of my life will always be the beef between the two mathgeeks.