Reply To: JoCo primer CD?
Does Coulton have a habit of repeating the same things at each concert? I haven’t had the opportunity to see one (yet), so I wouldn’t know.
I’ve only seen him thrice, and that over the span of several months (between the first and second shows, for instance, he got himself the ZenDrum). As far as I can tell, there are things he likes to do — you’re basically guaranteed to hear the hits, and now that he’s been introducing those for a couple of years he’s gotten the patter down, more or less — but he does like to play things that you don’t ordinarily hear.
Things to expect:
- There are a few songs where he can expect a lot of people to be disappointed if they don’t hear them (“Future Soon,” “Code Monkey”, “Skullcrusher Mountain”, etc.), so he’ll play those.
- If Paul and Storm are performing, he’ll often call them on stage for four or five songs for harmony (including some selection of “Baby Got Back”, “Code Monkey”, “Soft Rocked by Me”, “I Feel Fantastic”, etc.)
- He seems to enjoy playing “Mr. Fancy Pants” on the ZenDrum — lots of YouTube recordings of this, but I’ll point out bradtube’s and mtgordon’s from Northampton in April [[JoCopedia link | see #9]].
- Encores, typically “First of May” and often “Sweet Caroline.”
- (ETA: Also, expect a lot of people in the audience who think they’re funny but really just don’t know how to let a joke die. For the most grating example, Paul and Storm like to do a pirate song near the end of their set, so a lot of the time you’ll hear people making pirate noises during JoCo’s set. I’ve been told I’m not supposed to wish bad things upon those people, so I won’t admit here that I do.)
But don’t let me convince you that he’s really formulaic in his concerts — he really feeds off the crowd, and (as you might guess from the way he writes his music) he’s not afraid to experiment. Just from concerts I’ve seen, in August at the Birchmere he played “Octopus” live, and in April in Northampton he took requests for “Dance, Soterios Johnson, Dance” and “Drinking with You” (he also played DSJD earlier that week in Philly, I should note).
JoCo shows are really a lot of fun, and I’d definitely recommend going to multiple if possible.
[Also, if you’re unfamiliar with Paul and Storm and they’re playing at any show, you will find them a riot. They are, however, slightly more susceptible to the criticism of every show being the same — which is not really true, but as I’ve said before, I regard them as comedians with brilliant musical talent, as opposed to JoCo as a musician with great comedic talent, and you expect new material from comedians more than you expect new material from musicians. YMMV.]