Reply To: Philadelphia 12/03/09
I’m going to rate this show as quite good, but not over-the-top awesome, speaking for myself. It was a packed house, and the audience interaction was quite good, and the banter was funny. I had a good time shooting two Woot! flying, screaming monkeys on to the stage, one at P&S’s “no panties have been thrown” line (I had hoped to attach panties for him to carry, but the thought of swiping a pair from my wife or daughter skeeved me out, and I didn’t have time to get to the dollar store). They were good natured about it, making an off-the-cuff joke about “Manayunk panties” and throwing in a “sad to say until this day, one monkey has been thrown.” I sent JoCo’s up at the end of Code Monkey. It was the subdued interpretation, and didn’t seem entirely appropriate, but I didn’t feel like I could count on another monkey reference except for the ponkey, and those monkeys are less like ponkeys than they are like panties. (?) He also acknowledged it with good humour. My son was with me, and he enjoyed those points a great deal (though was too excited to man the Flip cam very well). He was quite sad when at the end of the show, JoCo passed the monkey on by flinging it into the audience on his way off the stage. He’s very sensitive like that, poor lad – he also cried at the mere description of the story behind Space Doggity.
So it was a sold-out, friendly crowd in a great room. We got situated fairly well despite our SRO tickets – my son sat on the steps up to the mezzanine, and even all the way over to one side, the view and sound is great. I shot a few selective videos, which I’ll put up later. So why only “good”? Well, for one thing, Paul & Storm came on stage for a 7pm show at 7:45. I was more sensitive to this having a kid out on a school night, but still – that’s just rude. Especially if that was a factor in the one-song encore. However, once they got on, the P&S set was great. I think it was due to the fact that many had not seen them before – 70%+ raised their hands when asked if they were P&S first-timers. I got a lot of enjoyment out of the audience reaction to all the lyrical jokes that I knew were coming. They did several newer songs: the newly released Grandma’s Christmas Dinner, Frogger!, and Live. Of the super-short songs, they only did JT on Fire. I love Gumbo Pants, but Storm’s spot-on JT impression live is quite amazing. I felt like I fared well with my tweeted requests. Though I was quite hopeful that a compliment to the audience on their “analog fire” (waving of actual cigarette lighters) after Nugget Man was going to get us Me Make Fire. Ah, well.
JoCo’s set was less engaging and fun for me. He was his usual charming self, but I wonder if I’ve listened to too many bootlegs and watched too many YouTube videos. Doing too much of that can spoil the actual live show experience a little bit, I think. Some of the banter jokes come across as rehearsed, and the set list selection seemed staid to me. Looking at the set list side by side with the Philly set list from last April, it occurs to me that his “must play” list of songs is long, leaving little room for new or back catalog stuff. While I might be a little tired of hearing them and prefer something from a little deeper in the oeuvre, he can’t not do The Future Soon, Skullcrusher Mountain, Still Alive, Re Your Brains, and Code Monkey for the benefit of first-timers. Ikea and Shop Vac seem to be on that list as well, but they really could go. I enjoyed Curl live, as that is a fave of mine, and Soft Rocked live with the improvised cover medley is always fun – Paul got stuck and ended up pulling out Alanis Morissette’s In My Pocket, which was hilarious. Mr. Fancy Pants on Zendrum is a key staple of the live show which vaults the song into the “must play” list, far beyond what the original would merit on its own. But I totally struck out with my twittered requests to JoCo – the “soft rocked” reference wasn’t really intended as a request. I knew most were a stretch, but was surprised to not get Chiron Beta Prime in his first December concert o’ the year, and I thought either Space Doggity or Soterios Johnson might make the cut.
So, it was a good night. The parting shot is what leaves the clearest impression, of course, and so the one-song-encore-due-to-late-start, and taking my sad kid home (even though we had another of those damned monkeys in the car) and not being able to stick around for the meet and greet was a bummer.
-tt