Concerts in small venues are so much fun! Last night started off a series of four events in the span of a month and a half or so that we've been looking forward to for a long time. We saw They Might Be Giants at First Avenue.
Jim and I started the evening with dinner at O'Donovan's across the street from First Ave. It's a cozy Irish pub (obviously). Jim had chicken pot pie and I had shepherd's pie (two days late for Pi day, sorry math). While we were eating, I spied a fellow thespian from "The Odd couple: female version," the guy who played Manolo. We chatted for a bit and he said he was going to the TMBG show also! We didn't see him during the concert, but it's interesting to discover that people you know have similar interests that you would not have guessed.
Jim and I thought the concert started at 8, which meant that doors would open at 7. We got in line, and it was cold out. Thank goodness I had my green coat with the faux fur collar so I wasn't too bad off, but I felt bad for Jim, who did not have a warm coat, nor did he have a hat. Lots of people were cold. Also, lots of people thought the doors opened at 7 but we were all wrong. Doors opened at 8, concert started at 9. As irritating as it was to be wrong about the start time, the benefit was that when the doors finally did open, we managed to get standing space close to the stage so we could see the performers up close.
TMBG were fun to listen to, even the songs I didn't know had danceable beats and fun melodies. I did recognize lots of the songs, though, and of course sang along to Istanbul, not Constantinople, Particle Man, He Wants a Shoehorn, the Kind with Teeth, Birdhouse in your Soul, Twisting, etc. It was close quarters on the dance floor; the show was sold out so there were people packed in wherever they could fit. The Johns talked, conversed, and joked between songs, just like a good long-time band should. And we could tell they were having a good time.
After the concert, as we were walking out, we saw the neighbors, the Volms. Mr Volm teaches Chem at our high school, and most of my kids have had him as a teacher. Matt also was in Robotics when Mr Volm was a coach. We chatted for a bit. Fun to see people we know!
Another interesting note: I stood behind a guy wearing a Mystery Science Theater Live: Watch Out for Snakes tour t-shirt. Another person in the audience saw the shirt too, and there was some discussion before the concert of favorite episodes etc. Cool people go to cool events.
Now for some pictures:
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| me and my purply metallic lipstick that I like to wear when I'm pretending to be cool |
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| waiting (we stood without sitting down for 5 hours) |
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| you can kind of see the MST3K tour shirt on the guy in front of me. |
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| John Linnell on accordion. He plays lots of instruments. |
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| John Flansburgh on geetar |
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| red lights |
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| yellow lights |
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| and blue lights |
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| John Linnell is playing some sort of alto contra clarinet. Low low notes come out of that thing. |
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| the trumpet player was fantastic |
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| clap, people! |
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| we were nice and close and on the good side of the stage |
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