![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sgt_tibbsI'm just back from my week-long trip to Toronto (and a few other places), where I saw two simply fantastic concerts, the first of which is dealt with in this post. As a warning: this is a rather spoilery post. And it's a bit long.
My plane to Toronto got in on time, and I managed to pretty much bumble my way to the U of T residence with a minimum of fuss. The guy at the check-in desk was both delightfully nerdy and ever so helpful. He printed me out some directions to the Mod Club, and I got there fairly early. I'd been planning to get some food before the show, but a line was already forming, so I got in pretty near the front. I felt a bit weird standing in line by myself but I eventually made some queue buddies, as I became caught up in simultaneous discussions on the works of Joss Whedon and Steven Moffat. (Side note: how have I never heard of Jekyll?! And how the hell is it possible that someone who's basically an adult now was TWELVE when Firefly was on?!?!) All in all it was an enjoyable way to pass the time until we were let in.
Once we were allowed in I got distracted by the merch table for a bit, but eventually pulled myself away, telling myself that I'd already spent more than most sane people would to get to the show and I really shouldn't be spending any more money, and that even if I was going to spend more money (I was fairly certain I wouldn't be able to talk myself out of buying something, and as it turns out, I was quite right), I should still wait til later on. After all, I didn't want to hold onto any more stuff during the show, and I didn't want a repeat of what happened at Minchin's show in Cardiff last December, when I managed to loose the shirt I'd bought at intermission even though it was in the middle of the stack of stuff I bought, and I didn't loose any of the rest of it. Still have no idea how that happened.
I was also slightly taken aback by the lack of chairs, and stayed sort of hovering near the railing that went around the main floor, eventually falling into conversation with one of my queue buddies (whom I would later learn is called Nick). Neither of us noticed when the crowd started to form in front of the stage, so we didn't have the best spots for most of Paul and Storm's opening set, which was a shame, but the view was still pretty good. And luckily the combination of other people's weak bladders and my ninja skills meant I was able to insinuate myself much closer to the stage by their last song.
Paul And Storm
I think I may have been the first one to notice when Paul and Storm walked on stage. Certainly I was the first to cheer, which seemed to alert everyone else to their presence. They explained to the audience (although some of us where already aware) that the venue had scheduled another show that night, which meant that they were going to start a bit early and Jonathan would be coming out right after their set, rather than leaving a break.
Their set was awesome. Of the songs I'd been hoping to hear, they played all but one. Better Version of You did not make it on, but they did Nun Fight (at the start of which Paul got the giggles and kept having to go back to get the first note; I think it was because of something Storm said, but I'm not sure; it was hilarious to watch in any case), as well as Live, Frogger: The Frogger Musical and If James Taylor Was On Fire / If Bob Dylan Was Hiding Down A Well, which were all brilliant, especially Frogger as they had a thing up in the rigging that blew bubbles down into the audience for that song. They also did a couple of songs I hadn't heard before, including one about the death of Elvis, which had a bit of banter at the start as Storm wondered whether or not Elvis was god in Canada. Someone shouted out 'No it's Shatner!' to which Paul replied that he would've guessed Nathan Fillion, which of course got a big cheer. “And that's how you pander to the natives”.
There was a lot of good banter with the audience, especially concerning the pair of knitted woollen thongs that were thrown onto the stage during the opening song, one of which looked rather like an elephant. There were a few premature 'ar's, which were dealt with good naturedly, and of course lots of cover band names, including one for Great Big Sea which I really liked at the time and now can't remember for the life of me. Their set was, as I said, amazing and just seemed to fly by. But they were on a schedule, which they mentioned again as they introduced their closing song, which they'd had to whittle down to a very jam-packed seven minutes ('Seven Minutes Is The Short Version' is the name of their Rush cover band). Even at *only* seven minutes The Captain's Wife's Lament was incredibly fun (and it was an added bonus that some people took the opportunity in the preamble to go to the toilet, giving me the chance to manoeuvre myself closer to the stage for the actual song). The only very very small nitpicky issue I had was that they mixed up solar system and galaxy. The milky way is not the name of our solar system. Regardless of that one small detail, it was still bloody great fun to join in with the song and it made a great end to a fantastic set. I talked to someone yesterday who'd been at the Ottawa show who said that Paul and Storm basically stole the show, and I'm not sure I would go quite that far; for me it's more that they and Coulton compliment each other really well. They didn't steal the show, but they elevated it to be even more awesome.
Jonathan Coulton
I love that I live in a world where the phrase “This is a song about furniture” can get such a huge cheer. Jonathan came out immediately after Paul and Storm made their (temporary) goodbyes, and it once again struck me as odd how different some people look when they're in three dimensions, rather than on my tv or computer screen. I had the same issue with some - but not all- of the people I saw in Edinburgh last summer. But I digress. He opened with Ikea, to the great delight of the crowd, and my worries about singing along dissipated quickly, as I was not the only one by any stretch. He went on to play Shop Vac, and then two new songs off the upcoming album. And any worries I had about the new album dissipated quickly, as both songs were BRILLIANT. I am incredibly excited to hear the rest of it now. I mean, I was already excited for the album, but with the nagging worry of 'what if it's Different?' And it is different; you could hear a certain maturity to the songs, especially the first one he did, which was “not about shopping the way [shop vac] wasn't about vacuuming”, and which made me think of a post he'd written on his blog about how much of yourself you put into songs, and about how your songs can reflect parts of you without actually being about you. But they were still Jonathan Coulton songs, and it's not like I really expected the new album to be a completely different sound or anything. Not really. Still, it was nice to get a taste of how great the new material is going to be.
As with Paul and Storm's set there were some good heckles (including a prolonged section of inventive uses for a shop vac), and some... not so good. But generally Coulton dealt with things easily and kept a good vibe going throughout the show. I'm a bit hazy on the order of things after a while; Paul and Storm came up a few times, Paul complaining that their first break had not been long enough for him to get off a tweet (“I had L-O...”/ “Yeah, I'm not sure where you could've gone with that”), but I'm not sure when they did what. They were up for the cover of Birdhouse In Your Soul and for Creepy Doll and Soft Rocked By Me, as well for Big Bad World One, which I believe was the song that led to a rather circumlocutory discussion involving Cirque Du Soleil and bestiality, which Coulton managed to weave -ahem- seamlessly into the intro for Code Monkey.
On his own JoCo did the song for Portal 2, Want You Gone (which was brilliant; why have I not played that game yet?!), then launched right into Still Alive. He also did Skullcrusher Mountain and Future Soon in quick succession, and I'm pretty sure it was at about then that he started fretting about the somewhat rushed nature of the show, explaining how he was trying to keep an eye on the clock and figure out how much time he had left. He then started muttering half to himself “math, math, math...”, which led to a big cheer, and I'm still not sure whether he meant that to be the intro to Mandelbrot Set (he said something like “oh yeah, okay, I could do that”, but that could've been acting). It was either a genius set up or a good bit of improv. Mandelbrot Set's one of my favourite songs to sing along to, although I still feel bad for laughing quite so hard at the judicious omission of the few lines that follow “Mandelbrot's in heaven...”
Again, my memory gets a bit hazy, and I feel like I'm missing a song or two. Fancy Pants was in there somewhere, with the delightful inclusion of some Mario Brothers music and that "shoulda put a ring on it" song, but I can't remember when in the set it was. In any case, Coulton naturally ended the main set with Re: Your Brains, and I got swept up in a bit of choreographed zombie actions, which was fun. He then did the whole “I'm gonna pretend to walk off and you all pretend to be sad, k?” before coming back to the stage to do a couple of encores, calling Paul and Storm back to the stage for the last song, The First Of May.
In the end Coulton did all but one of the songs on my wish list (I'd wanted to hear Curl, but mostly just for the Canadian reference), including two that were in the “it would be awesome but it's very unlikely”; I'm Your Moon was in the main set, although I can't remember where exactly it came, and it apparently wasn't on the set list, while A Talk With George was one of the encores.
After the show was over, I spent a bit more time talking with Nick and Mike, the guy who'd organized the choreographed zombie moves. Everyone was impressed-slash-amazed at how far I'd come for the show, although I did point out that I was also going to be seeing Minchin the next week. I still felt a bit like a stalker, but what can you do? JoCo and Paul and Storm all came out to sign stuff and take photos after a while. I was very amused by Storm's habit of sneaking himself into Coulton's pictures, and at one point was very tempted to do bunny ears behind his head, but I wasn't fast enough. I got some good photos with all of them (although my first one with Coulton was very blurry, but he was very nice about doing another one, and it meant I got another hug, so that was all fine), and got all of my stuff signed. I managed to limit myself to the purchase of one t-shirt, and then went on my merry way.
In conclusion: AWESOME.
My plane to Toronto got in on time, and I managed to pretty much bumble my way to the U of T residence with a minimum of fuss. The guy at the check-in desk was both delightfully nerdy and ever so helpful. He printed me out some directions to the Mod Club, and I got there fairly early. I'd been planning to get some food before the show, but a line was already forming, so I got in pretty near the front. I felt a bit weird standing in line by myself but I eventually made some queue buddies, as I became caught up in simultaneous discussions on the works of Joss Whedon and Steven Moffat. (Side note: how have I never heard of Jekyll?! And how the hell is it possible that someone who's basically an adult now was TWELVE when Firefly was on?!?!) All in all it was an enjoyable way to pass the time until we were let in.
Once we were allowed in I got distracted by the merch table for a bit, but eventually pulled myself away, telling myself that I'd already spent more than most sane people would to get to the show and I really shouldn't be spending any more money, and that even if I was going to spend more money (I was fairly certain I wouldn't be able to talk myself out of buying something, and as it turns out, I was quite right), I should still wait til later on. After all, I didn't want to hold onto any more stuff during the show, and I didn't want a repeat of what happened at Minchin's show in Cardiff last December, when I managed to loose the shirt I'd bought at intermission even though it was in the middle of the stack of stuff I bought, and I didn't loose any of the rest of it. Still have no idea how that happened.
I was also slightly taken aback by the lack of chairs, and stayed sort of hovering near the railing that went around the main floor, eventually falling into conversation with one of my queue buddies (whom I would later learn is called Nick). Neither of us noticed when the crowd started to form in front of the stage, so we didn't have the best spots for most of Paul and Storm's opening set, which was a shame, but the view was still pretty good. And luckily the combination of other people's weak bladders and my ninja skills meant I was able to insinuate myself much closer to the stage by their last song.
Paul And Storm
I think I may have been the first one to notice when Paul and Storm walked on stage. Certainly I was the first to cheer, which seemed to alert everyone else to their presence. They explained to the audience (although some of us where already aware) that the venue had scheduled another show that night, which meant that they were going to start a bit early and Jonathan would be coming out right after their set, rather than leaving a break.
Their set was awesome. Of the songs I'd been hoping to hear, they played all but one. Better Version of You did not make it on, but they did Nun Fight (at the start of which Paul got the giggles and kept having to go back to get the first note; I think it was because of something Storm said, but I'm not sure; it was hilarious to watch in any case), as well as Live, Frogger: The Frogger Musical and If James Taylor Was On Fire / If Bob Dylan Was Hiding Down A Well, which were all brilliant, especially Frogger as they had a thing up in the rigging that blew bubbles down into the audience for that song. They also did a couple of songs I hadn't heard before, including one about the death of Elvis, which had a bit of banter at the start as Storm wondered whether or not Elvis was god in Canada. Someone shouted out 'No it's Shatner!' to which Paul replied that he would've guessed Nathan Fillion, which of course got a big cheer. “And that's how you pander to the natives”.
There was a lot of good banter with the audience, especially concerning the pair of knitted woollen thongs that were thrown onto the stage during the opening song, one of which looked rather like an elephant. There were a few premature 'ar's, which were dealt with good naturedly, and of course lots of cover band names, including one for Great Big Sea which I really liked at the time and now can't remember for the life of me. Their set was, as I said, amazing and just seemed to fly by. But they were on a schedule, which they mentioned again as they introduced their closing song, which they'd had to whittle down to a very jam-packed seven minutes ('Seven Minutes Is The Short Version' is the name of their Rush cover band). Even at *only* seven minutes The Captain's Wife's Lament was incredibly fun (and it was an added bonus that some people took the opportunity in the preamble to go to the toilet, giving me the chance to manoeuvre myself closer to the stage for the actual song). The only very very small nitpicky issue I had was that they mixed up solar system and galaxy. The milky way is not the name of our solar system. Regardless of that one small detail, it was still bloody great fun to join in with the song and it made a great end to a fantastic set. I talked to someone yesterday who'd been at the Ottawa show who said that Paul and Storm basically stole the show, and I'm not sure I would go quite that far; for me it's more that they and Coulton compliment each other really well. They didn't steal the show, but they elevated it to be even more awesome.
Jonathan Coulton
I love that I live in a world where the phrase “This is a song about furniture” can get such a huge cheer. Jonathan came out immediately after Paul and Storm made their (temporary) goodbyes, and it once again struck me as odd how different some people look when they're in three dimensions, rather than on my tv or computer screen. I had the same issue with some - but not all- of the people I saw in Edinburgh last summer. But I digress. He opened with Ikea, to the great delight of the crowd, and my worries about singing along dissipated quickly, as I was not the only one by any stretch. He went on to play Shop Vac, and then two new songs off the upcoming album. And any worries I had about the new album dissipated quickly, as both songs were BRILLIANT. I am incredibly excited to hear the rest of it now. I mean, I was already excited for the album, but with the nagging worry of 'what if it's Different?' And it is different; you could hear a certain maturity to the songs, especially the first one he did, which was “not about shopping the way [shop vac] wasn't about vacuuming”, and which made me think of a post he'd written on his blog about how much of yourself you put into songs, and about how your songs can reflect parts of you without actually being about you. But they were still Jonathan Coulton songs, and it's not like I really expected the new album to be a completely different sound or anything. Not really. Still, it was nice to get a taste of how great the new material is going to be.
As with Paul and Storm's set there were some good heckles (including a prolonged section of inventive uses for a shop vac), and some... not so good. But generally Coulton dealt with things easily and kept a good vibe going throughout the show. I'm a bit hazy on the order of things after a while; Paul and Storm came up a few times, Paul complaining that their first break had not been long enough for him to get off a tweet (“I had L-O...”/ “Yeah, I'm not sure where you could've gone with that”), but I'm not sure when they did what. They were up for the cover of Birdhouse In Your Soul and for Creepy Doll and Soft Rocked By Me, as well for Big Bad World One, which I believe was the song that led to a rather circumlocutory discussion involving Cirque Du Soleil and bestiality, which Coulton managed to weave -ahem- seamlessly into the intro for Code Monkey.
On his own JoCo did the song for Portal 2, Want You Gone (which was brilliant; why have I not played that game yet?!), then launched right into Still Alive. He also did Skullcrusher Mountain and Future Soon in quick succession, and I'm pretty sure it was at about then that he started fretting about the somewhat rushed nature of the show, explaining how he was trying to keep an eye on the clock and figure out how much time he had left. He then started muttering half to himself “math, math, math...”, which led to a big cheer, and I'm still not sure whether he meant that to be the intro to Mandelbrot Set (he said something like “oh yeah, okay, I could do that”, but that could've been acting). It was either a genius set up or a good bit of improv. Mandelbrot Set's one of my favourite songs to sing along to, although I still feel bad for laughing quite so hard at the judicious omission of the few lines that follow “Mandelbrot's in heaven...”
Again, my memory gets a bit hazy, and I feel like I'm missing a song or two. Fancy Pants was in there somewhere, with the delightful inclusion of some Mario Brothers music and that "shoulda put a ring on it" song, but I can't remember when in the set it was. In any case, Coulton naturally ended the main set with Re: Your Brains, and I got swept up in a bit of choreographed zombie actions, which was fun. He then did the whole “I'm gonna pretend to walk off and you all pretend to be sad, k?” before coming back to the stage to do a couple of encores, calling Paul and Storm back to the stage for the last song, The First Of May.
In the end Coulton did all but one of the songs on my wish list (I'd wanted to hear Curl, but mostly just for the Canadian reference), including two that were in the “it would be awesome but it's very unlikely”; I'm Your Moon was in the main set, although I can't remember where exactly it came, and it apparently wasn't on the set list, while A Talk With George was one of the encores.
After the show was over, I spent a bit more time talking with Nick and Mike, the guy who'd organized the choreographed zombie moves. Everyone was impressed-slash-amazed at how far I'd come for the show, although I did point out that I was also going to be seeing Minchin the next week. I still felt a bit like a stalker, but what can you do? JoCo and Paul and Storm all came out to sign stuff and take photos after a while. I was very amused by Storm's habit of sneaking himself into Coulton's pictures, and at one point was very tempted to do bunny ears behind his head, but I wasn't fast enough. I got some good photos with all of them (although my first one with Coulton was very blurry, but he was very nice about doing another one, and it meant I got another hug, so that was all fine), and got all of my stuff signed. I managed to limit myself to the purchase of one t-shirt, and then went on my merry way.
In conclusion: AWESOME.
