REVIEW: Mono Puff - 8-31 and 9-1!
Justin C. Ferguson
Hey, all... I just stumbled back into town after a wonderful weekend
of Mono Puff-induced wonder... Went to go see MP (no, not Melrose Place) at
Mississippi Nights in St. Louis Saturday night... (I was the tall guy standing
in front on the right hand side of the stage wearing the Cat In The Hat hat,
for anyone else who was there and might be interested). It was a wonderful show,
aside from the opening act, Generica, who couldn't decide whether they
wanted to be SKA, rock, metal, thrash, or NIN, and seemed to show it all in
one song... Thankfully they only played for about 40 minutes, (during which
time we noticed Flans & Co. sneaking in the back door)... MP came on about
10:15ish, and here was the set: (Managed to snag a copy of the set list from
one of the stage crew.)
Nixon -> Guitar Nixon's The One, leading into
Guitar was the Case... Guitar was
the case, live, is one of the
best things I've ever seen.
Spaceman What Bothers the Spaceman - was OK...
It's not one of my favorite MP songs,
and the mixing was a little off, so it
left me a little cold, but...
Hillbilly Hillbilly Drummer Girl - sheer
musical perfection. This song is
nothing short of great...I'm hoping
for another MP album just so I can
have a copy of this song.
So Long So Long Mockingbird... Well done.
Distant Distant Antenna - Musically good,
except for the fact that the soundman
was apparently asleep at the wheel for
the first half of the song, and forgot
to turn up the vocals for ?Danny Levine?
(the horn player), so we could barely
hear the spoken word. :-<
Don't Break Don't Break The Heart - Well done..
Not outstanding, but still good.. :->
Odd Ball Oddball - What can I say.. I love this
song.. What better music for a comp.
sci. than "math rock" as Flans put it?
Night Night Security - Cool new song, about
wanting to be a night security guard.
Flans says it's based on experiences
in his younger days working in a booth
in a parking lot.
Careless Careless Santa - Much better live than
on the album, in my opinion.
Felt Tip Felt Tip Pen - Love it...
Dr. Kildare Dr. Kildare - SKA Rules... What more
can I say?
On The Drag On The Drag - Another new one..
As Flans put it, "You can have country
friends, you can have city friends, but
you have to move to New York to have
shitty friends." Great song all around.
Everything Hmmm... This is on the set list, but
I don't remember hearing it, and can't
come up with anything off the album that
it could be... *confused look*
Hit My Head Unsupervised, I Hit My Head - Wonderful.
I had the funny urge to show up to a MP
concert with a big bandage on my head.
Mankind To Serve Mankind - Seeing Flans do the
vocal duet with the trombone player just
made my evening... :->
Bad Liquor Bad Liquor - Another new one.. Really
cool...
Devil Devil Went Down To Newport - Wow.
Pure and simple, WOW.
-------- ENCORE.
S-E-X-X-Y The live version is far, far better than
the studio version... Intro'd in KC
with: "This goes out to my one true
love...the latest."
NYC I LOVE THIS SONG. "Everyone's your
friend in New York City..."
The Kansas City show was a bit of a letdown, 'cuz it was outdoors,
only a 45 minute set, and the crowd just wasn't very responsive... It was
an abridged set with NYC and S-E-X-X-Y thrown in the midst of things, and
no encore. Interesting things about this set:
Drummer was not Steve Calhoun for either show.. As Flans introduced
him, "The next president of the United States, Mr. Joseph Stalin!", otherwise
known as Brian Doherty, was drummer for MP both nights... Umm... Flans was
sporting his "Bohemian mousetrap hair thing" at both shows, (in other words
he needed to shave... (Those were his words... :-> )
The coolest part of it, though, was getting to get my DWDTN single
autographed by everyone but the horn player, who ran off after both shows
without a word... :-< And contrary to popular belief around here, John is
not at all a jerk, actually one of the more personable musicians I've met...
Brian was really cool too, he hung out and talked for about 15 minutes...
Anyway, enough rambling... Just thought I'd fill everybody in about one
of the cooler weekends in my life... MonoPuff twice, Jars Of Clay, The BoDeans,
and Soul Asylum, all for $10 in one weekend... Lots of driving, but it was well
worth it...
JF
(Who can't wait till
PointFest next weekend.
Flans & Doherty 3 times
in a week!)
--
Justin Ferguson - CS - jf...@acm.cs.umr.edu - http://acm.cs.umr.edu/~jferg
--- "The world is a verb, not a noun" - The Illuminati Trilogy ---
"..the possibility exists no matter how scary it may seem that paradise was
once the world and it wasn't just a dream..the earth was our heaven and we
didn't know there were rules for us to break and maybe now we'll find out
too late what a clever hell we can make.." - Blues Traveler - "Whoops"
Jeff Gustafson
> -------- ENCORE.
> S-E-X-X-Y The live version is far, far better than
> the studio version... Intro'd in KC
> with: "This goes out to my one true
> love...the latest."
Lawrence P Solomon
Excerpts from netnews.alt.music.tmbg: 2-Sep-96 REVIEW: Mono Puff - 8-31
an.. by Justin C. Ferguson@acm.c
> As Flans put it, "You can have
> country friends, you can have city
> friends, but you have to move to
> New York to have shitty friends."
> Great song all around.
This is a They Might Be Giants song.
> S-E-X-X-Y The live version is far, far better
> than the studio version... Intro'd
> in KC with: "This goes out to my
> one true love...the latest."
As is this.
What's going on here? It seems to me like TMBG and Mono Puff are
merging into one large band... first They get Mono Puff's trombonist to
play on the mini-tour. Then TMBG's drummer takes over on drums in Mono
Puff. What's next - Linnell touring with MP so they can play
Tryptophane?
PACQUISTO
I was at the Mississippi Nights show too( I was the one in the hello shirt
in the center toard the front) I agre the show would have been much better
if there was a better soundman. Everything Happens to Me was the very
slow song that sounded like a song someone would sing in a restraunt to
like a piano acompanyment or something. Hillbilliy Drummer Girl was a
Young Fresh fellows cover and bad liquer was an American Music club song.
If you have or know anyone with pointfest tickets for sale I will buy one
and give you a BONUS SURPRISE!!! Please time is running out (marching
on).
nick