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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
 Posted - 11/24/2002 : 12:56:40
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Here's my little review of the past three days, for what it's worth. Overall I had a lot of fun, and it was good to see FB for the first time in 2 years. It was also very cool to meet up with fellow Plainers Pete, Jack, Lisa, Jake, and sort of Mike (I didn't get a chance to say much more than "hey"...he disappeared after the show!). Everyone was all very nice and very cool, and I look forward to seeing you all again. Eric, you better have a very good reason for why you weren't there! I also found out through talking to Jake at the in-store (for which I showed up late for) that he is frank39_1999. I had no idea! I knew him as "Bohemoth" from long ago but I never made the connection between the three names...weird. I'll try to separate the different events on the different days, but I might get confused.
Overall highlights: Being backstage in general, getting to talk to the bands (minus most of FB&TC), David Lovering is the coolest, nicest guy (and his show is hilarious, interesting too), meeting AP members, Charles remembering who I was (see the second DC review)
Philly: I don't know what it was...perhaps a culmination of several things. I worked early and had been waking up early the past few days, so I was generally tired. I didn't really eat anything healthy all day. The weather was mad shitty. So overall, I wasn't in the greatest of moods. A random thought...we saw Rich Gilbert on South Street talking on a payphone...actually, I think he had his cell phone up to the pay phone. Meeting the AP'rs made me happier, but I was still tired. I was probably standing for 6 hours straight. Before the show I got to hang out a little backstage and Jeremy (re)introduced me to the Reid Paley trio (I mentioned to them that we met before at the 9:30 Club to which they replied 'wow, that was so long ago' or something to that effect). They are cool as hell. He also introduced me to David Lovering, who is just as cool...he's a very very very nice guy, and he remembers your name. When he introduced me to him, Dave said "Hey Jim, I'm David" and I kinda chuckled and was a little shocked and said "Yeah, I know!" How could I not? The opening acts were very good. I've always enjoyed Reid Paley, no need to mention The Bennies (ok, they were tight and totally on...the sound wasn't that great tho), and it was my first time seeing Lovering. I was laughing my ass off...he was just very funny. FB&TC's set was disappointing, I have to admit. Of all the shows I've seen of them (6 now, including this weekend), it was definitely the poorest. Apparently FB was drunk before the show, that may have been a factor. The crowd was pretty damn small and disappointing (I actually had open spots around me), and the song selection tended to lean towards the more mellow side. I really wasn't in the mood to hear anything new, nor did I want to hear a ton of Pixies songs (I did want to hear Gouge Away, which I was happy they opened with...Wave and Monkey are two of my least favorite Pixies songs), but he did both. It was annoying to see how crazy the people went for the Pixies songs and how...mediocre their reaction was to the rest of the set. Honestly, I was just kind of anxious for the show to end. But I have to hand it to them...the opening of the show blew me away (see the setlists elsewhere), and they redeemed the ending of the show with Black Rider. Between songs, Frank also told a little story about The Bennies, how they were "from nowhere. They're looking for a new town, like Austin...or Boston...or something that rhymes with Austin or Boston." He was talking about how he didn't see anything wrong with Pennsylvania, but The Bennies wanted to move somewhere else...something like that. Very amusing. They were obviously not in the mood to do an encore (in fact, I was shocked when I turned around and noticed that at least 25% of the crowd had left), so FB came out and lent a half-assed Mr. Grieves. I had my fingers crossed that the following nights would be much better.
DC (22nd): We (my girlfriend and I) made good timing to this one and ended up getting a really good deal on a nice hotel so we could stay overnight, do the town in the afternoon and the show the following night. We drove home from Philly the night before (I hate the drive...the sleepiness and the fog...deadly combo) and decided it would be in our best interest not to do it again (although from DC it's only about an hour and a half, two at the most). We arrived at the hotel and about an hour after that we left for the club. Nothing too exciting, but waiting at the bar, we did see Dave Philips play a game of pinball. Eventually Jeremy came and I got my band stamp and went backstage. Jake had a chance to see the FB&TC soundcheck, and I got to say hey to him when I went upstairs to see what was happening. The preshow backstage antics were pretty uneventful. I can't really remember anything worth repeating here. Tonight the opening acts were just as good, and the sound was much better. David Lovering was having a couple problems with his equipment, but nothing that completely affected the show. He was really good at improvising around it. Some jerk was yelling "Where's Frank?" a couple times, to which one girl replied "Shut up, ass" after a few times. FB&TC were totally on tonight...their set was amazing. Excellent song selection, and not any noticeable lulls in the set. Out of all the new songs, Nadine is definitely my favorite. It rocks for sure. The others are definitely more mellow, and I might appreciate them more on the album than I would live. I really enjoyed the set, but the encore definitely took the cake. They ended up playing pretty much the same rockin sequence of songs that they did at the start of the show the previous night...including Thallasocracy, Crackity Jones, and I Want Rock & Roll...it was one after another rocking hard as hell. And this was the end of the show...it almost seemed like a "to be continued tommorow night" kinda thing...it left you wanting more. We hung out a little back stage. I was too nervous to really talk to Charles or any of the other Catholics. I didn't know what to say really, and I didn't want to bother Charles too much. We were all just hangin out and chitchatting...talked to Bob (Reid Paley bassist) about Detroit and how Eminem and Kid Rock really aren't from Detroit, babble babble. Brett's (Bennies drummer) sister was pretty funny talking to Charles. She started off with "Do you know who I am?" to which Charles seemed kind of surprised...she told him she was Brett's sister and how she loved his music and that Brett introduced her to it, to which I think he replied with a thanks. He seemed to be in a happy mood then. I believe his brothers were there that night too...they're pretty young. One of them is 20, and the other doesn't look much older or younger. You can see a vague resemblance but if you saw them otherwise, I don't think you'd make the connection. They didn't say a word.
DC (23rd): The day on the city was alright. Fucking cold, though. It started off with me being late for the instore...By the time we got there (city driving sucks) it was 1:50 and he was already wrapping up his cables. I was really disappointed because I've always wanted to see him play solo and talk about his songs...he must not have done a lot of that if he only played 20 minutes...unless he started early, I don't know. What made things worse was that I think he kinda blew me off. I was really nervous when I went up to get a posted signed, and I said something along the lines of "Hey, do you remember me from last night?" "No" "I didn't think so..I'm Jim, I'm with The Bennies. I used to play guitar for them. Do you remember the AbstractPlain mailing list?" "Yeah" "I'm the owner of that too...you made a real difference in my life and this is just my way of repaying you." "..." "Can I get a poster signed?" As he signed it, I also mentioned I was one of the frankblack.net guys. "Sure. *he signs...he notices there's a little coffee spill at the bottom* There's a little bit of my espresso on there...(something something something.)" "Oh, that's fine, it makes it a little more special. Thanks a lot...see you tonight." I just felt really sad after that, to be kinda like...looked at like..."alllllright..." I don't know, I guess I don't blame him. After that, walking around the store, "How You Went So Far" came on and I wanted to cry. I was so emotional after meeting this guy (again) that I very much love his music...what a baby. That put a little damper on my day. My girlfriend and I then went to eat lunch (at a place called The Frontpage...very good food and not very expensive. Killer French onion soup). I think after that we went to meet the rest of the crew (jeremy, jack, brett, my sister [brett's girlfriend], and becca [jack's girlfriend]). We went to the Museum of Natural History and spent a little time there before they closed (at 5:30? Jerks). We then went to find some place to sit down...we split up...found an alright place then went to the club. We caught up with everyone else and went to this really good Salvidorean place down the street from the Black Cat. The service is TOP KNOTCH (these people are REALLY nice...). I didn't have anything but chips and salsa...they kept bringing more and more out, which was really cool of them. We then met up with Jack and Becca at the club and I helped them setup as usual (tune guitars) for their soundcheck. Nothing too exciting backstage. David Lovering came to The Bennies dressing room where me, my girlfriend, sister, and two friends were hanging out. We all just chatted a little bit. He told us how he found a mouse or something somewhere in or near his hotel room so they gave him two nights free. During the soundcheck, Brett was having troubles with his headset mic, so they had to switch over to a regular one. That mic has always been a huge pain in the ass. During the sound check and testing David Lovering walked past in front of me, looked at me and said "Jim, right?" and I gave a surprised "Yeah!" I didn't catch all of the opening acts...I missed half of Dave's set and all of Reid's. The Bennies set was interesting...Jeremy has two guitars. He broke a string near the end of one song, so switched over to the other. He then broke ANOTHER string on the second guitar, halfway through the next song...I had no idea what to do, and I don't think they did either. The most wild fucking coincedence ever, this kid pulls out a guitar and hands it to him...Jeremy asked if anyone had a guitar and he's like "I do!" and just pulls it out...that was fucking luck right there. He apparently brought it to be signed. I grabbed one of Jeremy's guitars and took it backstage to replace the string. Down in the dressing room, I asked Jim (drummer for Reid Paley) if they had a tuner down there. Rich Gilbert was talking with Jim and offered to do it...I was like "Woah, yeah! I'd trust your ears more than mine." He did it quickly and easily, and went on to tell a story about how the dial tone on phones is an F, so if you ever need to tune your guitar, just tune the first fret on the E to the phone and you'll be set. Very useful fact. The random audience guitar got him through the rest of the set. Afterwards I went to the kid and told him I could get them to sign it. I got Dave and Rich to sign it, but Charles and the rest of the crew weren't there yet. I also had The Bennies sign the back. I also had David Lovering sign the "set times" sign for my former drummer Paul, who lists DL as one of his top three drummers. I told David about it, to which he replied "Nice!" What a nice guy! Before FB&TC went on, Charles completed the fan's guitar by signing it, and introduced Jeremy to his brothers. The FB&TC set was just as good as the night before. He luckily played a number of different songs from the night before, and I was happy to see a few that I hadn't seen before. I watched both DC shows from backstage (the side of the stage) and was able to see him mouth the names of the songs sometimes...one of which was "Horrible Day." So I think it's safe to call the song "Horrible Day" now. They played a really good show and rocked really hard. The encore wasn't as powerful as the night before, but I don't blame them. They did end with "Black Rider" though, which was more than enough for me. FB was in a really happy mood at the end, he was obviously very into it. He said something like "Thanks for coming out...we really appreciate it...we really appreciate it. Thanks a lot." That was really cool to see him say, cause he doesn't talk a whole lot during the shows. Another little factoid, I saw someone video taping near the front at the beginning of the show...I kinda lost sight of him after a while, so I don't know if he was busted or not. Backstage after the show was cool. Charles redeemed himself. I went down to the dressing room to grab my coat. This crazy annoying girl who somehow got permission backstage got ahead of me down the stairs...when I got down the stairs I saw none other than Charles Thompson standing in The Bennies dressing room on a cell phone...wow! The crazy girl began babbling to him about some shit or other...she was looking for someone or something or some shit and Charles was obviously very annoyed and pissed off. I guess she then grabbed a beer from The Bennies dressing room and left. I slipped past Charles with an "excuse me" and grabbed my coat, planning on just grabbing and leaving and avoiding being blown off or annoying him any further. As I stepped in he said to me "I know *YOU'RE* supposed to be here...who was that?" I replied with an "I have *no* idea!" and he said something about her stealing The Bennies alcohal or something...I smiled and slipped past him as he resumed his phone call. WOW! He remembered me! That's pretty much all I needed. Maybe someday in the future he'll remember me again...doubt it from sight, but if I reitroduce myself I might not get blown off. That was very cool. I said goodbye to David Lovering, told him how nice it was to meet him. Before I left, I also had a chance to say hey to Scott. "Hey, I'm El Barto from the frankblack.net message board." He looked like he was thinking, trying to remember "I doubt you'd remember, but we talked briefly about 'Everyone Is Wrong'..." he was thinking more "I don't really look at anybody's name, but yeah, I remember." "Cool. I just wanted to say hey and great show man...seeya." He's an OK guy. That about ended my night...we took care of business (got the CDs and money), packed in and left. So ended my three day tour.
Overall band member impressions: All the opening band members are cool as hell...Rich Gilbert and Dave Philips are cool as hell...I never spoke to Dave McCaffrey. Frank Black has his moments of cool. He's very moody, and I guess it matters who you are and when you talk to him that he'll actually seem nice. Scott seems a little iffy too.
www.thebennies.com |
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Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2002 : 15:21:28
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| Hey Jim, thanks for the report, glad you got a happy ending! =) |
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Grieves
- FB Fan -
USA
33 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2002 : 17:46:11
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As I was picking up my tickets for the Saturday show, this guy in front of me was picking up guest tickets (he was on frank's list). He had a video cam and the guy doling out tickets told him that he had been instructed by the band that he could only tape the first five songs. So I think the guy you saw was him. Maybe hopefully the vids will show up somewhere (like maybe the ftp site- wink wink).
~Grieves |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2002 : 17:47:37
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Ahh, well that would explain everything. Interesting...
www.thebennies.com |
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billgoodman
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Netherlands
6196 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2002 : 02:49:26
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In Holland, the phones give an A, I use that trick of Rich all the time.
Great review, El barto
Yop |
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Little Black Francis
> Teenager of the Year <
3648 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2002 : 04:22:19
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i thought the the dial tone was an E
"Snooch to the muthaf**kin Nooch" |
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Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2002 : 09:44:53
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| Noted this on the AP list, but i believe it's an F all across Canada. Definately here. |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2002 : 11:26:25
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I double checked and it's definitely an F here in PA.
www.thebennies.com |
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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2002 : 12:34:24
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| Thanks for the reviews El Barto. I take it that there was no chance to conduct an interview? |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2002 : 07:28:27
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Ahh I forgot to mention it...nah, there really wasn't much time to do it. Charles would pretty much show up from who knows where just before they go on, and we were anxious to get out of the shows after they finished (sleep is good). Maybe someday I'll get to...I wasn't prepared anyway. Him seemingly blowing me off didn't help either.
www.thebennies.com |
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Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2002 : 08:42:02
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| Maybe they've been following the Forum and he was afraid of you....knowing you had that huge list of questions...heh.. =P |
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BrendanT
= Cult of Ray =
Canada
907 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2002 : 09:48:49
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Nicely written review. Thanks for your honesty. Very cool!
Strummer-man
I had me a vision!
Why should I leave America for America junior? |
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ramona
"FB Quote Mistress"
USA
3988 Posts |
Posted - 11/26/2002 : 10:55:10
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| Very cool...thanks for all that. I am now OFFICIALLY pumped for tomorrow night! Woo! |
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Grieves
- FB Fan -
USA
33 Posts |
Posted - 12/01/2002 : 07:22:46
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| I almost forgot that Frank and the Catholics covered "Dirty Old Town" on Saturday. |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 12/01/2002 : 08:31:47
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I wonder where the setlists are for the DC shows. I saw Bohemoth taking the setlist for Saturday and some kid taking one for Friday...come on people!
www.thebennies.com |
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