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May. 19th, 2008 @ 08:27 am Another JoCo show
Current Mood: Woo-hoo!
Jonathan Coulton played the House of Blues last night. Yessir, our little JoCo is all grown up and playing big-name venues now. Wow. The show was just great. I always enjoy watching him play guitar, even though I don't play myself. And he was really in fine voice. I could listen to him sing for hours (and have!).

Random highlights:
- During "Opening Band," JadeSnake (aka [info]shademoonrunner) and I both threw panties. I threw a chocolate thong (the first edible panty in the collection, I believe) and she, something in a racy little boy short. Song lyrics were altered accordingly. :-D
- My friend Rick got the first Paul and Storm prize of the night for heckling them. The theme for the evening's prizes (which I understand was the same the previous night in San Diego) was snack foods with vaguely sexual names. Rick got some Dunkin' Sticks. And Paul called him a "sarcastic bastard." :-)
- [info]keltraine  got some Corn Nuts for wearing his P&S T-shirt. A comment was made (Paul? Storm? JoCo?) about having had corn nuts once, but the ointment cleared it right up.
- My sister and I got a Butterfinger for my boxing nun sparring with her creepy doll during the intro to "Nun Fight." Paul said something like, "Is this turning into some kind of Rocky Horror thing? That's great!" Paul also said something about "Butterfinger for Two" being the name of his porn film, which Storm assured us could probably be found on the YouTubes.
- At some point, Paul or Storm riffed on some comment and said that would be the name of his speed-metal band. JoCo asked if there would be an umlaut over some vowel. Paul answered that there would be an umlaut over the R. "And there's a 3 in it."
- This was my first time seeing the Tenori-On, which JoCo used for "My Monkey." Shweet!
- JoCo: "Who's taking notes for the wiki?"
- After "Creepy Doll," I gave JoCo an Ugly Doll, which is not technically a creepy doll, but JC conceded that it was, in fact, still kinda creepy.
- That part where they all got naked.
- As JoCo announced the last song of his set, someone in the audience asked, "What month is it?" To which JoCo replied that after the song was over, we would all clap, and then he would come out again and do some more songs. Went on to announce his "last song" (using air quotes) saying, "Who are we kidding? We know what's going on here."
- During the "Sweet Caroline" encore, Paul did several tambourine tosses during the "bamp, bamp, bam" sections, to much applause.
- Sometime before or after "First of May," an audience comment prompted JoCo to say, "I'm sorry, I'm not going to have sex with your mom." Then, "I get that request a lot."
- After the show, as the crew was striking the stage, one of them picked up the Tenori-On and was checking it out in earnest.

Once the show was over, we waited by the merch table for JC, Paul and Storm to come out, but they didn't. Then we were shoo'd out by HOB personnel. We waited outside with the folks who were waiting for their valet-parked cars. Still nothing. When we had finally given up hope and thought about heading back to our cars, keltraine shouted, "Hey! Look who I found!" There were only a few of us left at that point. Paul admired my boxing nun, which he said he read about me bringing on the forum. JoCo played with my creepy doll, which has antennae, warts and snap-on, interchangeable limbs. He was slightly alarmed when I yanked one of its arms off. :-) I showed him the shirt I made (but didn't wear), at which he laughed and said it was excellent or awesome or some other superlative. JadeSnake gave him the wifty indigo monkey she made.

The set list for the night can be found at JoCopedia, the JoCo wiki (yes, really). I was slightly disappointed that, once again, he didn't play "Make You Cry." He has played this live before, though never in LA, but I guess no more. :-( I was also hoping for a chance to be the computer voice in "Chiron Beta Prime," but that wasn't on the list either. However, I did get to hear "Big Bad World One," "My Monkey" and "Soft Rocked by Me," which I don't think I've heard live before.

The House of Blues has a strict "no cameras" policy, which can apparently be thwarted by having dinner in the restaurant and then entering the music hall via the elevator. I did not intend to sneak my camera in this way, but that's how it happened. My illicit pics. Let me show you it. Here I am with JoCo and my sister, giving Dr. Coulton a hug, just like Paul said. Paul and Storm ran off before I took my camera out, so no pics.



The LA vibe is a little odd. The last show I went to was the Big DVD Show (tm) in San Francisco. The San Franciscans are definitely a more high-energy (read rabid) crowd than their southern brethren. I thought it was just the venue last time, but this confirms it - the LA JoCo crowd is pretty mellow. Mostly, folks sat in their seats and listened and appreciated. Not too much singing along except on "Skullcrusher Mountain" and "Still Alive." And just one "Arrr!" during JoCo's set, as far as I remember. My guess, from the way the LA audience has grown over the last couple of years, is that many of the folks at last night's show are probably post-Portal fans. The show was fun. Folks definitely enjoyed themselves. There was much applause and hooting and such, but it was not even close to the crazy JoCo love-fest that was the DVD show.

Any of you other folks who attended, please leave comments and fill in the gaps in my memory. Thanks!
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From:[info]mtgordon
Date: May 19th, 2008 05:25 pm (UTC)
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Good for Rick!

"And there's a 3 in it." That's a reference to Gle3nn, I suppose? I seem to recall him saying he wouldn't be able to make it to this one.
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From:[info]colleenky
Date: May 19th, 2008 05:48 pm (UTC)
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Could just be a generic Tom Lehrer reference, but could be a shout-out to Gle3nn. :-)Yes, this was a Gle3nn-free LA show. A first.
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From:[info]postgoodism
Date: May 19th, 2008 08:07 pm (UTC)
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I quite enjoyed the live rendition of "Soft Rocked By Me", which degenerated into a little three-way medley of various popular songs over the soft-rocking chord sequence (Tequila Sunrise, Closing Time, Blue Bayou, Opening Band, Skullcrusher Mountain...heck, you wrote 'em down). I'm curious whether that portion was all improvised; on one hand, it didn't seem terribly polished or well-rehearsed, but my cynical side insists that in live entertainment, nothing is left to chance. In any case, I could see that gimmick becoming a future live staple.

The Big San Francisco DVD Show show may have been higher-energy simply because it was the Big San Francisco DVD Show. That sort of performance would tend to attact the hardest of the hardcore fans from all over the country. If you're the kind of person who'll travel hundreds of miles to attend a concert, you're probably not going to spend the show sitting quietly in your seat doing the hipster head-bob.
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From:[info]colleenky
Date: May 19th, 2008 08:14 pm (UTC)
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1) They have done variations of that medley before, though I don't think it's ever quite the same twice.

2) I'm told by SF locals that all their shows are pretty raucus, and I seem to recall that JoCo's blog posts have reflected that too. Maybe not as rowdy as the DVD show, but the LA audience is generally tame by comparison.
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From:[info]jhonen_red
Date: May 19th, 2008 09:10 pm (UTC)
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I thought it was a great show, if a little subdued. It sounds like you guys were responsible for a lot of the cool audience participation stuff -- thanks for adding some awesome. :)

I have an audio recording of the full show, which I'll see if I can get uploaded somewhere. I wish I'd known about the elevator trick, as I'd have brought my camera too.

It's a shame you didn't get any pictures of the part where they all got naked. That was awesome.
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From:[info]colleenky
Date: May 19th, 2008 09:15 pm (UTC)
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I'm glad you thought that our participation was awesome and not a horrible distraction from the main event. I didn't know about the elevator trick beforehand. It just sorta happened that way. And the naked part - total coolness.

Thanks for stopping by! :-)
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From:[info]donaithnen
Date: May 20th, 2008 07:49 pm (UTC)
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"I thought it was just the venue last time, but this confirms it - the LA JoCo crowd is pretty mellow. Mostly, folks sat in their seats and listened and appreciated. Not too much singing along except on "Skullcrusher Mountain" and "Still Alive.""

Yeah, WTH was up with that?? First i was disappointed because there were actually _chairs_ there filling up what should have been the standing/dancing/going wild area, and then except for the cheering between acts and the specifically requested audience participation segments practically everyone sat in said chairs stiffly and silently, staring up at the stage the entire time like they'd all been hypnotized into immobility! Not to malign Coulton's magical powers, but i don't think "turning people into stone" is supposed to be one of them =P

I sung along to most of the songs myself when i could remember the lyrics, but i tried to keep it quiet because i didn't want to be the only loud person in my entire section =P
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From:[info]colleenky
Date: May 20th, 2008 09:08 pm (UTC)
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Trust me, it's not the chairs. The DVD show was a seated show (most JoCo shows are) and the folks there went nucking futs (myself included).

At this show, I brought a bag of goodies (chocolate thong, creepy dolls, boxing nun) and sang along with all the songs, usually in harmony. Of course, many of us in the group I was with have been to all four of JoCo's LA shows. We're kinda hard-core, which may explain why we got three of the Paul and Storm snack gifts.

All that being said, folks who have been to JoCo shows that were rife with pirate noises and unfunny audience quips might appreciate the opportunity to sit and simply listen to the music. :-)
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From:[info]randbot
Date: May 20th, 2008 11:36 pm (UTC)
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Hey, your photoset just got namedropped in the Sound of Young America blog! If you saw a very nattily-dressed twentysomething man, you might have seen Public Radio's Jesse Thorn!

How long has JoCo had that Tenori-Oh thing? Betweeen that and the Zendrum, apparently he is using his fame as an excuse to purchase all of his music-geek fantasy toys... a strategy I approve of wholeheartedly, of course.
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From:[info]colleenky
Date: May 21st, 2008 12:41 am (UTC)
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[I'm just gonna retype this.]

Wow. I think this may be the closest I'm ever going to get to being hip! Alas, I did not see the young, natty Jesse Thorn at the show. :-(

JoCo picked up the Tenori-On in the UK for his London show in March.
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From:[info]tvskyle
Date: May 21st, 2008 08:56 am (UTC)
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For those keeping really tight notes, the comment from the audience about her mom loving "First of May" was my girlfriend, Lindsay Smith. She's best known as the creator of the webcomic "Daisy is Dead". Her mom is awesome and plays the ukulele.

I generally like singing along more, but if the rest of the audience isn't doing so, as they weren't here, I hesitate out of fear of being the jackass who's singing along too loud.

I don't know if he usually does so, but I enjoyed the hell out of getting Rickrolled during Fancypants.
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From:[info]colleenky
Date: May 21st, 2008 05:54 pm (UTC)
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Awesome! Yes, the record must be complete! Thanks for contributing. :-)

The rickroll started on May 1 this year during First of May at the Minneapolis show. It has since been incorporated into Mr. Fancy Pants.
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From:[info]jhonen_red
Date: June 10th, 2008 06:31 pm (UTC)
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It's been a while, but I thought I'd add a link to my mp3s of this show.
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From:[info]colleenky
Date: June 10th, 2008 06:46 pm (UTC)
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Yay! Thanks!

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