So I've been working on my friends page etiquette. There's a lot of material behind the following cuts.

In sum: it was an excellent show.

Setlist:
Orff intro / Violin / John Lee Supertaster / Why Does the Sun Shine? / Birdhouse in Your Soul / Wicked Little Critta / Particle Man / The Famous Polka / Drink! / Doctor Worm / Boss of Me / Older / Cyclops Rock / Ana Ng / Theme from the Monkees / In the Middle, in the Middle, in the Middle / Fingertips / Spider / The Guitar / She's an Angel / No! / Clap Your Hands / Jazz Waltz (thank you for coming to the show) / New York City // She's Actual Size / (Sleepwalkers was written on the setlist but not played)

Setlist scan, photos, videos, the same mp3s that are linked above available here.

Now, the details:

We went to Naperville:
So wallacecat and I drove off across Chicagoland, hitting the usual traffic on 290, with the added annoyance of traffic for the Chicago Jazz Festival. We did a lot of traveling on interstates last week coming back from the Poconos and saw a lot of crazy driving, but for some reason I'm a lot more comfortable with the crazy driving of the urban highways of Chicago. I suppose it's because I know my enemy here.

Anyway, what with the traffic I was afraid I'd be too late to get a good spot, but we still got there in plenty of time, though I just missed the soundcheck, which apparently took place around 3. At the entrance to the concert area wallacecat and I parted ways temporarily; like other, actual cats, he doesn't like loud noises and so chose to skip the show and look for a quiet place to read. Afterwards we speculated that had he known that the evening population of Naperville consists entirely of noisy, rich teenagers with entitlement issues, he might have preferred to be at the concert, especially since there was ample beer available.

The area where the concert was to take place was called Rotary Hill and it was described somewhere as a "sledding hill." Indeed, there was a fine-sized hill (well, it was pretty big for the Midwest, okay?), but the most wondrous thing about it was that it was entirely covered with felt, well-secured with lots of duct tape. I suppose the Naperville Park District wanted to protect the grass from the rabid Soul Asylum fans.

The stage was some way down from the bottom of the hill, flanked on one side by a row of porta-potties and on the other by a string of concession stands featuring those carnival favorites: the aforementioned beer, funnel cakes, pizza and deep-fried Twinkies (!), which Linnell would comment on during the show.

I got a good spot front and slightly stage-right of center and settled in to wait. The crowd was still pretty thin--the first opener hadn't come on yet. Dan Miller came out onstage and started playing his acoustic guitar and frowning about how it sounded. He was wearing sunglasses. After that he went and stood by the t-shirt stand having a smoke, and I thought about approaching him, but the only thing I had for him to sign was a copy of Antoine Compagnon's book Le Démon de la théorie, which hardly seemed appropriate. Nonetheless, the novelty factor of the idea was somewhat attractive, but by the time I'd made up my mind to it Dan had disappeared somewhere.

There was this boy nearby who looked startlingly like the lead singer of Eve 6, whom I'd seen open for TMBG in St Louis. Things got more weird when the couple next to me and I realized that we had been right next to each other at that St Louis show as well. (The first time the woman screamed during the TMBG set later, I knew for sure it was her.)

The first opener, Bottle of Justus, came out and played. They weren't bad at all. The lead guitarist looked a bit like Paul Rudd and he had a beautiful dark blue PRS that matched his blue t-shirt. They did rather a nice cover of Penny Lane.

But finally they left and we all stood up and pressed toward the front. They started just a bit after 6pm.

They played a damn fine show:
The weather was pretty nice and the crowd seemed quite enthusiastic. There were a lot of families with small children in the audience; it took about ten minutes for Flans's first utterance of the word "fuck" and about ten minutes after that for him to make the announcement, "Some kind man has put this note on my amp: 'This show is rated G.'" Despite the swearing ban, the Johns were both very talkative and everybody onstage seemed to be having a great time (except for Hickey, but he always looks angry about something).

They opened with Violin and had the crowd do the wave. This was actually a pretty amazing moment: Flans instructed us that the wave had to travel from the front all the way to the back, to the people who were up on that felt-covered hill. The top of that hill was at least a hundred yards away from the stage. But, improbably, the gimmick worked fairly well, and seeing and hearing the wave returning from the back was quite cool.

Why Does the Sun Shine? featured the first of many mentions of funnel cakes in the show. It also featured Dan Miller's Simpsons riff. I love that. Flans had the names of various Chicago suburbs written, very large, on his forearm and didn't even try to hide the fact he was reading off his cheat sheet as he did that part.

Wicked Little Critta:
JF: This next song comes from our second live album, International Accents, where we did every song in a phony voice. Of course it was unreleased by our fascist record company...This next song features the New England vocal stylings of the next President of the United States, Mr John Linnell!
JL: (with phony southern accent) I'm gonna sing this song in my real voice, instead of this phony southern accent!
JF: No, John, they can't handle the real voice! They're nice people, they're happy people, and when you start talking in your real voice it's just so fucked up!
JL: I can't help it, I gotta keep it real, I gotta sing it in the Dorchester accent.

Particle Man:
JF: You know, the risk is when you've been in a band for twenty years, you might get into that whole slick, over-rehearsed thing. That is not a problem in this band. There'll be no compromises. And there will be no rehearsals. Here's a song we barely know how to play, celebrating its 1000th performance here tonight.

The barrier was really far away from the stage, so during the Famous Polka, instead of holding his guitar out to the audience, Flans rubbed it against his mic stand. It sounded much like it would have if the audience had been playing it. Also, I think it was during this song, Danny reached over and played a couple notes on the keyboard and then bent down and played a note with his face. The song ended a little chaotically and Linnell said, "I think I would have gotten to the end at the same time as you guys but for that one last deep-fried Twinkie. You had eight; I had nine." To which Flans replied, "A lot of bands pride themselves on ending a song at the same time. We feel if you get there first, you've won."

After that Flans made the announcement about the show being G-rated. He added, "We found out that kids like cursing, it's just the parents that are afraid of the cursing. And that's because--the parents are made of candy. And some of the parents are very, very thirsty. This song is about parents who are so very, very thirsty that they'll drink almost anything. It's not a song for children at all. So if the children want to leave for one--show, we'll get back to the adult stuff we've been doing our entire lives. This song is called Drink! and it's in the universal key of the thirsty. It's a very slow song, it's not a lot of fun--for kids, but I think there are a lot of adults in the audience who will understand every word I say no matter how quickly I say it." He then introduced Dan Miller on the acoustic guitar:
JF: Dan's role on the International Accents album was phenomenal.
DM: [looks puzzled]
JF: (in a mock aside) Just roll with it.

Doctor Worm:
JL: So a lot of bands play songs about worms. Some shows, every song is about a worm.
JF: We hate those bands!
JL: I was gonna say, we respect those bands. But no, we hate those bands!
During his solo, Flans went over to where Miller was playing the keyboard, then Danny came up on Miller's other side, and the two of them sort of squeezed Miller between them and he was kind of crawling around on the floor to get away. It was very weird and strangely amusing. (And I have a video of the moment on my website.)

Fingertips:
JF: This song contains many, many other songs jammed inside it. It's like being at seven different shows, some of which you would never want to go to and you're so happy you get to leave right away. But that's what shows are like for us all the time.
crowd: (discontentedly) Aw!
JL: (quickly) But not this time! And I'm not just saying that because you guys are all here and would cut our heads off.
JF: No, I'm talking about when we go to shows. Like when we go to look at other bands? That we hate?
JL: Yeah, that's what I was talking about too.
JF: Don't start flipping the script, John.
JL: I"m reading the words on the teleprompter that say, "I'm reading the words on the teleprompter."
DM: [cracks up]
JF: Here's the song that we like to call Side Three of Wheels on Fire by Cream.

Spider was some good shit.

There was a new bit in The Guitar: for the solo, Flans announced that he wanted to hear the "future of sound." This involved Linnell howling into his mic and doing something on the kaoss pad at the same time. "This is what your kids are going to be listening to in 2020," Flans told us. "It's what you'll be pretending that you like."

Before She's an Angel, Flans had to tune. Miller was playing a melancholy country sort of background tune, and whenever Flans said anything, Linnell would echo him quietly.
JF: I'm gonna talk and tune at the same time, like I'm in a jam band. And I was thinking, what would be a better name for a jam band, Funnel Cakes or Curly Fries?
crowd: Funnel Cakes! Curly Fries! (etc.)
JF: Hold on, I couldn't hear it. What was the consensus?
crowd: [indeterminate shouts]
JL: RUH HA HEEAY!
JF: We've changed the name of our band to the unpronounceable RUH HA HEEAY! Actually, I think that's what happens when there are a few people yelling Curly Fries and most people yelling Funnel Cakes.
JL: I was hearing some deep-fried twinkies in there.

No:
JL: So we have this record for kids. A lot of people don't believe that we're appropriate for kids anymore, because of the legacy of the cursing. But we're trying to redress that, god damn it.
Dan Miller made some awful sound with his guitar partway through the song and looked really embarrassed and disgusted. He bounced back from his mistake, though.

Clap Your Hands:
JF: Old people, stomp your feet!...Funnel cakes, jump in the air!...Everybody scream! Shy people scream! (pointing the mic up at the sledding hill:) Mountain people scream! (pointing it back down toward the front:) Valley people scream!

The guy next to me had told me there was another guy there with a hubcap he'd gotten signed by the band. When Flans did the thank you for coming to the show song, he picked that guy out: "Guy with the stolen hubcap, there's someone so mad at you, it's unbelievable."

When They came back for the encore, Flans explained that Sandman Sims from Live at the Apollo was waiting in the wings ready to drag Them off, but that They weren't afraid and were going to do their longest, slowest songs. I was hoping that meant Istanbul, but instead it was She's Actual Size, with dial-a-drum solos and all. I'd have much preferred it if They'd skipped that one and done Sleepwalkers instead, which was on the setlist after She's Actual Size.

After that Flans introduced the band again. He called Linnell "MC John Linnell." He forgot to name Hickey, and Danny motioned at him to remind him, but Flans ignored him. Before he left the stage, Flans said They'd be back in December. Yay!

The show was over:
And the loitering around and begging for setlists, picks, etc. began. One guy requested a piece of tape off the stage (and got it). The stage was really far away from the barrier, which made me fear for my chances of getting hold of a setlist (I couldn't imagine the roadies taking so much trouble for us hoi polloi). One guy threw one down at us and of course it didn't fly far enough and fluttered down into the gap. He jumped off the stage and picked it up and started waving it at us tantalizingly (which was very irritating), and then the woman next to me told him (it was so sweet of her) to give it to me, and he did. She explained that she already had one--not from this show, but from another show somewhere else, and she was so nice about it that I didn't want to tell her that I'm 10 for 10 on setlists for the last 10 shows I've been to (13 if you count the four Old Town School shows separately). But I did want to thank her again, profusely, except that I saw Dan Miller was off in the distance. And I said, "I see Dan Miller!" and ran off emitting a schoolgirl squeak.

When I got over to where I'd seen Dan, I couldn't find him. I realized this was because he was actually on the other side of a chain-link fence. He was talking through the fence with some guy who was haranguing him about having seen him at the McSweeney's shows last October. I managed to ask Dan to sign the setlist, and I passed him that and a Sharpie through the fence. While he was juggling the paper, the pen and the cigarette he was smoking, I asked him how long he's been playing the guitar. He kind of laughed and said, "Well, as of today, four days." I must have looked disappointed at this answer (I really did want to know), because then he said, more seriously, that he's been playing so long he didn't even want to tell me how long. I'm still curious; I figure, if he's in his thirties now, one could reasonably estimate that he's been playing the guitar for over twenty years. But I didn't press the question and as he signed the setlist I told him that I really love watching him play the guitar.

At that, he looked down at the ground in a kind of "aw, shucks" manner and said, "Oh, thanks." And then he looked back up at me and asked, "Weren't you at...?" Whoa, I thought, does Dan Miller really remember having seen me before? But I said, "I saw you in St Louis. We talked about Don Lennon." He indicated that he remembered that, and so then I told him that I'd made enquiries about that rumored new Don Lennon album and found out it wasn't actually out yet, and he asked me, rather archly I thought, "Oh, so is that why I can't get it?"

What could I possibly answer to that? I think I laughed nervously, but he was talking about Don Lennon again. He rolled up the setlist and poked it back through the fence at me, and said it was nice to see me again. Then I asked him if They're really coming back to Chicago in December, and he told me, "Flans knows all about that."

So I went over to Flans and after surviving the crush of people around him posed the question again. He said They're doing five shows in Chicago in December. "Will they be regular shows?" I asked, and he answered, "Oh, yeah, we're doing a big theatrical production." (What on earth does that mean?) And that two of them would be kids' shows. FIVE SHOWS! Whoopee!

I went home happy.

Oh, email me if you're interested in trading for this show. My recording sounds quite good, but my battery ran out so I'm missing the last thirty-five minutes or so of She's Actual Size. You know you'll never miss it.