Well, I have a couple days' breather before the show in Madison, but I think reports on Parts II and III will be arriving in rapid succession. This is Part II: Ann Arbor. Pictures and stuff are here. It was pretty dark in there but I think some of the photos turned out quite well. I especially like the series with the red backdrop. The mp3s are also linked below.

Saturday's setlist (very similar to Friday's):
Orff intro / Clap Your Hands / Experimental Film / Twisting / Spine / The End of the Tour / The Guitar / Birdhouse in Your Soul / Bastard Wants to Hit Me / Memo to Human Resources / Ana Ng / Violin / Spin the Dial / Older / Wearing a Raincoat / Robot Parade / Stomp Box / Drink! / Particle Man / The Famous Polka / Istanbul (not Constantinople) / Stalk of Wheat / John Lee Supertaster / Doctor Worm // James K. Polk / Prevenge / Fingertips // Why Does the Sun Shine? / Sleepwalkers

Before I start, I realized I forgot to mention last time that Linnell's accordion has a plaque down the front that says "MAIN SQUEEZE." Um, that is just too cute.

So, I thought this show was better than the previous night in Columbus, but that's not exactly surprising, since the Columbus show was the first one of the tour. I was a little apprehensive about what the ambience would be like, since it was a seated show—assigned seating, no less, in a beautifully curved room. Also, the extreme side sections of the theater were almost completely empty, which I thought boded ill. But it turned out to be a very good crowd, and the band sounded great.

I was pretty thrilled that Common Rotation opened. I'm a big fan of their record The Big Fear (produced by Danny, as Adam pointed out) but hadn't had the chance to see them perform. They were great. Adam jumped around like a spaz and was really funny, and those boys have lovely, lovely voices. I'm looking forward to seeing them again in Madison.

The efficient Ann Arbor Summer Festival people kept the evening running at a good clip. CoRo was on for about twenty minutes I think, then there was a very brief break and the lights dimmed and the show was on. They started with Clap Your Hands and Flans as usual encouraged us to stand up and press forward, so I abandoned my assigned seat and managed to get right up in front, coincidentally in almost exactly the same spot relative to Dan Miller that I'd been in the previous night. (I do like it when I can see what's going on.) Those of us in the front were standing on the apron covering the orchestra pit and when Flans told us to "jump in the air!" the floor started shaking like crazy. I was envisioning a repeat of the 1992 Modjeska incident but luckily the song ended before that happened. Flans ordered us to scream, and then to turn our cell phones back on, and "call your friend standing next to you. Tell them about the show you're seeing."

While they did Spine Flans was off to the side switching his Gretsch for his Gibson. When it was over he came back and Linnell asked, "Did we play it right that time?"
JF: Well, I didn't play on it that time, it sounded much better.
JL: Do you want to play it where you play on it?
JF: No, no, that would only include my mistakes. That's one of those songs that has the— [plays a chord]
JL: [nodding wisely] It's a diminished chord.
JF: That's a little complicated for me.

He went on to introduce End of the Tour, claiming he didn't remember which record of theirs it was on.
JL: I think it's the controversial John Henry record. Some people like this record, and some people like this record a lot! Who will win?
JF: But the main thing is, it's from the oft-maligned Elektra Entertainment company.
JL: Shout it from the rooftops!
JF: That's right. The taste of sour grapes is delicious, my friend.
JL: It's a true story about how we're never going to play any more shows. Because we're never facetious. We're always sincere.
Man, this song sounded great. Dan Miller was still using his cheat sheet, and when the song was over the stage manager came out again and whisked it away, but put out another one (which turned out to be for Stomp Box. I guess Dan's gotta brush up on those John Henry tunes).

Before the Guitar there was this long business about a dance contest. Linnell held up an album cover of this record Hello Vietnam by Johnny Wright and Flans explained that he'd seen it in the window of a record store in Ann Arbor (it did not actually contain the record, which Flans said the store employees could not find) and that whoever in the front row won the dance contest would be awarded this autographed album cover.
JF: Johnny Wright's autograph appears on it where, John?
JL: [signing the cover underneath Johnny Wright's printed name] Uh, right under his name.
JF: Side two starts off with a song called "Pretty Little Vietnamese" which was the reason I kept them searching for twenty-five minutes.
JL: If you take this to the store, of course, they will continue to search for the vinyl.
JF: And they will continue to mutter swear words at you under their breath, as they did to me.
They started the song and the people around me started dancing wildly. As for me, sure I dance when I'm at shows, but I did not try to win this contest, because yeah, I like to see what's going on at a concert, but I prefer to imagine that even though I'm in the front and can see them, they can't actually see me. When, after the song was over, Flans came in my direction holding the album cover, I was kind of alarmed, but he gave it to the lady next to me. We all applauded.

I think they turned up the vocal effect on Bastard Wants to Hit Me this time. Also Linnell seemed a lot more comfortable with it. When it was over Flans asked us, "Were you people feeling the Cher-like effects of that last song?"

Flans didn't seem to need a lyrics reminder for Memo to Human Resources anymore. I totally love this song, by the way. I don't know whether it's the guitar lines or the Flans/Linnell harmony that really does it for me, but I love it. Dan kept his Burns on for during this song; he used it several times during the night, much more than the previous night.

I'm already tired of the wave in Violin, but I will say that this wave had by far the best "linger" I've yet seen. It went up into the very top of the balcony and those people back there were standing up and waving their arms and really making it last.

For some reason the latter part of this show was all about Dan Miller. I think it started with the Istanbul solo. It was really good tonight. I mean, it's always good, but this one was particularly spectacular, and at the end Dan went all guitar-hero and jumped up on the platform at the back and had his little freak-out while Marty bowed down to him. This, I think, gained him a lot of fans, and when he went over to the keyboard for Doctor Worm a group of teenaged girls on that side of the stage were screaming "Dan!" so he smiled and waved at them. Very rock star, it was kinda cute. Linnell also made a joke about how TMBG had turned titular control over to Dan in time for the June 30th deadline. Oh, and that clinky thing that Dan plays on Stalk of Wheat is apparently a "flexatone." (John and John had to turn to Marty to find out what it's called.)

Prevenge was pretty exciting, especially because it had been on the setlist the previous night but not played. The whole lyrics business seemed not totally together, but I think it was partly because they tried out this harmony scheme where instead of singing the same thing, Flans was singing "Can you tell that I'm planning prevenge" while Linnell sang "I can tell that you're planning prevenge" and so on through the song. But it was kind of a confusing thing and especially for people who hadn't heard the song before I'm sure it sounded like a big mess. But They soldiered through. It was still exciting.

Flans came out after the show was over to do his signing and chatting. I was standing in line behind the teenaged Dan groupies and when they got up to Flans they asked him where everybody else was, and he said they were probably already in the bus eating pizza. And then they asked him, gushingly, "Would you please tell Dan Miller that we're his biggest fans?" "I will do that," Flans promised solemnly. (I laughed out loud. I couldn't help myself. Not that I wasn't sympathetic to them, but still, it was very amusing to imagine Flans going back to the bus and actually telling Dan that.)

Dan himself came out a few minutes later so I chased him down. He was very nice and stopped to talk to me even though he was obviously on his way somewhere else. He shook my hand and called me by my name, which totally surprised me, especially since I didn't remember ever having told him my name. But I did get to tell him what was on my mind, which was that his new acoustic guitar is just gorgeous. And then he told me why he now has this new one instead of his old one. It's an astonishing, tragic and ultimately triumphant story: he was walking down the street and got hit by a truck. He was fine (obviously), but his guitar fell under the truck and was destroyed. And then he went to get a replacement and found this one, very much like his old one, and bought it for $75. Fabulous.

It was all good. After that I made my way out and ran into this guy I had met at the Vic show in December, when he was taking his little brother to his first TMBG show. He'd brought his brother again. (That's so cute.) I also think I saw mislih when I was in line waiting to see Flans, but I was too shy to say hello.

And then I went back to buridan's place and packed up for the drive back to Chicago the next morning...report on that trip to come shortly.