First off, big hugs to hobbitgrrl and her folks for letting me hang out at the farm; I really appreciated it! And I don't know what she will/did write about this show, but I imagine it's going to be almost exactly the same story, possibly in almost the exact same words, as what I'm about to. So now, let's get this thing started.

I had a nice, uneventful drive down to Louisville where I was greeted by hobbitgrrl with her fetching new haircut and her very friendly dog. Then we all piled in the car (minus the dog, I mean) and headed out to Waterfront Park. We were early (as always) and it was quite hot, but somewhat to our chagrin we saw that there were already several other people waiting there.

Okay, so, Dan Miller had put me on the guestlist for this show; I had never been on the guestlist before so I didn't know how it was going to work. Today it would work out beautifully. There was a guy in sunglasses who looked kind of official standing under the tent that marked the entrance to the fest; we heard him telling some people that gates wouldn't open until seven, which was a couple hours away. So that kinda sucked, but we went up to him and I told him I was on the guestlist. He said we were in luck because he happened to have the list with him and he turned around and picked up a clipboard. So I told him my name and he found it and crossed it off, and then he looked confused and asked if I wanted to enter right now. Well, why not? I said I did and then he looked doubtful and asked if I was with the band. Ooh, good question. Technically, no, but I said truthfully if not exactly relevantly, "I'm on the band's guestlist."

I think he already knew at that point that I was scamming him, but he let me through anyway. However I wasn't going to go in without hobbitgrrl so I asked if she could come in with me even though she wasn't on the list. And he started to ask us to come back in later, then he kinda shrugged and let us both in.

Wow. That was pretty cool. So we reveled in our guestlistness and wandered down through this parking lot that had been transformed into the concessions area. We'd heard a bit of soundcheck on our way in so we wanted to go check out the stage, but before we could get there a guy behind the Lebowski Fest merch table told us we couldn't hang around at this end, so we went back near the entrance and found a nice shaded bench. (And we saw Corn Mo and said hi.) At first I was a little worried the mean guy from the merch table would find us and make us leave, but nobody seemed to care that we were sitting around there, and the clipboard guy passed us a couple times and smiled at us, so we figured we were okay where we were.

There was a group of kids hanging out under the entrance tent (we'd seen Corn Mo with them when we came in) and they weren't exactly inside, but a couple of them came inside to use the bathroom, after which they left again. One of these boys waved at us and we were like, "do we know that guy?" but we waved back anyway, and he came over and talked to us. He asked us if we'd been at the Odeon show. Why, yes. After a bit we realized he had only come to talk to us because he was wildly curious as to why we'd been let in before everybody else and calculating his chances to get ahead of us when it came time for jockeying for position in front of the stage. I explained that Dan had put me on the guestlist and he asked, "Do you know Dan Miller?" Interesting question, that. I would say the answer is no (even putting aside the fact that he is Unknowable). I told the guy I'd talked to Dan a bunch of times though. Then he told us that his group was being allowed to stay under the tent in exchange for keeping everybody else out, but that they would have to go back outside when they started letting people in for real, and he asked us, "Are they gonna make you go back outside too?"

That question made me paranoid and also the way that he told us it really depended on how fast you ran—that was obviously a challenge and I sure didn't feel like running on such a hot day. But after he'd gone away again under the tent hobbitgrrl and I were still sitting there on our nice shady bench and the clipboard guy came along. Oh, hobbitgrrl had noticed that the name "Will" was written on his laminate, so I can just call him that for brevity. Anyway Will headed right toward us and I was sure our eviction notice had arrived, but instead he just sat down on the bench with us and proceeded to make a phone call. He left a message for somebody about trash cans, with his phone number; and later we thought, if only we had known who he was, we could have had his phone number (if you're swifter than us, or more Lebowksi Fest-aware, you'll have figured out already just who he was). Having finished his call he chatted with us for a minute. He looked out at the line of people that was growing under the hot sun and shook his head, observing that the people who came early and waited out there in the brutal heat were "insane." We of course agreed with him. In retrospect it's kinda funny that he didn't realize that we were two more of those insane people any more than we realized who he was.

Well, after that, we figured we had Will's stamp of approval and decided that if anybody gave us any trouble about being inside we'd tell them "Will let us in" and hope that his name would carry enough authority to keep us on the right side of the gate. And every time Will passed by we'd be like, "Hey, there's our friend Will." Yes, we are idiots. Shut up.

A guy with a megaphone came out and started making announcements to the line, and there were more people (mostly concession workers) milling about, so at about a quarter to seven we were thinking of trying our luck toward the stage again. This decision was sealed when we saw the mean guy passing us going in the opposite direction. We made our move.

We successfully made it past the merch tables this time and saw a few other girls going into the amphitheater. Security made no attempt to stop us but then I heard a voice shouting "Back! Back!" and I stopped, startled. After a second I realized it was simply Iggy yelling at somebody who was adjusting the lights. So we went on into the amphitheater. It was a nice little open-air place with deep, terraced concrete-and-grass steps going up to a sharp hill, and then a grassy pit down at the bottom in front of the stage. There was nobody else there so we chose a shady spot in the first row of the terrace to wait, keeping an eye on where people would be coming in when they opened the gates.

The heat actually didn't seem too bad in the shade. We could see boats passing on the river behind the stage from time to time. After a bit Dan appeared from the bus (it was parked behind the stage). He saw us and waved, then went up back toward the soundboard. After that he came down and sat with us for a few minutes. He was holding an iPod. "First in line again," he observed. It puzzles me that he seems surprised every time we're first. Of course we're first. But I explained that this time it was because he'd put me on the guestlist, and I thanked him for that. He was wearing his St Louis sunglasses again, and I asked him if he'd be wearing them during the show. He pointed out that it would be nighttime by then, then looked thoughtful for a moment, as if seriously considering wearing them during the show. (He didn't end up doing that, though.) He also pointed out The Dude walking by and told us that The Dude had been hanging out in their tour bus. He told us quite a lot about The Dude, actually. We discussed the heat. This has been a recurring theme over this tour. I was like, you guys are gonna tour again sometime when it's not so hot, right? And he gestured to the sun-baked amphitheater and said, "Apparently not." And after a bit he took his leave, saying that they were going to a baseball game.

The idea that they were going to have enough time to attend a baseball game between this moment and the moment when the show was supposed to start was kind of disconcerting—were we really going to have that many more hours of waiting? Then we saw some kids tearing around the corner so we dashed up to our spots along the barrier. As it turned out all that paranoia was for nothing, since they wanted Linnell side anyway. We settled in to wait. Nobody had any clear idea of what the schedule was. The website had mentioned something about karaoke, which I found horrifying, especially after the torture we endured last weekend, but woodsie22 told us she'd heard that was for after TMBG, and that was quite a relief.

We waited. There were a lot of annoying people around us and that's all I'll say about that. They weren't, however, Lebowski freaks; I think for the most part they were your usual TMBG freaks. I think the real draw for the Lebowski fanatics is the next day's activities which we, thankfully, were going to miss.

I don't know what I was expecting but the "Opening Ceremonies" of the Fest were quite informal. After not a very long wait this old dude came out onstage along with our friend Will and the mean guy who'd stopped us earlier. The old dude turned out to be the mayor of Louisville. He was there to present a congratulatory plaque to the founders of the Lebowski Fest (and you know you saw this coming): Scott, the mean guy, and, of course, our friend Will. We were like, whoa, our Will is the guy who's in charge of all this! I guess if we had had to tell anybody that Will let us in, that would in fact have carried enough weight to allow us to stay.

Anyway, we were very amused that our friend Will turned out to be so important. Then there was another brief wait and then a ceremony to present the key to the city to The Dude. I actually don't remember if that was before or after Corn Mo. The key to the city was quite small. I was expecting a big ceremonial key but it just looked like a house key. The Dude himself remarked upon its size; maybe he felt he wasn't getting the consideration due him.

Hm, I think I'm getting everything out of order. There were some quesadillas and a shaved ice in there somewhere too.

Corn Mo performed. His setlist blew away immediately and later when hobbitgrrl got a look at it she could see that he had pretty much played everything on it except not in that order. He kept swearing and finally he apologized to the parents with small children for his potty mouth: "I don't have Tourette's, I'm just stupid." He seemed pretty tired by the end. Another really hot, humid gig. After We Are the Champions the tour manager called something out to him—he might have been telling him he had time to do an additional song—but Corn Mo shook his head. "I don't have it in me," he confessed. He did however do the Havina Gila Monster song. He'd taken off his sequined jacket—this was the first time I'd ever seen him perform without it—and there was a fan blowing, or maybe it was the wind, but every time he put his foot up on his wedge the front of his shirt would fly up. I leaned over to hobbitgrrl and said, "I'm seeing a lot more of Corn Mo than I ever really wanted to."

Then he was done and TMBG's crew came out and got busy. Dan's guitars had been stuck over in the opposite corner near Danny's basses and now Andy came out and set them into their proper places. Dan had mentioned that all the gear was rented and we saw that Flans had a different kind of amp than usual and there was only a small bit of rug covering stage left, no rug for Dan. Marty's drums were loaners too and we could tell that there apparently was some other band's name on the kick drum, but it had been covered over with black tape to hide it.

Andy put out the setlists. We were too far away to see them clearly, but I was afraid it looked short. I think it was a little bit short compared to a regular show, but the funniest thing about it was that when we got a copy of it later, we realized it was actually the main setlist from the Odeon show the previous Friday (you can see where the name is scratched out at the top), with a couple of changes.

I wouldn't have known it was (almost) the same setlist if I hadn't seen it myself, though. And I thought the flow of the show was very good. I'm just gonna do real quick notes...They opened with Clap Your Hands and then went into Istanbul with no intro. Flans, by the way, was wearing this fruity cowboy shirt and Dan had on a rodeo t-shirt so we thought they were perhaps going to go out together and rope some cattle when the show was over. Also at some point near the beginning of the show—there were these little black plastic fans set up at the front of the stage, and Flans, apparently judging that they were going to be useless, came up and gave one a mighty kick, sending it straight toward hobbitgrrl. It bounced against the metal barrier and into the gap, but whoa, what a weird, frightening moment. (Then a roadie came hurrying out to take it away.)

No confetti cannons today (I guess they couldn't rent those). Flans remarked on how they had never played a show in 100% humidity before: "If you move around even a little bit, you get dizzy." And in my experience that was actually true. It was cruelly humid. But they were all pretty lively anyway. Flans also sent a shout-out to the people at the top of the very steep hill and then announced that a baby had just been born at the top of the hill and that they had a song about the baby. "Apparently," explained Linnell, "the baby is a bastard." And they played Bastard Wants to Hit Me.

Before Pictures of Pandas Painting Flans pointed out that Dan had his right foot securely planted on the wah-wah pedal, and declared that it was another in their project of "children's music that will fuck you up." Snail Shell: still cool. Birdhouse: they spun during the two-guitar part, which I always love. During Particle Man, Flans stepped out onto this stack of speakers to get closer to the crowd and held out his guitar to be played. During Particle Man! Weird. He held the chord with his right hand while the people reached out and hit the strings.

She's an Angel will always remind me henceforth of how I almost got kicked out of the Indianapolis show, so of course it is now one of my new favorite songs. Before Stalk of Wheat Flans started talking about the maracas again, only he brought the aforementioned baby back into it, saying the baby had carved the maracas. Then Dan dropped his flexatone on the metal stage and it made a really loud noise. At another point (I think it was a different moment) Flans said that the baby had written a new song for them and dictated it into their headsets; so they were learning the new song as they played the previous song. Damn baby.

hobbitgrrl noticed fireworks going off to our left (the end of the baseball game that Dan had said they were going to see?) and during Ana Ng Linnell, obviously distracted, sang "I saw this painted on the...fireworks."

Flans is still doing the Future of Sound during The Guitar, but he then turned to Dan, saying Dan was going to bring an alternative perspective, which was Dan playing his Les Paul through an effect that made it sound like an organ. Freaky. After that, a conga line. It looked like a pretty good one. Naturally, I refused to leave my place. (Because, you know, of that dizziness thing. Yeah. That's why.) During the Mysterious Whisper segment of Fingertips, Flans directed us to lift our arms and sway, which we did, and he did, and Dan did. Then we could see Dan motioning at Danny as if asking him why he wasn't doing it, and Danny shook his head and pointed at his bass, 'cause he had to keep playing it, and Dan looked disapproving. It was a very cute exchange.

Before Hocus Pocus Flans requested the Dallas theme (to the TV show, not the Trees song) to walk Corn Mo onto the stage for Hocus Pocus. It was very good tonight, although Corn Mo's voice seemed pretty much shot by the end. They only did the one encore instead of splitting it in two as marked on the setlist.

Wow. What a good show. When They'd left, (our friend) Will came back out onstage to remind people that the karaoke was coming up next and then the movie, and then hobbitgrrl asked him for a setlist. He picked up Flans's and then went & got Danny's, so I asked him for one, but he explained he was keeping one for himself, so I pointed out Dan's to him. And he graciously went over there and pulled it up, promptly ripping it in half. I wouldn't have minded having a ripped one, but somebody off in the wings (probably Andy) handed him a whole one which he gave to me instead. We love you Will! (And he's cute too.)

We hung around a bit to see if anybody would come out, but they were holed up in their air-conditioned bus and I didn't blame them. Dan did come out as usual, though, so we went over there and I thanked him again and wished him good weather for their show tomorrow (today) in Philadelphia. And he said he'd see us in Chicago sometime (we hope!) and shook our hands and off we went. I paused at Corn Mo's merch table to see if he had any CDs (unsupervised had wanted me to pick one up for her), but he was already out. Then some other guy started talking to him so I was like, "bye Corn Mo" and started to leave and he reached out and patted my shoulder and said goodbye. Corn Mo touched me!

And that was that. Outdoor festival-type things can be iffy, you never know if you're going to get a good one; but I guess this wasn't exactly a festival, it was just a TMBG show that happened to be outdoors and be part of something called a Fest. And despite the heat and crushing humidity it was a really good performance, so I was very happy to finish up my summer string of shows here. Seven shows in eleven days and this one to end...I am so fortunate.

And so, back to the farm. I got a good night's sleep and was awakened by the dog sniffing my head very loudly, which made me laugh. I'm not much of a dog person but this one was quite charming. Thanks again hobbitgrrl! I am sure we will have many more TMBG adventures together in the future and I hope they will all be as good as this one.

Pictures and stuff now, but there won't be any mp3s. Sorry! You can buy it though.

* foreword
* St Louis
* Indy
* Detroit
* Cleveland – Odeon
* Cleveland – KidsFest
> Lebowski Fest