GinohnNews
<< REWIND |
24 OCTOBER 2007 |
FORWARD>> |
another joco show
G: After
much going back and forth with myself, I decided to drive up to Philly
and beyond for another Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm concert.
It hasn't been very long since I last saw them, but I do find it
incredibly fun and I had Friday off. Plus, JoCo wrote on his blog that
he needed someone to sell merchandise for him, and I wanted to do that.
I wrote and said I couldn't promise to be there on time, but that I was
coming up for the show if he needed help. I was worried about traffic
and delays with it so far away, and I just couldn't be sure I would be
there on time. But if he still needed someone when I got there that I
would be happy to do it.I called Chris who lives in Philly and he agreed to go with me. I left the house around 1:30 in the afternoon, hoping to avoid traffic. Well, there was no avoiding traffic that day, and even with Tom Tom's help getting around some of it, I didn't reach UPenn where Chris was until 5pm. Still, the 8pm show was supposed to be 40 minutes away from there (Sellerville), so we walked around until I was hungry enough for dinner and then we had just enough time to eat before we had to leave to get there in time. Wouldn't you know it, traffic was terrible going north of Philly at 7pm as well, and it took 1 1/4 hours so we missed about 15 minutes of Paul & Storm. Even though I'd already seen it four times this year, it was Chris's first time seeing them and I didn't want him to miss any of the fun, plus their first song they do is probably my favorite, and sets the mood for the rest of the show. Oh, well.
Not as many audience members seemed like they were familiar with the performers as at other shows, but they all seemed to enjoy themselves. During JoCo's set, he brought out the Zendrum and said he was going to play something for the first time. Then he did "W's Duty". After that he did Mr. Fancypants - but it didn't go right. One of the buttons just kept repeating a short snippet and he couldn't get it to go on to the next part. So, he jammed with it for a while, and then Paul and Storm came out and sang something along with it (that Chris recognized and I didn't). He finally reloaded the program on his computer and it worked that time.
He also was new at playing harmonica and guitar at the same time, and said how that automatically sounds like a Bob Dylan song. He played them together during the solo on "Someone is Crazy", and it sounded good, but he looked really funny doing it.
He took requests ("What are you afraid I'm not going to play?"), and I tried for "Over There" again, but he picked "Mandelbrot Set" (again!) and "De-evolving." "Really? Are you sure?" he asked the couple who called it out. He thought to see if he remembered how to play it, and decided he did.
During Sweet Caroline (the last song) he also picked up the harmonica and tried to add that in. Then one of his guitar strings broke. So, anyway, this show felt a bit different than others I'd been to. One day I'll get to hear "Over There" live, goshdangit.
So after the show most people just filed out, a small handful waited behind to say hi to the performers. JoCo came out and chatted with some people near the stage, and when he was done with them he came over to us. I got a picture of us together, then I got him to sign a little stuffed monkey I brought (identical to one I made the monkey-pony monster out of); asked him if he recognized it and he said he did. Then I started playing with it - making it crawl up his arm and sit on his shoulder, making him giggle. Chris got a pic of that. We chatted a bit longer then he went up to the theater entrance to see other fans. We waited around until that was about done and I showed him the pic on the camera and then asked for a hug. Which he gave me, then we were off.
Chris and I listened to JoCo and P&S on the way back to his place and until we went to bed. The next day we went to South Street and walked around there for a little while, then I dropped him off at work and came home. Free flying the way home - no traffic. That night we went over to Alex and Renee's with TVTom to play games. We played Poison, which I won by a landslide, and Shaufenster.
On Sunday Dave, Jake, and Tom came over and they played games all day, except Jake had to leave after one long game. I joined in for a couple rounds of "What's It To Ya?"
That is all.