We got to the Metro at 10. And there was a huge line already. I was pretty surprised by it, actually. Some amusing events transpired (like the bus from the previous band blocking the entire street while trapped Austin Powers style between two parked cars as an ambulance tried to make its way down the street) and they finally let us in around 11:30. "It's too late." fortunately, it wasn't Too Cold, too. :)

The opening act came on around 11:45... it was some guy named Dave Tobey, and instead of playing any songs, he went around and picked up *Fruvous'* guitars and took them off stage! I was appalled. :)

Fruvous came back with their guitars around 12:15 and pretty much went right into

Half as Much - there it is at the beginning again. :) Still, it's a great way to start things. Dave somehow managed to break a string pretty early on, so he had to switch guitars for the next song.

Laika - with a short intro by Mike, and a really different guitar that I've only seen once before (in BG last week) being played by Dave. I love this song, especially live - everyone is doing something interesting, and the ending is amazing. There's a lot of stuff in there that I just can't hear on the album.

Horseshoes - Audience members, where were you? the line is "Look straight at the coming disaster." not " ." :) So the third verse's corresponding refrain had no first line. Actually, it was there - it kind of faded in once people realized that they were supposed to sing it. :)

Too Careful - Mike's turn to break a string. I think there were some modifications to the lyrics, but I can't remember what they were. And it was less than 24 hours ago, too.

Sad Girl - There was a bit of guitar buzz in this one, but for the most part the sound was good. I'm really glad they're doing this one in the place of When She Talks (sorry, Jian :)

King of Spain - "Are you curious?" Murray raises his hand "I've heard this story over 1500 times and I'm *still* curious!"

Boo Time - references to Sammy Sosa hitting his 60th home run, among other things. Apparently no rhyme available for anything Chicago related so they used tonight's show (which I was unfortunately unable to go to) as the rhyme.

Video Bargainville - started on the second try, which isn't bad. :) It was either this show or Detroit where Jian used the "Scream 3" intro that he normally does for Splatter Splatter and then corrected it to "On video, of course!" We got an extended bass solo at the end of the bridge, although Jian kept trying to interrupt with "Once we..." :) And the final refain ending with " Raja..."

Independence Day - I think my favorite part of this is the "Red and gold bleed down to black..." as the vocals "bleed" together into a perfect harmony. And I think that comes out better live than on the album (I have a thing about live songs - most songs I think are better live than recorded for some reason - probably because I can watch what's going on :)

If Only You Knew - again, beautiful. Afterwards, Jian commented that it was "track 11, for those of you who know things by track number," and was answered with a few shouts for "Track 10!" and "Track 9!"

Kick in the Ass - by request from Columbus. Right before the song, someone shouted out for Pisco Bandito, and they said something like "We don't know that... what are you talking about? You know what I think... I think this guy needs something... Murray?" and started the intro. I also could have sworn one of the lines in the middle went something like:

"Kick in the ass (it's coming) Kick in the ass (Mahoney) Kick in the ass..."

Kids - I'm not sure what Mike's continuation of the "My sister has three" line was, but it was hilarious. Murray inched away from Mike with a frightened look on his face. Not to be outdone, Jian, in the third verse, sang "My mother makes a spicy bowl of SOUP!" and the audience answered "Three rhymes" before they realized what he had said. The song stopped momentarily while the others stared at him, until he finally said "Chili, three rhymes!"

I Will Hold On - Jian began explaining the song and the misconceptions about it, and someone suggested that it was a stalker song, and he pretty much agreed, and Dave began the intro. Jian then stopped him, probably realizing that if he didn't clarify, it would be made known to the newsgroup that IWHO was a stalker song. So he explained that it's about the kind of freaky obsession that might lead to stalking, but that the song wasn't about stalking. (somewhere in there, he used the word "Bittersweet" and I had to resist a lot of temptation to say something :)

Michigan Militia / Johnny Saucep'n - I'm not going to say something about *every* song and since I hear these a lot I'll just leave it at that.

Splatter Splatter - It's always good to see Dave play the accordion. :) I wish he'd do it more, though...

Psycho Killer - similar to Detroit, except that in Detroit the setlist actually said "PSYCHO" and in Chicago it said "POTION." :)

Encore #1

Authors - it took this one a while to get going because the acoustic still had distortion on and any time Dave clicked it off, all the sound cut out. After a bit of fiddling, they finally realized that it had come unplugged, and got it working again. This time, for the sake of Dave's sanity, the streetcar driver was "looking straight ahead." :)

Get in the Car - nothing to say, it's a fun song.

Encore #2

Fly - Perfect placement in the set. Nothing before it - no talking or anything. Really nice. And immediately followed by....

My Poor Generation - back to the thread about "What works well after Fly?" This one, definitely. It doesn't break the mood, and without any banter between them, the audience stays calm and the band isn't cracking up as they start it. This song makes such a great closer, and it really does have all the emotion of The Drinking Song and The Gulf War Song, but in a different way. Not the same emotions, but it's definitely as emotional.

banter and stuff:

"But my point is... my point is... Deep Blue couldn't do that..." -Jian

some Jim Kirk impressions by Mike

introducing the Kids' Song "Dave, who did they ask?" Dave answers... "Yes, no, they were not... not asked..."

there was considerably less improv at this show because it started so late, but it was good long show without that, too. lots of great music. :)

From Jordan:

A good, fun show, despite the fact that it was very late and thus kind of short.

Half As Much
Laika
Horseshoes
Too Careful
Sad Girl
King of Spain
Boo Time
Disco Bargainville
Independence Day
If Only...
The Kids' Song
I Will Hold On
Psycho Killer
E1:
Authors
Car

E2:
Fly
My Poor Generation (a perfect ending)

And Kick in the Ass was in the middle there somewhere (not sure where)

From Christie:

...or, the story of how I stood a millimeter away from Jian and somehow managed to resist the urge to hug him.

Warning. This is long. I haven't even typed it out yet, and I KNOW it's going to be long.

Still with me? Good! For those of you who don't know me (I'm relatively new in these here parts), my name is Christie, I'm from Chicago, and all that good stuff. And now for my psychotically long story about the show... I actually went to the earlier show at the Metro since: 1) It was Manic Street Preachers, and they are awesome, and 2) we naively thought that parking would be better earlier in the day (turns out there was a Cubs game in progress right across the street at Wrigley Field...) Ouch. Anyway, since I was there with my mother, we decided to sit in the balcony through the Manic Street Preachers show so we wouldn't be tired out for Fruvous later. Now, flashing forward to the good part... when Manic Street Preachers announced their last song, we decided to go downstairs and wait by the door so we could get out and in line for the next show more quickly. We stood right in the doorway watching the stage, when all of a sudden my mom nudges me and nods her head to my left. And lo and behold, standing not one centimeter to my left is Jian. It was great watching him bop around to the music. If I had been thinking a little more clearly I would have attempted to say quick hello to him and to Mike (who I noticed was behind Jian VERY briefly... I looked back once more and he was gone.) But oh well... the song ended and he bolted. When we left, there were already people in line (It was before 10:00 and the doors didn't open until 11:30!!). I had a fabulous time in line, even though we waited for so long... met some really, really nice folks. Had an amusing time watching the HUGE Manic Street Preachers bus try to make its way onto Clark Street. The Fox Thing In The Morning people were there to get a shot of the outside crowd, and were also there very briefly during one of the first few songs. But now I'm getting ahead of myself. Seeing as how this message is already way too long and I haven't even gotten to the actual SHOW part of it yet... let's flash forward again. :::deep breath:::

Okay. So we get into the show. Actually, something really irritating about the Metro is that the line for men always, always gets in much faster than the women due to the fact that usually woman have purses, etc that need to be searched... but since I met a great guy in line, we were able to find him once we were inside and be right on the stage. Literally right on the stage, resting our elbows on it... which I found interesting since when I had seen Frank Black at the Metro earlier in the summer there had been a railing a few feet back. But I digress. Where was I? Aw, hell, let's just skip to what you want to hear about: The Show. Here's the set, my poor memory aided by Mike's setlist, which Nate (the guy I met in line) was so nice to grab for me. (If you are reading this, Nate, thanks again!!)

Half As Much
Laika
Horseshoes
You Can't Be Too Careful
Sad Girl
King Of Spain
Boo Time
Video Bargainville
Independence Day
If Only You Knew
Kick In The Ass
The Kids Song
I Will Hold On
Michigan Militia  
Johnny Saucepan
Splatter Spatter
(Then the setlist says they were going to play the Love Potion #9 medley.  They
actually played Psycho Killer, much to my mom's delight.)

Encore 1:
My Baby Loves A Bunch of Authors
Get In The Car

Encore 2:
Fly
My Poor Generation

The guys had a huge amount of energy, especially considering how late it was... they really seemed to be having a great time during Kick In The Ass... My mind is drawing an unfortuntate blank as to much of the banter. They talked about Chicago's obsession with naming things after Adlai Stevenson, and about Sammy Sosa hitting home run #60 earlier in the day. Also, some of it was sort of muffled a bit by what seemed to be vibration coming off the drums, which were about a foot in front of my face. Other points of interest:

- During the King of Spain intro, Mike said that the King was responsible for such headlines as "Dewey Defeats Truman" and "Murray Is God." Hehehe!

- They mentioned the song they will be playing on Fox Thing In The Morning is Spatter Splatter. (If they do happen to show a shot of the crowd, by any chance, look for the girl in the blue striped shirt right up front who looks exceptionally tired. That'll be me. =D )

Okay... I think that's it for now. If you've read this far, congrats and thanks. =) It was an awesome show, and I hope everyone there had as great a time as I did. See you in Champaign, folks!

From Bridget:

And the Frübus takes off again... Joe, Debbie, Drea & Fiona in one car; Donna, Katrin, Amanda and I in the truly ROCKING car. We had a blast. Left Ann Arbor around 1:00, not too far off from our goal of noon... and after 4 hours of non-stop Frühead hilarity (any Früheads who've gone on road trips together undoubtedly know exactly what I'm talking about), we arrived at Jordan's in Chicago. The original plan was to meet Karen, Barb, Mark and Vincent at Jordan's, go see Great Big Sea, then on to the Metro for the ridiculously late 12:30 Früvous show. Unfortunately, due to parking difficulty, we ended up at the Metro at 7:00 (when GBS was slated to start elsewhere in Chicago), so we decided just to eat instead. Grabbed some dinner at an Italian place (Sophia's) across the street from Wrigley. Excellent food.

Donna and I got into line at the Metro around 10:00 for 11:30 doors. There was surprisingly already a crowd forming, a rather eclectic mix of Früfans waiting to get in and Manic Street Preacher fans leaving the venue. We were entertained by the absurdly large Manic Street Preacher tour bus trying to back out of the alley. A few more feet and the Früvan would've been a pancake... met a quite interesting gentleman [1] who said he LOVED Moxy Früvous, then proceeded to ask if they had put out an album since "Bargainville"... we almost convinced him to come watch the show. But he didn't because he was drunk and dumb (hey, they were HIS words...). By the time we finally got into the venue, I was very tired. It was WAY past my bedtime... (o;

The Metro is an interesting setup. A very spacious floor and a very high balcony, stretching along the perimeter of the room. Donna and I again stood stage Murray, where Kat joined us for a while, but in the middle of the show she got homesick for stage Dave and left us. Früvous came on soon after we got in, which was the one nice thing about such a late start. Again, I don't have a setlist in front of me. There weren't any big surprises; this was actually the first Früvous show I've seen where there wasn't even ONE song to add to my ever-growing list of "songs I've seen live". There was a lot of banter, I think in part due to the fact that Fox in the Morning was filming bits and pieces. The lads were very "on" and seemed to really be hamming it up. I can't remember anything much off the top of my head and I don't have good notes on this show. Hmm... Murray flipped Dave off in the Kids' Song. And that's very, very sad if that's all I can remember. Oh well... a good set. Final encore was My Poor Generation, which would have been much more enjoyable but for the guys right behind us who chose that part of the evening to have a loud conversation. Speaking of the crowd... the crowd was... interesting. We had a lot of talkers. The guy next to me was taping the show with a digital video recorder. We had a good time, but I don't think I'd go back to that venue. I don't think I'd even go back to Chicago, unless it was a stop in the middle of a Frütrip or something. And I'm severely rambling. So I guess that'll be enough of this half-assed review... (o;

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS, ADVICE, AND QUOTES:

"The Bad Girls Guide to Life on the Road" is an indispensable road-tripping tool.

The next time I'm driving through Illinois/Indiana/Michigan, I'm going to stop for some free wine tasting, dammit!

The Midwest is BEAUTIFUL in September.

Never embark on a road trip without an emergency bag of Doritos somewhere in the car.

Definition of a miracle: getting 10 Früheads to agree on a place to eat.

It doesn't do any good to stealthily remove a Früvous promotional poster from the wall if you're just going to forget about it and leave it on the stage.

Wearing a watch on mountain time while driving through the central time zone in a car where the clock is set to eastern time is NOT the most efficient way to travel...

Chicago has very short fire hydrants.

When caravanning, always remember that some people just aren't good caravan leaders (read: have directions to your destination on your person).

HURRICANE DONNA TERRORIZES THE MIDWEST would be a great headline.

Do not EVER look for parking in the 20 block radius surrounding Wrigley Field when the Cubs are in town.

Segregating Früheads into a boy’s line and a girl’s line doesn't necessarily imply imminent frisking.

Früheads NEVER respond well to being kicked out of a venue immediately following a Früshow. Even at 3 in the morning.

[1] "Who likes the taste of beer?!?!? C'mon, let's see those hands!"

"We're having more fun than... EVERYONE!!" ~Donna

Some other tidbits from the performance include:

• From Noah: In the review, the person couldn't hear what Mike had said during The Kid's song. Here it is: During The Kid's Song, Mike said "My sister has three. And she LORDS THEM OVER ME!!"
• Feel free to help contribute to this section!