26
Essentially Flyertalk / Re: 201* Concert Thread
« on: April 03, 2024, 09:51:30 AM »@SkinnyBenny THOUGHTS?!@DQ12 tell me about The Eras Tour@SkinnyBenny - sorry for the late response
It was really fun. We got to the venue about half an hour before the concert started. There was a giant line around the sidewalk of the madrid. It took us about 25 minutes or so to get through the line. After standing in line for about five minutes, it started raining. None of our group (me, my sister, and bro in law) had umbrellas. It rained HARD. My sister got under another group's umbrella while the line moved, but me and BIL got drenched. Then the golf ball sized hail started. Suffice to say, we were soaked.
The concert proper was really fun. It was, objectively speaking, extremely self-indulgent, but the crowd (including me) was game for whatever. The format of the concert is pretty straightforward -- they do a little skit whenever each "era" starts. So for Parachute, it was just Ryan and Adam and Brian sitting against a dorm room back-drop playing acoustic guitars and pretty stripped down bongos. There were a lot of "boy wasn't this time period different!" type jokes that were corny, but again, they were able to get away with whatever they wanted. In particular, after the GUOTS era, there was apparently some band turmoil directed at their new producer that i wasn't familiar with. That bit (including the "evil" music producer being portrayed by a puppet) felt a little awkward -- but maybe if I knew the inside story it wouldn't have been quite as awkward.
The music was phenomenal. I've obviously never heard Happy Frappy played live before. Never heard Nothing But Flowers live. Just a terrific grab bag of songs. The playlist we got is below:
Sketch 1: Dorm Room
Parachute
(Ryan and Adam Only)
Play Video
Sketch 2: Enter Brian
Happy Frappy
Sketch 3: Harvard Square
Demons
Airport Song
Sketch 4: Lillywhite
What You Wish For
Center of Attention
Barrel of a Gun
Sketch 5: Tour Bus
Jesus on the Radio
Play Video
Sketch 6: Joe Joins Band
Keep It Together
Play Video
Careful
(Nothing but) Flowers
Lightning Rod
Satellite
The Captain
Sketch 7: Evil Producer
Thunder Song
(Brian Solo)
Act 2
Do You Love Me
Sketch 8: Joe Leaves Band
Lost at Sea
This is How it Feels to Have a Broken Heart
Long Night
Doin' It By Myself
Sketch 9: Dave Gets Mad/Appreciated
Mind Kontrol
Terrified
Sketch 10: Covid
Keep Going
Black Balloon
Finale
Come Downstairs and Say Hello
Campfire
Happier
Amsterdam
I know very, very little post-GUOTS guster. I learned that Warner Bros. dropped Guster after that album, which makes my post-GUOTS lack of awareness make some sense. So there were about 40 minutes of music (between Do you Love Me and CDASH) where I didn't know or really care that much about it. On the whole though, we all had a blast. Threw the ping pong balls. Seeing Nothing But Flowers was a highlight. What You Wish For was phenomenal. CDASH always makes me get choked up after I made it one of my "sing my daughter to sleep" songs. Yeah, it was fantastic.