thank you for bringing me back to earth, pirates!

we saw Jonathan Coulton with Paul and Storm Sunday at the Triple Door. it was a stunningly awesome evening.

we'd never been to the venue before, but we wanted to arrive at doors since the show was sold out and they serve dinner from Wild Ginger. we drove downtown so that we could get home faster afterward and get more sleep; there was a Seahawks game letting out, so we chose a pay lot rather than trying to cruise for street parking. we arrived before the evening rate started, but a helpful attendant (Diamond. really. who knew?) did a manual entry and gave it to us anyway. from there we had a drink in the bar, where i found a new favorite (grapefruit vodka, campari, triple sec, oj) and serendipity gave C the chance to get frangelico into his espresso instead of the starbucks liqueur on the menu. their happy hour looks fab, and they have free music most nights. worth revisiting. we knew we were among concertgoers by the xkcd and Miskatonic U shirts. (and the corsets.)

the seating for the mainstage is like what you see in old movies when people go to a club with entertainment (or more recently Victor/Victoria) with narrow tables and booths set up so everyone faces the stage. the tiers (and the way you can't stand up because of the fixed table) make for perfect sightlines throughout the performance. we were in the front third, center-left, and the sound was smashing, as were the lights. they've blown a deal of money on a fiber optic star drop and have a better-than-usual stock of templates and a nice rotator; Dave the operator became an active and acknowledged part of the evening starting during the opening act. when Dave wasn't cracking up the audience, his work was subtle and evocative. he created some lovely moments, especially responding to the lyrics of I Crush Everything by creating the illusion of JoCo floating in front of a sea of stars. (i have star drop lust, since i've spent many hours pinning/unpinning strings of white twinkle lights with every third one wrapped in foil on the back of a cyc. digress much?) as julzerator said, this is a place i would take my mother.

openers Paul and Storm are more of a straight-ahead comedy act, and got the crowd into a raucous mood. their first song was Opening Band and they struck the right tone with the crowd (reference selling your Star Wars guys to finance something and my people will fall in love with you pretty quickly). there was a little girl in the front row who got a lot of play all night as they gave her a twinkie every time they sang something that wasn't kid-safe. you can listen to pretty much everything from their set as streams on their website. they've been touring with Coulton for something like two years on and off, and they have a great rapport. he backed them up on a song or two, they backed him up on several. they had the crowd "arr" to accompany The Captain's Wife's Lament, which led to outbreaks of arr-ing all night. "dejected arr" will be with me always. (but they really bought my allegiance with If They Might Be Giants Were The Ice Cream Man; click play, the lyrics don't do it justice.)

i missed most of the first Coulton song due to overflowing toilet drama in the ladies'. The Future Soon isn't one of my faves, so it was okay. (and they totally have a monitor by the restrooms so you can hear everything.) ( setlist )

awesomeness: hearing the "LA face with an Oakland booty" part of Baby Got Back live. JoCo taking a request for Brookline and forgetting how it went (twice). a baby squeaking at just the right spot during Creepy Doll. seeing spazzychic get thrown a pop-tart. the sampler/drum machine gizmo for Mr Fancy Pants and Coulton holding it off the edge of the stage for the twinkie kid and others to press the buttons as part of the song. the audience spontaneously singing "bum bum bah" during the encore.

"this might be the only room in the world where i can say 'PAX in the hizzy' and get a response like that."

"the good ship ADD sailing under Captain Ohlookabunny (he's irish)."

"Taser the Ninjas. that's my emo band on the side."

flickr photoset
my camera vid of Paul and Storm in the style of Randy Newman

oh, and dinner was good, the service was awesome, and i had a lovely looseleaf Keemun with dessert. we got hugs from pretty girls. i felt pretty healthy the whole time (hooray for sitting). there was no traffic on the way home.

thank you for bringing me back to earth, pirates!

we saw Jonathan Coulton with Paul and Storm Sunday at the Triple Door. it was a stunningly awesome evening.

we'd never been to the venue before, but we wanted to arrive at doors since the show was sold out and they serve dinner from Wild Ginger. we drove downtown so that we could get home faster afterward and get more sleep; there was a Seahawks game letting out, so we chose a pay lot rather than trying to cruise for street parking. we arrived before the evening rate started, but a helpful attendant (Diamond. really. who knew?) did a manual entry and gave it to us anyway. from there we had a drink in the bar, where i found a new favorite (grapefruit vodka, campari, triple sec, oj) and serendipity gave C the chance to get frangelico into his espresso instead of the starbucks liqueur on the menu. their happy hour looks fab, and they have free music most nights. worth revisiting. we knew we were among concertgoers by the xkcd and Miskatonic U shirts. (and the corsets.)

the seating for the mainstage is like what you see in old movies when people go to a club with entertainment (or more recently Victor/Victoria) with narrow tables and booths set up so everyone faces the stage. the tiers (and the way you can't stand up because of the fixed table) make for perfect sightlines throughout the performance. we were in the front third, center-left, and the sound was smashing, as were the lights. they've blown a deal of money on a fiber optic star drop and have a better-than-usual stock of templates and a nice rotator; Dave the operator became an active and acknowledged part of the evening starting during the opening act. when Dave wasn't cracking up the audience, his work was subtle and evocative. he created some lovely moments, especially responding to the lyrics of I Crush Everything by creating the illusion of JoCo floating in front of a sea of stars. (i have star drop lust, since i've spent many hours pinning/unpinning strings of white twinkle lights with every third one wrapped in foil on the back of a cyc. digress much?) as julzerator said, this is a place i would take my mother.

openers Paul and Storm are more of a straight-ahead comedy act, and got the crowd into a raucous mood. their first song was Opening Band and they struck the right tone with the crowd (reference selling your Star Wars guys to finance something and my people will fall in love with you pretty quickly). there was a little girl in the front row who got a lot of play all night as they gave her a twinkie every time they sang something that wasn't kid-safe. you can listen to pretty much everything from their set as streams on their website. they've been touring with Coulton for something like two years on and off, and they have a great rapport. he backed them up on a song or two, they backed him up on several. they had the crowd "arr" to accompany The Captain's Wife's Lament, which led to outbreaks of arr-ing all night. "dejected arr" will be with me always. (but they really bought my allegiance with If They Might Be Giants Were The Ice Cream Man; click play, the lyrics don't do it justice.)

i missed most of the first Coulton song due to overflowing toilet drama in the ladies'. The Future Soon isn't one of my faves, so it was okay. (and they totally have a monitor by the restrooms so you can hear everything.) ( setlist )

awesomeness: hearing the "LA face with an Oakland booty" part of Baby Got Back live. JoCo taking a request for Brookline and forgetting how it went (twice). a baby squeaking at just the right spot during Creepy Doll. seeing spazzychic get thrown a pop-tart. the sampler/drum machine gizmo for Mr Fancy Pants and Coulton holding it off the edge of the stage for the twinkie kid and others to press the buttons as part of the song. the audience spontaneously singing "bum bum bah" during the encore.

"this might be the only room in the world where i can say 'PAX in the hizzy' and get a response like that."

"the good ship ADD sailing under Captain Ohlookabunny (he's irish)."

"Taser the Ninjas. that's my emo band on the side."

flickr photoset
my camera vid of Paul and Storm in the style of Randy Newman

oh, and dinner was good, the service was awesome, and i had a lovely looseleaf Keemun with dessert. we got hugs from pretty girls. i felt pretty healthy the whole time (hooray for sitting). there was no traffic on the way home.