And those happy feeling were not just felt by me. Maybe it was because it was their last set of the mini tour - the last of six sets on the weekend - that the band was feeling relieved that it was about over. The audience was also very into this show. As was I, as I felt the big melancholy on 'time passing' and the end of these shows. But it was a good show to go out on. I've covered this before, but whatever chemicals make certain songs better one nite than they were before was very apparent for the last set. "Where do you go?", "As you turn to go", "Castle of my soul", and the sad clown song "I looked all over town" - none of these were my favourite over the weekend - but they were all favourably received by me as "The best Version of the song" from the six various versions I'd heard over the weekend. It may have been that the songs were played best this nite - or that repeated exposure really made me appreciate the songs -or that feeling of nostalgia really riled it's way through meself - but all were appreciated by me.
And the rest of the audience shared in the Love. "California Girls" featured such laughter from the crowd - they would break out whenever some clever Merrit line was unearthed. Although I liked the earlier sets (5th set) version of "The Nun's Litany", the audience liked this version best. They again supported the cleverness of Stephin by laughing their way through the song. Other songs were good. "She doesn't believe in his dreams anymore" and "Little Uke" sounded good. he harmonies from "Book of Love". And, final proof of the good vibes of this set, the closer before intermission - "Papa was a Rodeo" - was met with it's usual raucous applause. But as the band walked off stage, Stephin turned in a unique move : a short, slite, bow from the waist from behind where he was sitting. Perhaps it was for this one song, this one show, or appreciation for the whole weekend, but it was real kool to see.
The second half brought more good vibes. The audience got into "Too drunk to dream", laughing their way through the lyrics. It's one of my least favourite songs on the new LP, but it was ok. "Yeah , oh Yeah", the periennial fan favourite, got it's usual rousing ovation. I personally rocked out to "Take Ecstasy with Me", cognisant that this mite be the last time to hear Johns grooving @ beginning of the song. I fully got into "Crows", a song Stephin did for the Lemmony Snicktes series. The thought passed that "I'll have to read the books -or @ least the first now". But the best song of the nite, and one of my favourite songs from the whole weekend - the Future Bible Hero's "No River" - was the best sort of joy to enjoy this set - the strumming, the full sounding piano, the tunefulness of it all. Really hadn't been a fan of this song- from ignorance, not dislike - until it won me over by the repeated soundings this weekend. Hmm. Gotta get the LP it's on.
And the bands choice of gear for the encore.....well, wait for that...... First, what did they talk about? Seems Claudia has a pretty big Buffy interest. She talked of watching Buffy repeats @ 3am, and Stephin talked of her constantly talking about Buffy. Claudia was trying to define someone on the show by calling her Buffy's 'familiar", but Stephin corrected that though by saying _"She's not a familiar - she's a witch". I think he's right, y' know. Buffy'd been in the news recently, so I enjoyed the talk. They also introduced "Zombie Boy" with talk of the "Z": One of them said its a song about a "Spanish Swashbuckler", and the other said "Mexican Superhero". All of this was funny, but Stephin made the whole Old Town rock w/ laughter when he followed the last line with "It's one of my more autobiographical songs". Claudia then answered the applause after the song w/ a gracias.
And then time to say good bye. The Old Town had piled the band with gifts, and one of them was winter hats for the band to wear. They hats said "Old Town School" on them, so from the left Shirley wore a hat with "Old" showing to the audience, Claudia had "Town" and John had "School" - pretty funny. The cellist had his hat on the neck of the instrument, and of course Stephin kept wearing his baseball cap. No levity for him.
And no levity at all to end the stand in the encore. Once again, my most prized for new song ,"Three Way" , was skipped over by Stephin. The band was chattering as the song started, and quickly stopped as everyone was not settled on starting it yet. They tried again, but all five stopped playing ten seconds into the song as it just wasn't right yet. The instant they all stopped, Stephin called out "Three way!" by himself -getting a laugh from the audience - but then immediately flipped the page in the songbook and started on the next song "As you turn to go". UGHH!! Once again, I'd wished they'd done the song -my favourite. I felt a little empty that the song was struck from the list. The last song played was "Grand Canyon".
Good show, despite the absence of "Three Way".
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