SF Rules

Great venue, great crowd, great show. An almost-full house of about 400 pirates, zombies and software developers gave the Paul & Storm / JoCo juggernaut a rapturous welcome from "We Are the Opening Band" through the final, giddy, nearly irony-free singalong of "Sweet Caroline." Then, having given of their best for three hours, the guys came out to schmooze with the fans until well after midnight. Well done, Bay Area, and THANK YOU JoCo, Paul and Storm for a fantastic show.

Jonathan Coulton
9.14.07
Great American Music Hall
San Francisco, CA

The Future Soon
Shop Vac
Baby Got Back*
I Hate California
A Talk With George
Skullcrusher Mountain
I Crush Everything
Tom Cruise Crazy*
Code Monkey*
Make You Cry*
Creepy Doll*
I Feel Fantastic*
Mr. Fancy Pants+
Mandelbrot Set
You Ruined Everything
Re. Your Brains

encore:
First of May*
Sweet Caroline*

* with Paul & Storm
+ first Zendrum version

Beautiful show. All of it a treat. Sweet Caroline and Mr. Fancy Pants were highlights, as was the great rendition of I Crush Everything. Wonderful harmonies from P&S, especially on Baby Got Back. And Shop Vac never sounded so sad. Is it the saddest vacuum cleaner song ever? Quite possibly.

As a side note, I got a big kick out of Spiff, who was walking around wearing a football jersey that said "Spiff" on the back. As he walked by me at one point I said, "Are you really Spiff?" Which, looking back, was a really silly question. I mean, if he was some sort of Spiff-simulating scoundrel, would he admit it? I told him we all really like his work. Because we do.
-Cecil

Please tell me somebody got video of Mr. Fancydrum.

Oh... The Zendrum is *so* cheating! (read: VERY COOL!)

I almost don't have words for how great this show was. Except for these ones... right here...

Austin on the 18th, Dallas on the 19th, isn't it?

Thank you, JoCo, and Paul & Storm for an awesome show! Not only did you play fabulous, intelligent, funny music, you all managed to interact with the audience to great effect without quite letting them get away from you with a little too much enthusiastic pirateyness. :) JoCo: "Yes, this is a guitARRR!" Paul: "I see we're sailing on the good ship ADD tonight!"

Just remember that we love you out here! Your people are out here too! Code monkeys, pirates, and zombies alike! And I thought Mr. Fancy Pants was awesome, just for the record. :)

And thanks to your family for lending you to us for a while. :)

Fabulous, fabulous show. And thanks to everyone who came up to me and said (just like Cecil did), "are you really Spiff?" ;)

I was recording the show on my iPod, and whiile I'm not sure if any of it will come out, I'm praying to Gawd that "Mr. Fancypants" came out because that was fucking awesome! If I do end up with a good recording of the song, I'll post it so others can hear.

Wow, that Fancy Pants Device sure was fancy!

I'd love to hear that Sweet Caroline cover if Spiff or anyone else captured it....
-Cecil

Well, I'm showing up for the Austin show on the 18th, you gonna be there?

It was an awesome show! Thank you Jonathan, Paul and Storm!

Girts

I have a video of the Fancy Mr. Fancy Pants, but it was not on my camera, so I'm having trouble uploading it. I'll figure it out at some point.

Good to hear that the show was such a success! :D I hope that recording comes out good Spiff, I'm looking forward to it. ;)

Here's a couple photos of the show:

http://picasaweb.google.com/drorex/JonathanCoultonLive/photo#5110541745088226610

I also have a couple crappy videos from my digicam, (including Mr. Fancydrum) I'll see about uploading them somewhere.

I recorded some little bit of the show into that most high-fidelity of all audio devices, the iPhone... Stuck an MP3 of "Sweet Caroline" into my Big Little Repository. The sound quality is -terrible- and therefore in the longstanding tradition of bootleg live recordings.

The show was delightful as usual, not much more I can say about it that hasn't been covered already. Thanks JoCo!

First of all, that was an amazing show, one of my top five of all time. I realized the last time you were in SF the day after the show *gr!* Next time I need to make it closer to the stage, but beautiful performance by all three of you. The only songs that could have made it better were Ikea, Chiron Beta Prime & the Presidents. I wish I could have stuck around but I had a timed essay test this morning I had to wake up early for. You're just going to have to come back sometime very soon.

For the fans out there, does anyone know where I can get a hold of an audio/video recording of the show? I saw someone's iPod recording at one of the front tables.

You guys pretty much killed us. I had high expectations and you even exceeded those.

A particular highlight for me were your dynamics, especially when you got very quiet and everybody was just silent. Very cool. Sound was just great at the great american musical hall.

You'll need to come do another show, so you can play "drinking with you" for us.

Cant wait for your return!

Excellent show, I had an amazing time. I thought the Fancy Pants machine was a lot of fun, I'd be interested to see what goofy things you've done to your other songs with it. Enjoy the rest of your shows, hopefully they all go as well as last night (maybe not that well, we want you to come back soon).

Was nice to meet Spiff, his videos are how I first heard JoCo.

On a final note... I still find myself saying ARrrrrrrr today whenever an appropriate word presents itself.

Thanks so much for an amazing show, JC. We were thrilled you were here.

I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't actually heard Paul and Storm until last night (although I *am* a Da Vinci's Notebook fan). I'm delighted to have been introduced to their lunacy as well. Spent all my money last night on their albums and yours.

I personally thought Mr. Fancy Pants was the best thing I have ever seen, ever, in my whole life, truly. I couldn't stop giggling.

And "Sweet Caroline" was just great, in an "I can't believe I'm hearing this" kind of way, and also in just the plain old regular way. Both at once. As Luke M says, "giddy, nearly irony-free".

(Thanks also to Luke M for posting the songlist!)

Come back soon. We'll be waiting! I recommend that next time, no one on stage mention pirates.

A delightful show. Thank you!

Here's the into where he explains about his new device and why he's using it:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/821668/jonathan_coulton_mr_fancypants_intro/

And here's him playing the song itself:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/822014/jonathan_coulton_mr_fancypants_w_zendrum/

And here's just the audio of the song, should be slightly higher quality than above, uploading to video sites seems to lower the quality noticably (i'm new to this sort of thing)
http://davr.org/JC/JonathanCoulton-Mr.Fancypants-zendrum.mp3

Warning: Audio quality is somewhat poor, it's 8khz mono sound from a tiny little mic in my little digital camera, but you can get the idea of the song. Perhaps someone has a better quality one :)

Finally...the show was AMAZING. An awesome place, Lindsey on lights was wonderful, especially during Creepy Doll. We could really tell that you enjoy your job :)

Fantastic show. There's never been a better version of Mr. Fancy Pants!

I didn't even know Paul and Strom were with DaVinci's Notebook, but I love them too (both DVN and P&S).

Loved it!

Yo -- wow, I realized like 10 minutes after shaking his hand that Spiff is the WoW JoCo Videos Spiff, right? Holy crap!

Anyways, I gots all your videos. Some of them are shakier/crappier than others because there was some long-haired kid and his short-haired friend rocking out in front of me for the whole show (I'm sure that's somebody above, right?), but they're pretty much all there. Well, except for Brains. Somehow my cards always run out of space in the middle of Brains. It's my curse.

Oh, and I didn't tape something else too. Oh, and I didn't get all of Paul and Storm, sorry. But I did save space for all of Sweet Caroline, which came out pretty good, I think because I was standing in the back and all of you kindly stayed seated. Thanks.

Anyways, here's the first of many clips to upload (goddamn I wish YouTube had a bulk uploader):

Code Monkey: http://www.youtube.com/v/esWz_M3Ezt4

Enh, I know you guys are jonesing for the videos, and YouTube quality sucks.

So I opened a temporary account on Phanfare (awesome site, BTW). It'll stick around for 30 days, so get the videos while they're hot. (They'll be uploading throughout the night, so be patient.)

http://jocosf.phanfare.com/

Videos can be downloaded as Divx. You can pick and choose, or grab them all when they're done uploading, probably by the morning. MJPEG compressed AVIs, which is what my Canon S3 produces, are very bloated, which means it'll take a while for everything to upload.

--Darryl

Darryl:

Dude. Thank you so much.

I thought during the show, "there's a live album in this, hope to g*d JoCo is getting a soundboard..."

I'm looking forward to seeing/hearing everyone's recordings, it is greatly appreciated.

It turns out that no matter what file size I upload, the picture quality degrades the same on YouTube. I think I'll do a mass upload site like Phanfare too. Till then...
Skullcrusher Mountain- http://youtube.com/watch?v=yV3LP7P_8a4

David R:

Thanks for the recordings and links, and I second your props to Lindsey, who really kicked Creepy Doll (especially) up several notches with her lighting effects. Rock Opera!

YouTube won't even take my videos. Facebook will even take my videos! I don't know what YouTube's problem is, but I followed the herd and got a phanfare account temporarily. http://samhunter.phanfare.com

It included a full video of the Fancy Mr. Fancy Pants including some setup. I also got videos of some of my other favorite songs that were played, although I did not get any from Re: Your Brains, as I was too busy participating and doing the Thriller dance.

Perhaps next time we can hear Kenesaw Mountain Landis?

Again, Mr. Coulton, fantastic show. Come back soon.

So if you like SF so much you'll come back, right!?!?? :D

Oh, boy. Major props to the SilValley geeks out there, who are doing an awesome job of reporting out a JoCo concert with barely a pause. You guys rock, truly.

Also, I have to hand it to Storm. Somehow over the past week since Birchmere he's been working on those harmonies on Code Monkey, and I think going above the melody line just nails that mournful background from the original in a beautiful way. I LOVED this version.

Thanks for the link, Darryl! I'm happy to be able to relive the night.

It was a fantastic show.

sadly i have to say i wasnt there. i was SO tempted to make the drive, but sadly i had other duties to attend to (though none were classes, damn it), i gotta thank darryl for capturing the show, esp. paul and storm's awesome "opening band" and "nugget man" songs! seems you San Fransiscan's had a great time, hope next time hes in CA, i can get to the LA and SF shows.

(Um, hold that thought - that seems to have been encoded at low quality. Let me redo that.)

Hey everyone -- *finally* everything is uploaded. My stupid old Mac kept crashing during the uploads of the full-sized AVI files, so I ended up re-encoding the last couple to MP4s and then uploaded the smaller files, where they got re-encoded once again. Argh. Oh well, I think the quality still kind of holds up.

OH -- it looks like i've saved the last re-encode/upload for last: Mr. Fancy Pants is on it's way: 52% right now! There's a couple of pauses while I take photos. Sorry about that.

Oh yeah, I'm finally adding Song titles. Sorry about that lapse too.

Man, thanks to Luke for the setlist. Made adding titles easy. Oh, and I realized I forgot to upload The Future Soon. It'll be up... uh, in the future, soon.

I was there, that was an awesome show, definetly coming again, zombies, half monkey half pony monsters, and pirates, whats not to like XD

I heard you for the first time on WCL; I now have a new favorite song. I like ponies and I like monkeys!

Thanks to Darryl for introducing this Phanfare site to us. I will probably upload my Tractor Tavern show up here, and hopefully after this weekend I will have two more concerts (going to both Portland and Seattle shows) up. I gotta hold the fort down here in the NW... now I just need to invest in a couple more 1GB memory cards.

"I will probably upload my Tractor Tavern show up here, and..."

Up here onto my new Phanfare account that is... ugh I think I need to Alt-F4 my brain.

I just saw your "Sweet Caroline" on youtube - you HAVE to play that in boston! it's our favorite Fenway song!

Gosh dang YouTube freaking needs a bulk uploader. Ok, all the videos I got are up.

http://www.youtube.com/user/notatinklefan

Oh yeah, some photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90891703@N00/

Including sweet-ass poster that I found on the back table (slightly damaged) when I left P&S early to hit the ATM. And they all signed it! Awesome!

Oh yeah, and JoCo's boxers! Sexy!

Loved the LA show. Paul and Storm were a great addition to the songs they pitched in on. It got me to wondering just how many voices it'd take to do "When You Go" live.

So I gotta thank you JC, and send you a cut. I took my son to this show for his 13th birthday and in line out front he bet me five BIG ONES that you would NOT do "I Hate California". Your Check is in the mail.
Best show I have seen in many years, best crowd I have mixed with in same. I felt as if I were at Rondezvous, only instead of mountain met it was programmers.
BTW when I was asked who we were going to see I said "The Woody Guthrie of Zomibies and robot overlords".
Come back soon, we will be there.
Spiff...was that REALLY YOU? I thought it was a celebrity look alike

Less than 24 hours until the Austin show. We're looking forward to it here in Texas! (Even us business travelers who just happened to be lucky enough to be in a town that JoCo is coming to.)

Fox7 news said the show tonight was at 6:30pm at Cactus Cafe, but Cactus Cafe says its at 8:30pm. I'm confused.

Doors at 8:00, P&S at 8:30, JC to follow. Confirmed.

darn my ugly beak, I only just found your kickass tunes, and now I find I've missed seeing you in person by a tiny week!!! (aw hell, was in the stupid hospital that day,, It got better,, beak problems)

Rock on!,, ish,,,

I did an audio extraction of Darryl's JoCo videos, cut the incomplete songs, added some fade in/outs and applied hiss reduction. Not the complete show, but sounds pretty good and makes a nice souvenir. Darryl, you rock. If anyone want the mp3s or wants to host a copy, let me know.

Hey Luke -- I'm too lazy to extract the MP3s myself, and your editing work sounds nice. Could you contact me at my YouTube account? I could set up an FTP drop for you, and maybe even find someplace to host the files. Thanks!

Hey Darryl -- I don't have a YouTube account and don't really want one, so their system won't let me contact you. If you go to my user profile in the forums, you can contact me at my email address. I'd be happy to email files to wherever you want or even snailmail you a disc, I just don't want to deal with YouTube.

I'm hoping Spiff's recording came out OK so that I can fill in "Brains" and "May." Your camcorder got surprisingly good fidelity :)

Thanks

Luke--could we work out a way to have those sent? I could even put them up online for others to download. I have enough space on my server.

charlie -AT- wolf -DOT- sh (not .com, .sh)

Thanks
~charlie

Charlie:

Absolutely, and thanks. Thanks most of all to Darryl for his *stellar* taping skillz. I am but a cog in the machinery of JoCosity.

I was trying today to email mp3s extracted from Darryl's exemplary vids to a fellow fan, but my Yahoo account was being lame. I will try again Monday from a higher-bandwidth connection. Your offer of server space is much appreciated.

I'm still willing to snailmail discs, too. As an old-school trader I have no problem picking up the postage and packing costs in the interest of building taper karma.

Thanks
~Luke M

I posted most of the video at the website above. I'll try to link them in the forum.