The Long-Awaited DVD

Not quite ready yet, but very soon I think. I’ve just now resolved a licensing issue that was holding things up, and am currently pushing to finish this sucker up. To answer some of the questions that have been coming in through various channels:

1) This will be a DVD/Audio CD combo for $20. The audio is from the same show that’s on the DVD, but with most of the blah blah blah edited out. It will be available for purchase at shows as soon as I have the finished copies, by ordering online in a few places, and hopefully in some actual retail stores. I’m guessing we’re looking at a month or so at this point.

2) The DVD will be region free.

3) The Audio CD will come with highly restrictive DRM software that secretly installs a rootkit, which creates a security risk and may crash your computer (just kidding!).

4) The audio will be available for sale digitally, most likely on iTunes and other such outlets. The video, maybe, I’m not quite sure how that’s going to work yet, but I hope so.

5) The DVD will have the full San Francisco show from February of last year (ack!), with only a few bits here and there edited out for pacing and maximum awesomeness. There’s plenty of fan cam footage in there from cameras that were in the audience. There’s a bit of documentary/interview type stuff with me, backstage business, etc. There’s also an audio commentary track featuring me, Paul and Storm, and Kristen Shirts, which was recorded poorly in my living room over pizza. Plus extra extras.

All in all I’m very happy with the way this turned out, though it has taken a lot of time and money and effort to make. It’s been a very different experience from the method I am used to – make it cheaply and quickly, publish it immediately – but in the end it’s a thing I am very glad to have in the world. The live show has come a long way since that first concert at the Jewelbox Theater in Seattle, and the songs have evolved as I’ve learned how to play them, and then learned how to play them well, and then learned how to deal with it when I don’t play them well. And of course it’s just fun to watch an audience at a live show. Zombies! Rock Band! Kristen Shirts!

Thanks for your continued patience, I will of course overwhelm you with SPAM the moment this thing is buyable.

PDX–>JFK

One of the things that’s hardest about this job (if you allow that I have any right to complain about it at all, which I don’t) is the traveling. Not the part where I go to great cities and meet interesting people and pretend to be a rockstar in front of an audience of superfans, that part I like. It’s the part after that, where I tape up boxes in a crappy hotel business center at 2:30 in the morning, crash for an hour and then lug my stuff to the airport. I’m lucky today, I got the free upgrade to the upper class, so there will be breakfast and room to sleep. Poor Paul and Storm drove from Portland to Seattle last night after the show to catch their flight this morning, which sounds even worse.

All this is to say that when there are crowds and shows like these last two, it goes a long way toward making up for the bad parts. Molly was awesome, Paul and Storm always make me laugh, and of course you guys in the audience continue to amaze me by showing up at all, let alone in massive numbers, ready to scream for brains. I’m pretty sure that if you account for everything, I’m still coming out way ahead. So thank you.

Also. a first class upgrade does not hurt. Have fun in coach, suckers!

SEA–>PDX

Wow Seattle, huge turnout. Thanks to everyone who came out, hope you didn’t mind the unusually mellow and breakup-y set list. Nice to have Molly up there with us too (if you’re in Portland and feeling undecisive, she’ll be with us tonight as well). I always enjoy your fair city, and this time was no exception. We’ll be back soon for sure.

Portland tonight, still plenty of tickets. Buy some why don’t you?

Whiffenpoofs Centennial Concert

I keep forgetting to mention this, but I and Hodgman will be guest performers at the Whiffenpoofs Centennial Concert at Woolsey Hall on the Yale campus, Saturday January 31. Details from the Facebook page (you kids still use the Facebook?):

$20/General, $5/Yale students

Purchase tickets at http://www.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=167246 or reserve them by emailing whiffenpoofs@yale.edu Tickets can also be purchased at the door. Visit www.whiffenpoofs.com for more information.

I will not be wearing tails!