Miniskirts

July 3rd 2006 by E..

They Might Be Giants came waaay too early of Friday to set up for their Free At Noon concert…I was there at 7:00, along with several other staff and interns…the band wasn’t there until about 10:00 or 10:30, so I really saw no reason why we had to be there 3 hours in advance, considering that it took about 40 minutes to bring all of the stuff they needed in from their truck…if that didn’t get us riled up enough, I invite all of my readers who are good at math to consider this: the cooler a band is, the bigger the chance that their crew is going to be a bunch of inconsiderate dicks…now, I love They Might Be Giants, and I bet that I always will, but that was one of the most unpleasant experiences working with a band that I have ever had…and it really wasn’t the band’s fault, as far as I can see, because we hardly talked to them…I helped John Linnell, Marty and Danny get into the venue, and answered a few questions, but that was it…apparently, the crew asked for very little in advance, such as technical things they need, or maybe that they might need people to help them during the show…it turned out that they needed 2 people to work spotlights during the show, so Steve (one of the Production interns) and I got volunteered…It would have been fine, but they didn’t let us know about this in advance, and they guy who was ‘directing’ us on the spotlights was doing a really lousy job…we had headsets with microphones so that the three of us could talk to each other…he said that he wants us to turn our mics off during the show to minimize noise in the headsets…that made sense, but he kept talking all during the show, just saying things and asking us stuff, as though he forgot the last thing he told us…not only that, but he kept missing his cues for when to tell us to turn the lights on and off…now, I know all of They Might Be Giants songs, and if I hear the intro to a song, I know when certain people are going to come in at different points…however, how do I know that he wants people to be lit up at those moments?…so we had to hear things like “Oh, sorry, I missed my cue” or “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention there”…well, maybe if you weren’t clogging up your concentration with mindless questions and observational statements, you would catch when you’re supposed to do your JOB!!…Later that same day, The Dresden Dolls were in the studio, and they were really nice, even though they were running really late…I got Amanda, the lead singer and piano player to sign my copy of their first album, and she was really cool about it…listen for the broadcast of that session, since Lynn and Melanie (the best Programming interns ever) snap their fingers on one of the songs…

I know what you’re thinking, “Quit complaining…you get to meet famous people at all, so you should be happy for that.”…and you’re right…but just because these people are “famous” doesn’t make them any better than I am…they are people just like me, and they were my age at one point, working at a regular job…there is no reason why “celebrities”, let alone their freaking tour crew should belittle the knowledge and abilities of another human being…it’s whole human issue thing, and I’ll be glad to tell you about it if you ask, but I have better things to write about now…

Last night, I took the train to XPN to help out with Gene Shay on The Folk Show…in case you did not know, The Folk Show used to follow the Kids Corner Music Hour, which in turn followed Mountain Stage (a two hour long showcase of several musicians focusing on folk, roots, bluegrass, and singer-songwriters)…Gene has been asking for years to have his show be backed against Mountain Stage, because the same people who listen to that program would be more likely to listen to his than Kids Corner…well, Gene got his wish starting this week…the Kids Corner Music Hour has been moved to Monday nights, and the Folk Show follows Mountain Stage…I’ll get to where that all comes into play in just a minute…When I got on the train at Elkins Park, it was really nice out…not to hot, not too humid, just very nice…when I got off at 30th Street, which is only about

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