No! is released! (6/11/02 In-store report)

I made it to the NYC in-store on June 11th to see TMBG for the first time in 6 months. A good turnout considering it being a weekday at 5 PM. Also, a number of little kids were situated at the front of the crowd. Flans came with his 12-string, and Linnell had his white accordion.

They performed Robot Parade with Flans using a different mic for the weird sounds that come out for that song, not to mention a human beat-box breakdown between verses.

After this was Cyclops Rock, which was the slow, loungy, swing version that was similar to the one from the 9/10/01 in-store. Linnell also added some new vocal harmonies to the song.

Then came another new song, one that has not been performed since Thanksgiving of 2000, Bed, Bed, Bed. Linnell needed to glance at his cheat for the lyrics on this one, but with Flans adjusting his mics on his guitar to bring it up in the "mix", the balance of guitar and accordion was much better. Also, Linnell had a sound effect box to provide the various sound effects that highlight the song.

After this was a wonderful acoustic version of Older. During the pause in the bridge, Linnell played the "chimes" sound effect, which was a very good call at that point in the song. Flans commented afterwords that he was hoping he wouldn't freak out the children with that song, although Linnell mentioned that it probably would have been a good fit on the No! album as well.

The next song was introduced by Linnell as a song about a place just 44 blocks away, 4 of 2.

Flans then mentioned for everyone to make your cell phones and pagers make sound during the silent parts of this next song. A bunch of us assumed he was serious!!!! The proceeded to premiere a new song live, Violin, one of the most odd, yet charming Linnell songs ever written.

Skipping over Lines Upon A Tranquil Brow, they ended with Istanbul, not much you can say about that.

Afterwords, they did the meet-and-greet thing, which is only the 2nd time I've asked for signed stuff for them, albeit all my items were for other people. However, I was a bit selfish and got my picture taken with Flans. That will be the first and last picture I'll take with him, but I just wanted one because it was about time I did. So a good time was had by all, and it's always great to hear an unplugged TMBG performance.