So honey don't you fret

[austin_dern]

Brian McCann's spiel warming up the audience to Late Night included --- in 2009 as in the times I'd visited the show in the 90s --- a few further warnings, like not to take pictures, do obey the APPLAUSE signs, and if you see on the TV monitors that you're in frame, don't look up, because cameras work at the speed of light and what people will see at home is pictures of your throat and you will look silly, which would of course be quite dangerous. And with that it was time to bring out the Max Weinberg 7.

The band is called out to the theme of the Blues Brothers, then as now, with each member running from the stage doors across the set to take his position in turn, with Max Weinberg coming in last. As in the 90s, they start right off playing some exciting jazz piece that if I knew a blasted thing about music I could probably identify. It sometimes would turn up in commercial intros and outros, though. In the 90s, when Conan came out for the warmup, he would also mention the band and give some line about getting closer to the audience --- and then order the band to ``GET THEM!'' at which point they leapt up from the band shell and climbed on the railing to the audience. This would be stopped by Mark ``Love Man'' Pender grabbing a loose piece on top of the railing at which point all would stop, sheepish at the broken set, and Conan would complain about what a cheap set this was, and they'd settle back to their podiums and Conan would go off behind the proscenium to start the show.

They didn't do that this time, and I think even had Conan been out they wouldn't have as there was no obvious part of the railing which could come lose. They did keep up another tradition, though: at one point in the warmup songs Mark Pender, playing trumpet, comes to an extraordinarily long held note. Which he holds, and holds, and holds, as the rest of the band slowly falls away and comes to stop, staring in awe at Pender continuing to play as his head turns bright red and veins throb across his skull in this last moment of warming-up excitement before the show proper begins. I've never known how long Pender's Long Note goes on, but it's always impressive and draws a great applause. The difference this time is that La Bamba --- the one who chants ``In The Year 2000'' for that bit --- was by his side, taking pictures.

Trivia: In March 1925 the Eskimo Pie corporation, valued at $25 million, went public. Source: 1927: High Tide of the 1920s, Gerald Leinwand.

Currently Reading: Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, David S Reynolds. Reynolds takes an expansive view of the Age of Jackson, including in it the ages of Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K Polk, Zachary Taylor, and Walt Whitman.

[ Oh, yes, for the record ... so help me, I laughed at Ziggy today. ]

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I at one point had Mark "The Loveman" Pender's autograph on my wallet, from when he played in NYC at a Border's in-store performance as part of the TMBG's Other Thing horn section.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is cool. I don't know about the wallet being a good autograph target --- it's kind of needed if it's in use after all --- but good that he was game for signing something nontraditional.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Well, the wallet had plenty of inner surfaces, which is where I collected the signature of Mr. Pender (and the majority of others); this was well after I'd already had the signatures of John Flansburgh, Dan Miller, and Danny Weinkaupf. (And at the show, Dan Levin, Mr. Pender, Marcus Rojas and Marty Beller.).

Mark Pender also made a show of trying to filch one of my credit cards, which was properly and playfully done.

Sadly, said wallet was stolen from me about a year later, and when found later (as it had an address label affixed to the inside), was bereft of everything, including an insert that had 4 signatures on it; it had also suffered weather damage so that all but two signatures were illegible. Rather recently as part of my move I came across it, sighed deeply at the excellent memories, and threw it away.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's a rather good set of autographs to get, yes. Shame about the wallet being stolen and ruined, though. I'd have an awful time deciding what to do with the ruins of it.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I perhaps ought've photographed it, even in its ruined state; but my memories remain crisp of how it looked properly, and that'll do.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Photographs, ruined or ideal, would be nice to have. I've generally found I have a pretty good memory of things once I think of them, but need some prompting to remember to think about them.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Oh, indeed; I'm much the same way. Part of my move and de-cluttering has involved trying to find the smallest core memory-jogging-thing for a particular memory.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Trouble there, of course, is finding out later on that you were wrong.