This is What It's Like, This is What It's Like On a TV
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 1 comments
Last night I went to see Ira Glass at the Boston Opera House on the second stop of his six-city tour. The tour is to promote the new TV adaptation of This American Life. With a startling amount of nerdy charm and charisma Glass managed to give me one of the best shows i have ever been to, music or otherwise. As an added bonus Mates of State provided musical interludes between each act of the performance. If you are familiar with the show you know that every week Ira provides a theme and then the show is further broken into acts, each of which exemplifies the overall theme. Not surprisingly, the theme of the show I attended was "What I Learned from Television".
Mates of State opened with what, as far as i could tell, was a brand new song written specifically for the show. Their lyrics can be a little abstract and hard to take in on the first listen. As a result all I know for sure is the chorus was about "watching TV" hence my supposition that it was written for Ira and company. The second song they played was Like u Crazy minus the stuttering chorus; No "I I I I like you crazy". Instead the perennial cutest couple ever harmonized throughout the chorus. Kori was playing a baby grand piano so they seemed to steer away from some of their more rocking tunes like Ha Ha, For the Actor or Fluke. At one point Ira Glass threw down the gauntlet by stating that NPR needed a sample of exactly 59 seconds of music so that local stations could do their plugs. Furthermore, the 59 seconds had to be preceded and followed by a one second moment of silence. Ira busted out his stopwatch and put the two to the test. Informing everyone that he would be more than happy to stay all night until they got it spot on. They played Think Long...once...for 59 seconds exactly. Then 2 seconds later the crowd cheered. Other songs included the These Days cover and something else...sorry, i cant remember, maybe it was Nature and the Wreck or maybe Goods. Sorry.
As for the non-musical portion of the show, it was equally as amazing. As my friend Karen put it "I don't think I stopped smiling the whole time". Unafraid to make fun of himself, Glass showed outtakes of his new TV show that did nothing but tear down the idea that he is smart and clever. He discussed in length his love of the OC and the shock, amazement, and happiness of hearing himself referenced on the show by Summer, who snidely commented "This American Life? Isn't that that hipster know-it-all show about how fascinating ordinary people are?" After reflecting upon he and his wife singing the theme song together every week, and how it reminds him of everything he loves about life, Mates of State came in on cue with their cover of Phantom Planet's tune California.
Other guests included:
Sarah Vowell, who discussed her history education via TV, primarily using the Happy Days Thanksgiving episode as reference.
Jonathan Goldstein with a hilarious rendition of the Flintstones under the pretense that the show should have been more real and dealt with more emotional issues. It detailed Barney's relationship with Fred and towards the end a drunken Fred calls Barney to inform him that he may have slept with Betty. This is after Barney tells Fred he accidentally ran over Dino and killed him.
Dan Savage, the famous sex advice columnist, explained how he learned "what kind of gay not to be" from TV. Furthermore, he exclaimed that the children's show The Suite Life is quite possibly the most offensive show on television.
The television show premieres on March 22nd on Showtime.
The radio broadcast of the live tour airs on NPR on March 17th and 18th....i think.
Here are the rest of the tour dates:
Thursday March 1st - Chicago Theater, Chicago IL
Wednesday March 7th - Paramount Theater, Seattle WA
Monday March 12th - Royce Hall, Los Angeles CA
I highly recommend going to one of these if it isnt sold out. (i.e. people in Ohio: its worth the drive to Chicago, people out west: how far is Seattle/LA? You've got to be close to one of them.)
p.s. - Mates of State will not be at the LA show.
Here's the trailer for the new TV series:
Here are some songs:
"Like u Crazy" by Mates of State from Bring it Back {mp3} [BUY]
"California" by Mates of State from The OC Mix 6:Covering Our Tracks {mp3} [BUY]
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