2013-04-09 Webster Hall (New York City)
Setlist
recording
Banter
- So this was on We Shall All Be Healed. [woo!] In those days if I used a pick, if you told me I'd be using one in the future, I Would have called you a bad person and a liar. Because I was too good for a pick in those days. Then I started playing like a hundred shows per year. You need a pick every once in awhile doing a hundred shows a year, this song is one of those hand-bleeders. It's about a bunch of hand bleeders. (The Young Thousands)
- This is a song about how you can be just going about the business of daily life, and get stabbed to death outside San Juan. It's called...Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan. (Stabbed To Death Outside San Juan)
- This is a song about, well, this isn't really unusual, it's a song about a relationship. Also not unusual, things aren't going well in the relationship. Things have taken a sort of...sour turn. Feels like there was a time that was less sour, but you can't really remember it so good anymore. And it's not even - there's a number of reasons why you might not remember something. You might have done damage to your brain, or you might just be busy with the other things, and lose sight of the important things. That latter category is what this song is about. (Poltergeist)
- [inaudible request] I'm tempted by that request, but I was kinda excited to put this one on the setlist, because I never play it. Hardly ever. It's actually - it's not that old, that makes it sound like it's old. You don't often have a room full of so many people who are being so awesome and quiet. [audience member immediately yells COME TO NEW JERSEY and is shut up]. This is New York. Lower Manhattan, specifically. Shh. There's a man playing music up here. (Until I Am Whole)
- This is a song about Luna Vachon, daughter of Butcher Vachon, one of the finest wrestlers to ever lace up her boots. (Luna)
- JD: As I transition to full Diva Mode, we're doing more and more songs where I don't have to play an instrument so that I can be free to [unintelligible]. Prepare for that. Because you know, Madonna once stood on this stage. [unintelligible] She hasn't been answering my phone calls, when I pitched this song to her. It's one I feel that she should really do.
Peter: When Madonna was on the stage, could you hear screamo coming up through the floor?
JD: No, but I remember at that time, there was a fierce yearning in her eyes, and I feel it was the yearning for the as-yet-unborn screamo genre. She awaited, going, where, where are these bands? Where is As I Lay Dying? Where are these guys? Their time had not come yet, but their time is now. It's weird, 'cause I can't hear their music, I just feel a faint rumbling and I feel like, oh, I better do this song pretty good because the stage is going to explode. I deeply regret that I don't have my swoop haircut to stand in the [unintelligible] screamo. And I could have had one, I could have said, give me another swoop, but I did not. This song has very little to do with most of that. It's about, um. This song is about. [faint screamo is audible] The things that you feel define you, that you hope one day to shake free of. (Never Quite Free)
- JD: Such a lost opportunity, because I took off my glasses to be able to jump about freely, but then, you're all deprived of the goth spider dance. I feel bad about that. I promise more spider dance in the future. Fucking [sneezing?] goths! [plays chords] What do you think? Pick or no pick?
Audience, as one: NO PICK!
JD: I was asking Peter, now.
[JD and Peter converse off mic, JD concludes "go crazy"]
Peter: [unintelligible] go crazy.
JD: Three music students are going "no! no! keep time! keep time!" Sorry. (Werewolf Gimmick)
- I should like to welcome to the stage. The Horns of Terror. This right here is a song about how I am going to come up to you when you least expect it, and stab you, in the eye, with a foreign object. The song is called.....Foreign Object. (Foreign Object)
- [audience: John you're a legend!] No, I stand in the company of legends: Mr. Peter Hughes on bass [cheering]. From the right profile [?] Jon Wurster on drums. [drumming, woos] I'm John, and I [hose down Dawes?] Consolidated Cardboard. This is a song about doing the things that you have to do, that other people sometimes can't understand. And, like, we presently live in a world where people are a little too given to jump the gun on saying 'fuck 'em,' right? They say 'fuck 'em' about having a Snickers, you know? Well maybe not fuck 'em, maybe they have a point, maybe I don't need a second Snickers, right? Maybe instead of fuck 'em, maybe they have a point, you know, maybe listen to them, not fuck 'em. On the other hand, there are certain core principles about which we must say: fuck 'em. (Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1)