Recent shows

In the following set lists, each song is printed in boldface if it was premiered at that show. Find out if you were part of music history in retrospect! It's just one more way we try to serve the Honest Bob community.

1 May 2003
Sky Bar

Our first show out in a while (there was one at the Abbey Lounge last September that I forgot to save a set list of), and it was once again a blast. The Sky Bar is a nicer venue now than it was when we played there a couple years ago, although the last-minute shuffling of set times remains. The last band never showed up, so we and the other band both got to extend our sets. Bonus.

The actual set was great except for Chris accidentally unplugging the power to our guitars twice. The first time it deprived him of the chance to play his killer solo on Red Integra, so you'll have to wait until another show to hear that.

Purple Yesterday; You Broke My Brain; You Don't Love Me Yet; Red Integra; Hey; Unprepared; Time Cube; This is the Coda; Chair; Wake Up; Scapegoat; I Push Her Buttons; Make You Laugh; I Get By; Leopold. Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails).

23 April 2002
The Thirsty Ear

Hey, how come I never knew about this place when I was at MIT? We got to play every single song that Chris has learned so far. Only 70 or so to go. We had a really nice crowd that stuck with us all the way through our 90+ minute set. Thanks, guys.
I Will Deny; All of the Cool Girls; Country Mo-fo; I Don't Say Anything; Soy Bomb (instrumental); You Broke My Brain; Purple Yesterday; Playing It Over; Saag Paneer; Who I Am To You; Hit On You; She's Gone; I'm a Guy; Organism; 43 Reasons; Cocoon; I Get By; Hey; Time Cube; Unprepared; A Bullet in My Brain; Without You; She's a Terrible Artist; Thalassocracy (Frank Black); Tatooine. Hale-Bopp. That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate (Mission of Burma); Leopold.

22 March 2002
Kendall Cafe

It's always fun to play at the Kendall. Chris's repertoire continues to increase. I think some guys from the previous band were heckling us. That was a new one.

For the second show in a row, one of us left some important equipment behind and had to come back in the middle of the night to pick it up. You'd think we'd be getting more professional, not less.

Soy Bomb (instrumental); I Don't Say Anything; She's a Terrible Artist; Playing It Over; Saag Paneer; Hey; Who I Am To You; Country Mo-fo; 43 Reasons; Cocoon; Leopold; Without You; Unprepared; Time Cube; I Will Deny; Hit On You; Tatooine.

8 February 2002
T.T. the Bear's

Our first show with our new member Chris! Doug left town so we were forced to recruit a new guitarist, but luckily it was easy this time (more so than when we had to find a new bass player).

We finally got to open for Grant Hart (we were supposed to a year and a half ago but it fell through), and he was great. Unfortunately, he didn't hear our set.

Hey; I Will Deny; Leopold; 43 Reasons; Cocoon; Purple Yesterday; Thalassocracy (Frank Black); Soy Bomb (instrumental); Hit On You; Organism; Who I Am To You; Time Cube; She's Gone; Tatooine; Hale-Bopp.

Not so recent shows

27 October 2001
Kendall Cafe

The Kendall is always great. These days they have a bunch of amps permanently set up that we are required to use. We were convinced they sounded awful. Apparently they sounded fine.

I have no record of our set list but I'm sure it rocked!

20 September 2001
Sky Bar

Our first foray into lovely Somerville. I think the surreal tone for the evening was set when we watched the President's address to Congress to the soundtrack of early Beatles hits while waiting for the night to start.

We did have fun on stage, playing lots of new songs and rocking out in general despite a couple of charming mishaps. Remind me never to play a show in the middle of a week of 12-hour days at work, though.

I Push Her Buttons; Tatooine; Hey; Playing It Over; Whatever You Know You Know You Don't; Don't Look Right; Unprepared; This is the Coda; Make You Laugh; I Will Deny; Who I Am To You; I Get By; Pollard Saves the Day; Leopold; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

4 July 2001
Kendall Cafe

We didn't know how many people we'd get for our post-fireworks show, and things looked pretty bleak as we were soundchecking, but we ended up with a fine and appreciative crowd; it didn't take long to go from "Let's just play a dozen songs and get out of here" to our full set list plus four requests, including She's Gone (backwards version), which was probably a joke when someone asked for it, but hey, we've been practicing it, so.
Hey Liz; All of the Cool Girls; High School Crush; Chair; I Don't Say Anything; I Will Deny; Saag Paneer; That's Okay; My Dinner with Laurie [double-speed version]; She's a Terrible Artist; When You Come Back; Fool No More; Another Person You Had Sex With [lounge version]; Another Person You Had Sex With [regular version]; Playing It Over; Wake Up; 43 Reasons; Cocoon; I Can Love You From Here; A Bullet in My Brain; Hey; The Benefits of Language; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); Tatooine; She's Gone; She's Gone [backwards version].

26 June 2001
T.T. the Bear's

This was New Song Night, although I guess the vocals were kind of low in the mix so no one knew what we were singing about. That's all right, just look up the lyrics now. There are already two more in the pipeline, as we race towards the 100 mark.

We did manage to rock out without collapsing from heat stroke, though my guitar was getting pretty slippery by the end. For once we actually had more time than we had previously been told, so we were able to slip in an extra couple of songs, including our first ever request by email. Keep them coming!

Hey; Tatooine; You Broke My Brain; I Will Deny; I Get By; Without You; A Bullet in My Brain; Pollard Saves the Day; Organism; All of the Cool Girls; Thalassocracy (Frank Black); Purple Yesterday; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); Hale-Bopp.

10 March 2001
Kendall Cafe

The Kendall is rapidly becoming my favorite place to play. The intimate atmosphere is great, and nice when we're doing lyric-heavy songs. And they have great beer!

Our set went fine. The size of our repertoire is getting kind of silly; of the 43 songs we've played in our last three sets, 37 were distinct and only 6 were repeats. Watch out, Guided by Voices. I hope that people enjoy hearing lots of different songs rather than the same ones over and over; for all I know everyone's annoyed that they don't get to hear their favorites each time.

Following us was Adam Brodsky, who terrorized the audience with his guerilla folk. Much hilarity all around. And he invited us to play down in Philadelphia! Do we have any fans there?

Oh, I forgot to say that we resurrected Ex-Girlfriend, in a new sorta Everly Brothers arrangement. Anyone still remember that song? It was our albatross around eight years ago.

I Don't Say Anything; High School Crush; I'm Still Around; Vegetable; All of the Cool Girls; Hey; Triple Point; Fool No More; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; After the Thunderstorm; She's a Terrible Artist; Ex-Girlfriend.

20 January 2001
T.T. the Bear's

Our Inauguration Day show was truly fabulous. T.T.'s was actually sold out (not because of us, because of Jim's Big Ego, who followed us, but still). Our set was heavily tilted towards love songs, for reasons I don't entirely remember; the excuse, anyway, was that Valentine's Day was coming up. Actually, a couple spilled out of our set and will have to wait until our next show.

I thought we were sort of sloppy onstage, but numerous people told us how tight we were, so go figure. Perhaps all the rehearsing is paying off. We did crash and burn at the beginning of one song, just like last time, which I hope was entertaining at least.

She's a Terrible Artist; You Broke My Brain; Without You; Vegetable; Purple Yesterday; In the Fridge; The Benefits of Language; When You Come Back; Love Defined; High School Crush; She's Gone; I'm a Guy; Tatooine.

27 December 2000
Kendall Cafe

In which we discover that it's more fun to totally fill up a small room than have the same number of people in a big club. The stage was tiny (although bigger than we thought it would be), so Bill played with a smaller set and no kick drum. We rearranged a few songs to suit the circumstances, which met with general mirth all around.

Anyway, it was just very pleasant and relaxed all around, despite the fact that that I was still working through a hacking cough, which luckily didn't manifest itself much as long as I kept singing. We will definitely be back.

When You Come Back; You Don't Love Me Yet [Faux-Latin version]; Without You; I'm So Embarrassed [Banjo version]; Cynical Girl (Marshall Crenshaw); We're Both Gonna Die; The Benefits of Language; Another Person You Had Sex With [Lounge version]; Everybody Knows; Wake Up; Chair; Tatooine; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); I'm a Guy; I Wish I Was Dead [Shufflin' version]; All of the Cool Girls; My Dinner with Laurie; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du) [Lonesome Cowboy Waltz version].

16 October 2000
T.T. the Bear's

Well, this started out kind of disappointingly. Actually, it started out promisingly and then got disappointing. We were going to open for Grant Hart (ex-Husker Du), who's written a bunch of my favorite songs (including one we cover frequently, Terms of Psychic Warfare). Then, three days before the show, he cancels. Grrr.

Unfortunately, this left the other bands on the bill with no audience (they had come from California), so that was too bad. Our set was great, though; we had an excellent audience, we got to play a bit longer than we were scheduled to, and we got to play Terms anyway (which we certainly wouldn't have if Grant were around).

Purple Yesterday; You Broke My Brain; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; I'm a Guy; Over You; The Benefits of Language; My Dinner with Laurie; Fine; Saag Paneer; Another Person You Had Sex With; All of the Cool Girls; Tatooine; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); She's Gone; Hale-Bopp. Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

15 July 2000
Lizard Lounge (w/ Jim's Big Ego)

Did I say that the last show was great? This show was greater. The Lizard Lounge is an excellent place, small and friendly, and the audience was large and friendly. It's always a blast to play for an appreciative audience who haven't heard us before and thus are hearing all our jokes and hooks for the first time. Jim's Big Ego was a great fit with us and I hope we get to play with them again sometime.
I Don't Say Anything; Purple Yesterday; Chair; Fool No More; You Broke My Brain; Tatooine; 43 Reasons; Cocoon; Organism; Red Integra; The Benefits of Language; My Dinner with Laurie; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails).

8 July 2000
T.T. the Bear's

This was the most relaxed show I can remember in recent history. Sound check was prompt, the other bands were good and got off the stage relatively quickly, the crowd was into it (one woman was a little too into it, but hey, rock and roll), we set up really fast so we were able to ad lib two extra songs, etc. Lots and lots of new songs as we dig out from under the 40 old songs we had to review for our CD release show.
Don't Look Right; All of the Cool Girls; Hey Liz; You Broke My Brain; Without You; Triple Point; You Don't Love Me Yet; Burn; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); I'm So Embarrassed; Whatever You Know You Know You Don't; I Don't Say Anything; Another Person You Had Sex With; She's Gone; Tatooine.

26 May 2000
T.T. the Bear's

CD Release Party part II was an unqualified success. There were no soundcheck crises, lots of people showed up even though it was Memorial Day weekend, and we sold a bunch more CDs. Did you know that you can order your very own over here? Well, you do now.

The highlight was probably me desperately trying to remember the first line of I Wish I Was Dead while the band desperately vamped beneath me. I got it after around twelve measures. Rock and roll.

Purple Yesterday; Guitar; I Don't Say Anything; Scapegoat; That's Okay; Wake Up; Flyer; The Benefits of Language; Beautiful; Organism; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); I Wish I Was Dead.

20 May 2000
Cambridge Brewing Company

Well, that was a hell of a lot of fun. It was our CD Release Party, and we celebrated in style, playing for 2+ hours. The scary thing is that even with a 34-song set, there were songs we wanted to do but didn't have time for. Oh well, we'll do them next week.

Big thanks to our friend Tom for making some sense out of the dodgy sound system. And to the Cambridge Brewing Company for giving us free beer.

Purple Yesterday; My Dinner with Laurie; Chair; You Don't Love Me Yet; Scapegoat; Fine; I Don't Say Anything; I'm So Embarrassed; Hey Liz; Everybody Knows; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; The Benefits of Language; 43 Reasons; Cocoon; I Don't Want to Hear About Your Crappy Boyfriend; Nothing New to Say; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); Don't Look Right; All of the Cool Girls; Organism; Make You Laugh; Another Person You Had Sex With; Saag Paneer; My Dinner with Laurie (double-speed version); Fool No More; I'm a Guy; Song About (Doug); Without You; Thalassocracy (Frank Black); Ex-Girlfriend; Red Integra; Saying Goodbye (The Muffs); She's Gone; Hale-Bopp.

8 April 2000
T.T. the Bear's

Tonight's crisis was that the third band took two hours to soundcheck, only the last half hour of which they actually spent on stage. We actually did get to do our soundcheck ten minutes before our set started, so it all ended okay.

Remind me not to wear long-sleeved shirts on stage again.

I'm Still Around; She's Gone; I'm So Embarrassed; Purple Yesterday; I Can Love You From Here; Sympathy; You Don't Love Me Yet; All of the Cool Girls; Another Person You Had Sex With; This is the Coda; Flyer; Hale-Bopp; Thalassocracy (Frank Black); Red Integra.

21 January 2000
T.T. the Bear's

Once again we thrive on crisis. Doug is stranded out in Austin Texas mere hours before the show, but his flight finally gets in an hour or two before load-in and he manages to stay alive through the evening.

What a great crowd -- we had an early set, and it was wicked cold outside, so we were expecting sparse attendance, but you all came anyway. Thanks.

The sound was great, thanks to super sound guy Tom Streit, energy level was high, thanks to seeing a Guided By Voices show a few days earlier; what more could you ask for?

Fine; Chair; Hey Liz; I'm a Guy; My Dinner with Laurie; Scapegoat; 43 Reasons; Cocoon; The Benefits of Language; Just Like That; Without You; Nothing New to Say; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails).

29 October 1999
T.T. the Bear's

You probably wouldn't have guessed it from the audience, but we had a near disaster. Here's the story:

We show up at 6:30 for load-in and soundcheck. The booking person at the club says, "Hey, do you guys have a sound guy?" I say, "No." She says, "Hey, we don't either."

It seem there was some sort of mixup about the schedule. But she says, "But don't worry, the third band is bringing a sound guy, and I bet we can get him to do the whole night." Okay, fine.

At 8:15, the third band calls. They're 80 miles out of Boston. (The first band is scheduled to go on at 9:00, by the way.)

There is a happy ending. Somehow the club gets in touch with some itinerant sound guy, he shows up at 8:30, minutes before the audience starts trickling in, no one gets any sound checks but other than that it all goes fine. And I was so busy being nervous about whether the sound guy would show up I forgot to be nervous about our set!

We had five, count them, five new songs, and we pretty much played them all correctly.

Don't Look Right; Without You; Organism; Saag Paneer; Cocoon; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); Acceptable; This is the Coda; I'm a Guy; That's Okay; She's Gone; Hale-Bopp; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

29 May 1999
T.T. the Bear's

OK, we discovered an old set list four months later, so this set is now preserved for posterity. That was close. The main thing I remember about it was trying to convince everyone (including the rest of the band) that we weren't doing the Diff'rent Strokes theme just because of the death of Dana Plato.
Martin Got a Haircut; All of the Cool Girls; Red Integra; Purple Yesterday; Chair; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); Make You Laugh; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; Diff'rent Strokes theme; Wake Up; My Dinner with Laurie; Long Distance Relationship.

10 April 1999
T.T. the Bear's

I'm so sorry that we took so long between shows, but I guess our fans didn't desert us, because we had a great crowd again. In fact, some of them went out and made spiffy Honest Bob T-shirts, which I was really happy about until I saw the back, which lists all our concert dates with "CD Release [CANCELLED]" by the side the last six or so. As we say in the business, "Tough, but fair."

The new songs went over great. We also did one of those IBM e-business commercials, which mainly just confused the hell out of everyone. At the last minute, I decided that I wouldn't be able to remember the bridge to Love Defined, so I wrote it all out, but the sheet of words turned out to be a good prop anyway.

The most exciting part of the evening turned out to be afterwards, when it turned out that one of the other bands had thrown some wet paint around backstage, and people kept on leaning on the door and getting it on their clothes. That wild rock and roll life, I tell you.

Hey Liz; IBM E-Business theme; Thalassocracy (Frank Black); Don't Look Right; Fine; Organism; Love Defined; Hate to Love; Saag Paneer; The Benefits of Language; Nothing New to Say; She's Gone; Hale-Bopp; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails).

29 August 1998
T.T. the Bear's

Wow. Where did we pick up all those fans?

The club was packed. And apparently a lot of the crowd was actually there to see us. Having a ton of receptive people in the audience makes playing a lot more fun. And we did have fun, despite the usual incredible heat.

We premiered four new songs, so that was pretty exciting. Greg and I switched instruments for Saag Paneer, which was so much fun that I forgot to sing backing vocals on one chorus. The other big embarrassing moment was stepping on the wobbly mic stand, causing the mic itself to hit me in the teeth. Oopsie.

Other highlights included a brand new a cappella three-part harmony break on Thalassocracy, and My Dinner with Laurie played at precisely twice the usual speed.

Thanks to everyone for showing up! Y'all come back again!

You Don't Love Me Yet; Hey Liz; Purple Yesterday; I Can Love You From Here; Saag Paneer; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); Thalassocracy (Frank Black); Heisenberg; The Benefits of Language; All of the Cool Girls; That's Okay; My Dinner with Laurie (double-speed version); Hale-Bopp; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

23 May 1998
T.T. the Bear's

Back to the bars we go... thanks to everyone who wasn't out of town for Memorial Day weekend and showed up. It was a fun gig; I like playing two shows in quick succession.

We were actually going to leave out Laurie this show since we were all sick of it, but we were ahead of schedule in our set, so I ad-libbed it in anyway, earning glares from a couple bandmates. As penance I agreed to finish with I Wish I Was Dead, which I'm usually all embarrassed to do because I have to put down my guitar and scream. During which Greg and I engaged in some Really Lame Slamdancing but I think I separated my shoulder anyway.

It looks like Head Like a Hole is going to be one of those songs we have to do every set. Pretty soon every show will have exactly the same set list!

Another Person You Had Sex With; I'm Still Around; Wake Up; Chair; All of the Cool Girls; Fool No More; Nothing New to Say; I Don't Want to Hear About Your Crappy Boyfriend; Everybody Knows; My Dinner with Laurie; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); She's Gone; Hale-Bopp; I Wish I Was Dead.

15 May 1998
MIT Student Center
(w/ Moxy Früvous)

Life is good.

Moxy Früvous came back to MIT for a return show, and kept their promise to have us play with them again. It went even better than last year, if that's possible. The sound wasn't as great this time, but other than that, it was a scarily good time.

LSC is the organization that shows movies and stuff on campus, and they ran this show, so we started with our arrangement of the little theme that always runs before the movies. So it took around 30 seconds to get all the MIT people, at least, all excited. Again, it was great to see how everyone (500+ people) really "got it" the whole way through, laughing at all the jokes and everything. We got tons of people on the mailing list, and hopefully some of them will stick.

The other debut song was our interesting interpretation of Head Like a Hole, about which I will stay mum to keep it a surprise for people who haven't heard it yet.

After our set we relaxed and enjoyed Moxy Früvous; they're incredible entertainers. They mentioned us around four times in their set, working us into lyrics, complimenting us (I think it was a compliment; the upshot of the whole dialogue was that if you were in a diner and you heard Honest Bob on the jukebox, you would sigh contentedly and order the fish), and of course good-naturedly mocking us. About which Mike seemed kind of embarrassed after the show; he insisted that it was meant as an honor, and I assured him that it was taken as such.

The only bad thing was that our CD wasn't finished yet; if it had been, I bet we would have sold a hundred copies! Patience, people, patience.

LSC Theme; Don't Look Right; You Don't Love Me Yet; Purple Yesterday; All of the Cool Girls; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; Triple Point; Organism; In the Fridge; Nothing New to Say; Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails); My Dinner with Laurie / Bitch / Da Da Da; Long Distance Relationship.

3 January 1998
T.T. the Bear's

Rock roll yes good.
Hale-Bopp; Chair; Purple Yesterday; Don't Look Right; Nothing New to Say; Make You Laugh; You Don't Love Me Yet; I Can Love You From Here; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; My Dinner with Laurie; In the Fridge; Organism; Long Distance Relationship; She's Gone; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

22 November 1997
T.T. the Bear's

It was a great night. For the second show in a row, we got unexpectedly good sound from the house sound guy. Thanks, sound guy!

I don't know what to say, because nothing went wrong. We played well, the mix was great, we got in a couple of Drew Bledsoe jokes. The highlight of the set was probably the segue from My Dinner with Laurie to that highlight of 80's German technopop, Da Da Da. Our repertoire of stoopid cover snippets is rising...

You Don't Love Me Yet; I'm Still Around; All of the Cool Girls; Wake Up; Lottery (Greg); Chair; I Don't Want to Hear About Your Crappy Boyfriend; Recycle Me; Everybody Knows; My Dinner with Laurie / Da Da Da; Sympathy; Purple Yesterday; Hale-Bopp.

16 October 1997
The Rat

Yes, that's right, we played somewhere other than T.T.'s. And we decided to make as drastic a change as possible, by playing at the Rat, Boston's finest dive. We put together a special loud and grungy set list especially for the occasion.

And actually, everything turned out great. The sound guy was really good, it wasn't too hot, we weren't too loud, we could hear ourselves on stage. It was eerie.

No new songs tonight; it had only been a month since the last show, and we've all been busy. But there are a few waiting in the wings.

Postscript: After a zillion years, The Rat closed one month after our first show there. I guess we were the final nail in the coffin.

Another Person You Had Sex With; My Dinner with Laurie; Purple Yesterday; Organism; Over You; Words; Sympathy; That's Okay; She's Gone; Hale-Bopp; I Wish I Was Dead; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

12 September 1997
T.T. the Bear's

It was the return of the Very Hot Stage. We had a huge crowd, which pumped us up a lot - Greg was a madman up there. Bill's other band, Helena Handbasket, played first, so he got to load his drums on and off stage all night.

This was, like, the night of musical references. We managed to sneak some bits of Weezer, Led Zeppelin, Meredith Brooks, and the Breeders in there. How freakin' postmodern. I hope for your sake the trend doesn't continue.

Long Distance Relationship; In the Fridge; Wake Up; All of the Cool Girls; Saying Goodbye (The Muffs); Lottery (Greg); Chair; You Don't Love Me Yet; My Dinner with Laurie / Bitch; I Don't Want to Hear About Your Crappy Boyfriend; Purple Yesterday; She's Gone / No Aloha; Hale-Bopp; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

24 July 1997
T.T. the Bear's

Woo hoo! Rock and roll! This was our first time headlining T.T.'s on a real night, and things went great, despite our fears that no one would show up for such a late show. I was inspired by seeing the Muffs the night before, so I was determined to rock, and everyone else was only too happy to join in.

Alan made a return appearance on lights and did a great job, despite flashing all sorts of crazy lights every second and a half while I was desperately trying to look at my guitar. (Usually that song is an instrumental, but this night it had extra lyrics in the second verse: "Alan... Don't take the light off my fretboard. Thank you.")

Thanks to everyone for staying out so late to see us.

Purple Yesterday; Organism; My Dinner with Laurie; Song About (Doug); Chair; Make You Laugh; Sympathy; Weight in Gold; You Don't Love Me Yet; She's Gone; In the Fridge; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar (Greg); All of the Cool Girls; Words; Instrumental; Long Distance Relationship; Hale-Bopp.

17 May 1997
MIT Student Center
(w/ Moxy Früvous)

MIT managed to score Moxy Früvous for a show, and the guy organizing the concert is a fan of ours and thought we would be a good fit, so we landed the coveted opening slot. Thanks, Jacob!

It was a great show. The sound system was the best we've had in years (as you might imagine), despite the fact that we had only 43 seconds to do our soundcheck. We had more space on stage than we knew what to do with. I think a few people may have even spotted Bill on the drums!

It was the biggest crowd we've had in years too, three or four hundred people. It was really nice that almost everyone who came to see Früvous came to see us too (well, mostly they were reserving their spaces) and gave us a great reception. Thanks, audience people.

Moxy Früvous enjoyed our set too, and during their set said they'd like us ("Handsome... uh, Honest Bob") to play with them again. Apparently they're serious, as evidenced by the following exchange:
Dan: We'll see if you still mean it after you sober up.
Mike: Unfortunately, we're sober now. Hey! Murray! Where'd you get that beer?
So we'll see if anything comes of that.

Their set was fantastic, of course. We had a good one too, despite Bill's floor tom falling apart in the middle of I'm Still Around. Best moment: Jian looking on in horror from the side of the stage as I announced, "In honor of Moxy Früvous, we're going to start our last song with an a cappella introduction." Which of course turned out to just be me singing an E for 15 seconds. Ha ha, we are such jokers!

You can find a two sentence review of us by going to the Früvous page and following the "Live show reviews" link to the MIT show. We also have a bunch of pictures from the show.

Finally, I'd like to thank Moxy Früvous for finally getting me to figure out how to do umlauts in HTML.

Martin Got a Haircut; I'm Still Around; All of the Cool Girls; Purple Yesterday; Chair; You Don't Love Me Yet; My Dinner with Laurie; Organism; Beautiful; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar (Greg); Shock the Monkey (Peter Gabriel); She's Gone; Hale-Bopp.

16 May 1997
T.T. the Bear's

Now that I've done a few of these concert reports, I've found that really the most interesting thing about each gig is what went wrong, which perhaps does not create the best impression of us for those of you leafing through these pages.

What went wrong this show? Not much, actually... we were kind of worried that our show the next day would siphon off a lot of the usual crowd, and with five minutes to go before our set things looked pretty bad, but lots of people showed up at the last minute, thanks! I'm going to have to start claiming earlier set times in our publicity.

Lots of new songs tonight, and a lot of short songs, as we managed to pack 16 of them into a 45 minute set. You Don't Love Me Yet and Hale-Bopp seemed to be the big hits of the new crop, plus lots of people got a kick out of Greg's I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar. Which turned out to be true.

Because we had 45 minutes (Friday!) we were able to stretch things out a little more, and basically had two sets, separated by a three second break. The two-climax approach seemed to work great (that's what she said) so we may reuse it in the future.

You Don't Love Me Yet; Everybody Knows; Sympathy; Guitar; Fool No More; I Won't Find My Wife in This Bar; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du); I Wish I Was Dead; Chair; I Can Love You From Here; Purple Yesterday; All of the Cool Girls; That's Okay; Another Person You Had Sex With; Thalassocracy (Frank Black); Hale-Bopp.

13 March 1997
T.T. the Bear's

Yes, it really was eight months between shows, how embarrassing. But we made it well worth the wait (I hope) with our new bass player, Greg. Things got off to a shaky start as I began the show by roaring into the solo guitar intro to our new surf instrumental... and promptly detuned my guitar within seconds. I spent the next song tuning my guitar on the fly as I sang, something I was pretty proud of until after the song when I discovered that my low E string was tuned past an F. Oops. Then we played Election Day at approximately 3600 BPM.

But things went smoothly after that, Greg rocked the house, we all got to scream a bit, and a good time was had.

Instrumental; I'm Still Around; Election Day; Chair; Don't Scratch (Greg); My Dinner with Laurie; All of the Cool Girls; Organism; Make You Laugh; Purple Yesterday; She's Gone; Another Person You Had Sex With; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

2 July 1996
T.T. the Bear's

They must have fixed the air conditioning since May, because it was actually bearable this time. We got a pretty good turnout considering that it was late on a Tuesday and that we were competing with the opening of Independence Day.

The exciting news this time was that our friend Alan has been doing lighting for bands recently, and volunteered his services for this show. Unfortunately, the lighting equipment at T.T.'s was a little flaky, so we got some unintentional effects. Everyone agreed, though, that the lighting in I Wish I Was Dead was the highlight of the show.

Tonight's "Intro of the night" is for I Wish I Was Dead: "There's a reason that all my friends call me 'Dancing Dan.' It's because I have a lot of really sarcastic friends."

I'm Still Around; All of the Cool Girls; Purple Yesterday; Ex-Girlfriend; Beautiful; Shock the Monkey (Peter Gabriel); Guitar; Another Person You Had Sex With; Everybody Knows; She's Gone; I Wish I Was Dead; Terms of Psychic Warfare (Husker Du).

23 May 1996
T.T. the Bear's

Oh my god, it was hot. It was really hot. People in the audience were complaining about the heat, and they didn't even have hot lights shining on them. I was told afterward that I was acting so loopy, people were concerned that I was going to faint. It must have been a good show!

The show did go really well, considering that we were all dripping with sweat and could hardly move. Doug had amp troubles (what a surprise) around a third of the way through, but we made it through the crisis and rocked to a rousing finish. The atmosphere was particularly celebratory since John just finally finished his PhD thesis.

Lots of new songs in the set, which were received well, even Over You (introduction: "I'd like to dedicate this song to my friend Greg, since he's going to be the only person in the audience to like it. I don't think he showed up, though. Oh, this bodes ill").

Fool No More; Organism; Over You; Chair; All of the Cool Girls; Purple Yesterday; Make You Laugh; My Dinner with Laurie; That's Okay; She's Gone.

Go back to the Honest Bob page
Last updated 31 May 2003