NEW YORK GIANTS: I had an interesting evening Thursday. First I attended New York Press' release party at the Puck Building for their Summer Guide issue, which was fun with the exception of a few hundred gate-crashers, most of whom had nothing to do with the paper and many more of whom, I discovered, had never actually heard of it. So therefore, they ran out of food relatively quickly- they did not, however, run out of beer, for which we can all be thankful. I also chatted briefly with Jeff Koyen, the paper's editor, who is not nearly the sex-obsessed monster that Gawker makes him out to be.
I went from the party to a concert by They Might Be Giants at Bowery Ballroom, in celebration of their new documentary film, "Gigantic." Now as I've mentioned before, neither Phish nor They Might Be Giants are even on my Top 50 list of favorite bands, yet I've seen the two of them more than any other band. Thursday was my fifth time seeing Flansburgh and Linnell; this summer I'm going to my fourth Phish show.
It was a fun show though, with all sorts of surprise guests- Frank Black showed up to guest-vocal on "Particle Man," and also joining in the fun were Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing and Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes. But a true highlight of the show was the opening act, the hillbilly rocker known as Corn Mo. The subject of a recent New York Press cover story that referred to him as "post-Jack Black," the accordionist Corn Mo rocked out with songs about being mistaken for Gary Busey, among other outlandish subjects. I highly recommend checking him out some time.
Overall, a much better show by TMBG than their 1997 gig at Levin Ballroom at Brandeis.
Then Friday I went to see a show I recently previewed for The Blueprint, entitled "The Autobiography of God As Told To Mel Schneider." Very interesting show, which dealt with God coming to Earth and conducting a one-man stage show in order to convince the human race to stop the endless drone of the prayers. Much like a movie that came out the same day, Jim Carrey's "Bruce Almighty," except actor Joseph Lee Gramm's interpretation of God was more in line with the persona of basketball announcer Bill Walton, right down the Hawaiian shirts and aging-hippie vocal affectations. Also starring in the show was Horshack himself, Ron Palillo, surfacing publicly for the first time since his loss to Dustin Diamond in last year's "Celebrity Boxing" (a loss, incidentally, that was not mentioned in Horshack's official bio). Overall, a recommended show, which is running through June 1.