Yoshi's - San Francisco - May 15 and 16 2010

[Timid Ben]

At long long last, the west coast forum pic! (To complement the east coast pic from the DVD taping.)

We need to Photoshop some of you in there, though...

Desktop'd.

[Noreen]

Whoa...I am actually posting! I didn't think I had an account but my name/email was taken so I guess I did post once upon a time!

Amazing two shows tonight at Yoshi's!!! One thing I always love about Vienna/Alex is the fact that they *do* switch up a bit of the setlists for those people that go to more than one show.

I really very much enjoyed Paul Freeman and he is such a nice guy to chat with!

And it was as always, great to see everyone.

Wish I could be at Sunday's shows but I will be there Monday. Whooo hooo.

[Noreen]

Set 2 was a lovely concert and I am very, very glad to have been there. Thank you Vienna Teng, Alex Wong and Paul Freeman for an excellent night all around.

Ben...is that you Ben? I sat next to you at the show?

[aaparallel]

There is more of a story to the Enough to Go By from the first set, but I wasn't really involved in the planning or coordination for that one, so someone else should probably chime in.

Good morning, Warm Strangers! Woo!

Enough to Go By was awesome, yes? It all started when KALENABEAR designated the Yoshi's shows as forum-gathering-VT-sendoff shows. I hope we made it look official enough, as for a time, it was just an idea. We didn't really know what we wanted to do, but but the audience singing to V was one of the first things we decided should happen.

Fast forward a bit and enter the one and only, SCOT. He tweeted [yeah sure, we can sing to her] "but only if we do my dream, Enough to Go By as it was meant to be" (as a sing-along...the chorus turned out to be too long, and Soon Love Soon and City Hall have taken its place). I happened to have downloaded Enough to Go By v1 from here (I think...can't find the exact location anymore), which features a group of people singing the chorus and a guitar. I thought, "this is so perfect!"

I also got the green light (TOMCOS, KALENABEAR, SCOT, MICHELE, WINTERMOONSNOW) to have my amazing cousin make a cake for V. I decided that the tree -growing-from heart design of the Green Caravan Tour was most appropriate. V wrote in her announcement scrapbook entry that school's where her heart is right now. Since her music has reached fans around the world, the cake shows a heart in the middle of the USA, but the tree growing and reaching the edge of the cake, which was frosted blue to represent the world. She's also going into green business, so the Green Caravan design made sense. Can anyone (tomcos? scot?) who took a picture of V with the whole cake post the picture? Oh, the the cake was GREEN VELVET on the inside. Yeah. it's TOTALLY SUSTAINABLE

I told one of my school friends what I was planning to do , and she agreed that we should have ALEX WONG in on this. The plan would have a better chance of success if he were part of it. So I e-mailed him, and he replied saying that he'll help facilitate! This led to a few more exchanges, one of which I suggested that he play "Enough to Go By" in place of a song V expects as a potentially hilarious prank. I sent him EtGB v1, and being the overachiever he is, he learned the song (even the opening piano line on guitar...I had expected he'd just play chords like in the actual recording) We were waiting for some obvious cue for the song, and got a hilarious Wong intro: (not really verbatim and in order, but something like)
AW: I got a request to do a cover song tonight. I don't really know the words, so if you (audience) know it, join in.

VT: Can I join in if I half know it?

AW: No, if you half know it, don't join in...this artist writes really complex music

Alex starts playing the familiar first notes of EtGB, and VT really looks stunned/confused as he's playing, then we started singing...and she eventually joins in for the second verse (is that right?) singing and playing piano. Great having both guitar and piano for this song, as it was meant to be

After:
VT: I thought it was some '80s song that everyone knew but me. But then you all started singing and I thought 'wait...I do know this song! It was a (nice? clever? funny?) prank"'

AW: It wasn't my idea.

So glad it worked out. Thanks to Michele and Wintermoonsnow for checking the setlists/talking with Alex to make sure that this was going to happen. We also decided to sing along to the last Harbor chorus for the second show...the result wasn't as clear, but that was fun too

Feel free to add to this imperfect account

[stapper2]

I'm not usually one for commenting on the forum, but this totally deserves a high five. Vienna fans are truly a unique group of people. The only thing more awesome than reading about this "prank" would have been being there to see it. Great work!

[Erik]

Day 2:
Show 1:
Vienna and Alex join Paul Freeman to close out his opening set with Paul's song "The Promise".
The Tower
Whatever You Want
Antebellum
Recessional
Don't Be Afraid
1 br/1 ba (barnyard basement version)
Stray Italian Greyhound
Radio
City Hall
Harbor

Show 2:
Vienna and Alex join Paul Freeman to close out his opening set with Paul and Vienna's song "Go On Make Promises".
Gravity
Augustine
Antebellum
In Another Life
The Last Snowfall
Homecoming
Green Light Go
Stray Italian Greyhound
Radio
Harbor
Grandmother Song
-
Idioteque
City Hall

During 1 br/1 ba in the matinee show, where kids and their parents could attend at a discounted price, Vienna did the "my upstairs neighbors..." line and Alex followed with Moo, followed by Vienna's baa and eventually they had an audience chorus of chicken clucks, sheep baas, cow moos, pig oinks and a random cat's meow from Alex. Vienna then sang "Old Macdonald Had a Farm," just the line not the song and they wrapped up 1 br/1 ba as normal.

The audience barnyard participation resurfaced at the second show during Grandmother Song with some scattered moos.

The second show also included the west coast debut of Alex's Green Light Go, a solo song which is not by The Paper Raincoat and may show up somewhere in the future.

Overall for me, Sunday's second show was my favorite of the four, but I'm sure others will have different favorites and just having the variety of songs and arrangements in the four shows was great. Every show was a different experience and I have to applaud Vienna, Alex and Paul for widely varying their setlists to keep people coming back for more all weekend long.

While these were four of Vienna's last regular performances in the Bay Area for quite some time, it was wonderful to see so many of the other fans that I've met over the past 7+ years, and to meet new ones as well.

I want to give a shout out to Timid Ben, who joined the forum yesterday after an impromptu performance with Paul Freeman dropping by the merch table and making a significant purchase, joining in with the forum regulars at the "afterparty" and already starting to participate in the forum. Welcome Ben and thanks for joining in!

Speaking of merchandise sales, I also want to thank my core "Team VT" support group for the weekend: Michele, Calvin, Steven, Wayne&Sue, Bob W, Glen and Shana for their help rounding up change, stepping in with the swell of crowd to assist with merchandise and counting things when I was busy doing other things. It was a busy two days and I couldn't have done it all alone, so your assistance was greatly appreciated.

It was great to see Eric C and Pam, Noreen, Mika, Scot, Scot's Mom, Josephine, Karen, Bob, Heather, Tom, MundeleinHoward, Bich Ngoc and anyone else I may have missed since I had really bright lights shining in my eyes at the merch table for most of the evening.

Thank you all for continuing to support Vienna and Alex and for being such great company at every show.

I'm not sure he'll ever see this, but I also want to thank Paul Freeman for not only being a wonderful and talented musician, but being a true supporting act on the bill and not just an opening act. I look forward to Paul's full length cd release later this year and hope to check him out as a headliner some time in the not too distant future. I also hope to see him listed as one of the most famous people from Wales on Wikipedia at some future point. Paul instantly connected with Vienna and Alex's fans in San Francisco and also participated in the forum regulars' activities and on top of that played a whole bunch of songs in his five song sets, and as David Letterman once said about someone else I know "there wasn't a dud on there."

And of course, to Vienna and Alex, thanks for always continuing to make every show a great experience. Oh and I'll see you tomorrow, so maybe later in life I'll write some long glowing paragraph like the one I just wrote for Paul.

For those of you that actually lasted through that entirely too mushy post, I'll be back with a less mushy concise post about the Santa Cruz show later today!

[aaparallel]

During 1 br/1 ba in the matinee show, where kids and their parents could attend at a discounted price, Vienna did the "my upstairs neighbors..." line and Alex followed with Moo, followed by Vienna's baa and eventually they had an audience chorus of chicken clucks, sheep baas, cow moos, pig oinks and a random cat's meow from Alex. Vienna then sang "Old Macdonald Had a Farm," just the line not the song and they wrapped up 1 br/1 ba as normal.

The audience barnyard participation resurfaced at the second show during Grandmother Song with some scattered moos.

The second show also included the west coast debut of Alex's Green Light Go, a solo song which is not by The Paper Raincoat and may show up somewhere in the future.

NoOoOO I missed the 1bedroom/1 barnyard AND a Wong original? ARGH!

Good to see you too, Erik, though I'm still a little amazed that you knew my name...hahaha

And I will see you tomorrow

[tanthalas]

Alright, Alex has to perform Green Light Go tomorrow. aaparallel and I will make him.

[rahau]

At long long last, the west coast forum pic! (To complement the east coast pic from the DVD taping.)

We need to Photoshop some missing people in there, though...

Identifying most (but not all) of the people in Michele's photo: (My apologies to those I have yet to meet):

Row 1, left to right: Unidentified old Beatnik; Heather, the world's most patient piano teacher; Vienna; unidentified deranged drummer; WinterMoonSnow; AAParallel; Kalenabear.

Row 2: Erik; BobWhit (with hat); Paul Freeman; Scot.

Row 3: TomCos; (don't know); Tanthalas.

Row 4. (don't know); Michele; (don't know).

A few photos from the Sunday post-show festivities:

Scot, WintermoonSnow, and Tomcos:



Here I am with Scot. After several years of intense practice, I finally get to unveil my "Scot Impersonation."



And finally, Night Two of the Forum Members Photo.



Row 1, left to right: Scot; WintermoonSnow (who appears to be practicing her Scot Impersonation); Vienna; Alex; Michele; Paul Freeman.

Row 2: TomCos; Wayne Brask (FremontSueWayne); Mr. Cheng; Sue Brask (FremontSueWayne); Some old Beatnik; (Don't know).

Apologies again for those I was not able to identify. Perhaps Michele or Erik can fill me in.

What a great, if bittersweet weekend. I met several Forum Members for the first time - Scot, Kalenabear, AAParallel, Tomcos. And I reunited with several old friends.

I found myself savoring tonight's concert. I knew it might be the last one for a while. Afterwards, I told Vienna, "I've been a Teng-Head for seven years, five months, and four days. Thank you for allowing me to share this amazing journey." I'm sure I'm not the only one who will look back upon these seven-plus years as a Golden Age.

[Fred]

Wow, so nice to see all you guys together! Maybe something similar for East Coasters (including Tomcos bicoastally?) will happen at the Highline in August (and/or Phila Folk).

I also notice Vienna's new gig outfit, sans cowboy boots. Very fetching.

[Erik]

At long long last, the west coast forum pic! (To complement the east coast pic from the DVD taping.)

We need to Photoshop some missing people in there, though...

Night one forum photo:
Bottom Row:
Rahau, Heather, Vienna, Alex, WinterMoonSnow, aaparallel, kalenabear
Middle: Erik, TomCos, BobWhit, TimidBen, Paul Freeman, Tanthalas, Scot
Back: Noreen, Michele, RainingVodka

And finally, Night Two of the Forum Members Photo.



Apologies again for those I was not able to identify. Perhaps Michele or Erik can fill me in.

Night two forum photo:
Bottom Row:
Scot, WinterMoonSnow, Vienna, Alex, Michele, Paul
Back Row:
TomCos, Wayne, Eric Cheng, Sue, Rahau, Steven

[Erik]

Wow, so nice to see all you guys together! Maybe something similar for East Coasters (including Tomcos bicoastally?) will happen at the Highline in August (and/or Phila Folk).

I also notice Vienna's new gig outfit, sans cowboy boots. Very fetching.

But we've already done that!

Seriously though, any time you can get a bunch of us together, take a photo. It took us a lot longer to coordinate a West Coast photo due to logistics, then we ended up with two in one night.

[Kalenabear]

Not sure that I can take credit for the West Coast gathering. I will defer that to Michele, who officially labeled it as such. For me, these were two epic shows that I knew I had to see. I was encouraged when Tom and Scot announced that they were flying in for the show. A measly 6hr commute couldn’t compare with that (though, waking up at 6am for work today would say otherwise)! Loved the intimate venue and front row seats. It was great to pair familiar names with faces. Scot: “Introduce yourself with your online name.” lol.

Also really loved Paul Freeman’s set. All three artists are charismatic, but Paul is more...unabashed, I'd say. We picked up some good Welsh phrases, which are unspeakable here. The song that he and Vienna wrote together, “Go, Make Promises (gestures!)” remains immutable in my head. It’s just so gorgeous and I look forward to its release!

As for the ETGB prank: can’t really take credit for that, either, haha. Early on, I proposed that the audience send Vienna off with “Harbor”. As Aaparallel said, Vienna and Alex played their hearts out so that the audience was pretty much inaudible when we did join in. ETGB worked much better and I’m glad that Scot proposed this idea, that Aaparallel found the v1 recording, and that Wintermoonsnow coordinated everything with Alex so that we could prank Vienna. >;] To supplement Aaparallel’s account, Vienna said that she was “just sitting here like an idiot because I didn’t know this 80’s song. Then, I really was sitting like an idiot because I didn’t recognize my own song!” But we all know that VT's no idiot, and she caught on for the second verse, after giving a hearty chuckle. Props to Alex for putting in the time/effort to fulfill our crazy ideas.

Indeed a gathering of warm strangers. Thanks for the photo! Although, I look like a dork in headlights, oh well. I have photos of the sustainable green velvet cake—will post soon! Thank you also for filling us in on the Sunday shows! Hopefully we'll hear the barnyard versions of Grandmother Song and 1Br/1Ba at the Santa Monica show on Friday!

[aaparallel]

As for the ETGB prank: can’t really take credit for that, either, haha. Early on, I proposed that the audience send Vienna off with “Harbor”. As Aaparallel said, Vienna and Alex played their hearts out so that the audience was pretty much inaudible when we did join in. ETGB worked much better and I’m glad that Scot proposed this idea, that Aaparallel found the v1 recording, and that Wintermoonsnow coordinated everything with Alex so that we could prank Vienna. >;]

I'm gonna go ahead and take credit for actually contacting Alex and doing the initial e-mail explanations of the plan to him. But yes, since I don't have mobile internet/Alex's number/setlist access, last-minute preparations were successful thanks to Wintermoonsnow and Michele.

[Kalenabear]

I'm gonna go ahead and take credit for actually contacting Alex and doing the initial e-mail explanations of the plan to him. But yes, since I don't have mobile internet/Alex's number/setlist access, last-minute preparations were successful thanks to Wintermoonsnow and Michele.

Ooh, yes yes. You are right. My gmail shows that there were about 24 emails exchanged between all of us. A lot of that was Michele and Josephine finalizing details with Alex!

I gotta say, I'm really happy with how the live album and book came out. I can't imagine that anybody on this forum would go without them, as collector items. Really nice anecdotes and reflections from Alex and Vienna. I'm also pretty floored by the artists in this fandom -- cool interpretations in various styles. Gravity, braid version, makes me melt every time I hear it. Also happy that they put In The Creases on there. Even so, some songs translate better than others; that is, some songs still need the at-the-venue presence, maybe. For the most part, everything is gorgeous, and hey, they've titled the banters! :]