New Year's Eve Gala

December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000 San Francisco, Galleria Desing Center

Detailled review of Mr. Bungle's performance at the New Year's Eve Gala at San Francisco's Galleria Design Center by ImpliedPresence

First, a strong recommendation:  if you don't like ultra-long e-mails, then FUCKING DELETE THIS NOW!  This is the "book version" review of the NYE show, and it contains way too many details for anyone's good.... so if you aren't interested, go away....
For the others, go get your favorite coffee drink AVEC caffeine, and be prepared to get refills periodically... heh....
oh - and also - to those persons waiting for e-mails from me.... well, now you know why I'm behind.... I'll get to you asap... SO - on to the intimate, elaborate, sappy, overdone, whatever Mr Bungle review [Fantomas review to be in another e-mail]:

First, the exact set list:

What the World Needs Now is Love
None of them Knew They Were Robots
Violenza Domestica
Ars Moriendi
Driving car Cover
Air-Conditioned Nightmare
Sweet Charity
Ultra-fast Punk cover [Mike's mics way too low....]
I Feel For You cover
Desert Search for Techno Allah
24,000 Baci
Air-Conditioned Nightmare
Travolta
My Ass is on Fire
Chemical Marriage
Retrovertigo
ENCORES
Begin the Beguine
Vanity Fair
Merry Go Bye Bye REMIX [SOUNDED like they might go in to LIAF, but they
didn't...]

Greg did, indeed, introduce all of the bands, and before Mr Bungle, he said that people at the Galleria probably had time to get over to Oakland (!?) to see Primus's show...  then he roused the crowd by saying, "Everybody   ready? This is really really special.... [then, louder] Are you ready???  I said, 'Are YOU READY???'  Let's Rock and ROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL" and the crowd responded with anxious and seemingly drug-induced screams.... heh.... He then said we had a few minutes to wait, but it was more like a few seconds, and he started the 10-second countdown to midnight.... poor #4, he passed over it and said "3" twice instead....  [yeah, I'm sure you love all of these useless details now, don't you???? just trying to give the blow-by-blow as unnecessary as it may be....]
Mike came onstage dressed in a silky suit (tan/brown pants, white shirt - which soon became see-through due to the sweat..., and white shiny shoes.... heh) to a lilting cadence and played the perfect role as opening crooner....
singing What the World Needs Now is Love [Sweet Love]..."sultry" isn't a good enough word to describe his performance... he MORE than milked it.... heh.... what an opener.... perfect..... Right after the last strains of WTWNNIL, the band  smoothly and quickly transitioned in to None of them Knew.... which was tight and blazing right from the start....
Some of the sound problems were apparent in NOTK [not hearing Mike at times and just strange sound levels at various points in the song....] but they weren't horrendous.... the way Mike is able to spit out the lyrics on this
song (and others, of course) is amazing, and he certainly amazed everyone this time..... again, very tight through and through.....  [btw, I'm not sure Mike could tell when there were sound problems from where he was
standing/listening, as I think we would seen him be more pissed off during a few parts of this song and at various times during the rest of the set.... or, maybe he just chose not to get pissed off that night....]

The next drum/cymbal line indicated the start of Violenza Domestica --- and everything sounded right on..... i.e., the effects/sounds/noises/etc were all in the right place at the right time.... and the crowd, more than any
other audience I've seen this year at Mr Bungle shows, seemed to know what to listen for - all the nuances/changes in rhythm/etc - and to appreciate them performed so well...   we just "ate it up...."  --- even one of my favorite parts (the "dentist's office" sounds) came out perfectly... heh....
Mike's voice came out over the top of all this instrumentation as if arising from the depths of a tall, dark and rugged Italian man relating his dominion over his home...  my god, am I sounding poetic????  god forbid....    ah
hell, mike and the band  just do it so well.... and to go from such booming voice/sounds/etc to the light, trippy ending is so effective.... the crowd loved it...

Alright, this is going to be WAY TOO LONG if I keep trying to write in complete sentences, so forgive me the grammar, and I'll TRY to write an abbreviated, if still quite long review:
Next:  Ars Moriendi - probably the best sounding song they'd played yet - - - very tight again...  Mike's 'nasal notes' came out really well.... I was just waiting for the Spanish dancers (or Brazilian?) to come out on
stage and dance to the music.... once the steady beat started, the audience responded by immediately moshing in time to it...  kinda funny how they knew just when to start and stop.....  as I insinuated before, this audience was
obviously well-educated when it came to Mr Bungle music... this song also marked the beginnings of some craziness by the band members, as they all began to add little dance moves in here and there -- first when
they weren't playing, and then both when they weren't playing AND when they were playing... they certainly made for an interesting stage show.... he he he he...
Now, I don't know about those people who said Mike didn't communicate with the audience at all, 'cuz here's the script of what happened next: Mike:  " -- ahhh - how's things out there, goddammit???  Feel any older????
You  looked great a couple of hours ago - now you've lost it - GET USED TO IT!  It's called AGING ladies and gentlemen... welcome to the program... how old are you guys anyway????? <listens to crowd...>  yeah, that was a very good year......"
The band then proceeded to [perhaps?] "sedate" the audience [heh] with the cover that another cv-lister (hi-) describes as the background music to a 60's movie in which you see this car being driven down the Pacific Highway, making all the twists and turns as the music moves along with it...  forgive me, I like that description....  it fits... I think a few people keeled over during this song....  What I think is cool about that cover is how they use so many different instruments involved...  guess Trey coordinates most of that?   ----also very cool how this showcases Mike's extraordinary ability to hit and sustain high notes and make them sound GOOD....]
After the cover, there was a loud balloon pop just before the opening high chord of A/C Nightmare....
Imho, it's fun to watch Trevor/Jim/the others so mechanically do the opening rhythmic claps...
you could tell the guys had had a bit (?) of champagne with respect to the opening vocal harmonies, tho' ---- not TOO too bad... first two low downbeats were hard/weird.... the song did suffer because one of Mike's mics
- the CB one - didn't seem to be hooked up right - or the soundboard didn't have it up high enough..... again, I'm not sure Mike could tell it wasn't being heard....
in the ending - tuning!!!!!  ugh - strange guitar or bass note played in the middle of Mike's "Where's my-----" part - ended with "halo" this time ---- crowd didn't care about tuning/etc tho' - strangers were beginning to put their arms around each other by this time... More Mike banter here: Mike "Still OK?  Nothing happened??? ..... you know, if you guys get out of here right now, you still might be able to see Primus!!!!  hey hey hey hey -
if you don't like their music, hey, that's cool, but they've got a great fuckin' light show, dude.... cool...."

Perfect time for Sweet Charity....  watching the audience was becoming quite entertaining.... strangers acting like best friends.... people in the elevators (immediately behind the stage - with windows facing the crowd)
acting like clowns.... The sound on SC was good - it seems that the band knows this song so well
they could play it while sleeping and it would sound awesome... it kinda lulled the crowd into a, yes, sedated state.....
WHICH the band so dramatically and abruptly interrupted with the slash/ultra-fast punk cover tune.... the band seemed to explode with a ton of energy that they were saving up all through SC, and it just burst forth
during this song.... the crowd WAS surprised at first by the abrupt change of scenery, so to speak, but just as quickly began moshing (or trying to mosh) and slam-dancing to the fast-paced beats....  the band just blasted
away on stage all caught up in the frenzy of the song....
THEN we were all treated to an intense, yet boyish display of ribbing, starting with Mike saying, "Would you guys like Jello Biafra to come out here and uh......  see, what I was thinkin' is maybe we could hog-tie him -- and poke him with a stick all night!  What do you say???"    LOTS of cheers..... [time passed....... maybe 40 seconds or so.....  Mike obviously wanted to get the next song going, but 'some' band members were delaying things a
bit...   It seems to me that, when an audience is watching him, Mike wants to be performing, not just standing there....  so what did he do?  He tried to move the audience'sattention away from himself & to the band members
causing the delay, saying.... "ah who cares if it's in tune, goddammit - it's the year 2000 - - we've grown beyond things like that!  Do you care if it's in fucking tune?  Jesus Christ! ---Guitar players are just so fickle..."  {yes, he said this in his "homosexual-like" voice....  [no offense to anyone of course...] and he waved his hand toward James/etc...... heh}  Then he mocked them, saying, "'Gotta be perfect or I can't play.....!'"  MORE moments pass..... Mike seemed kinda frantic to get things started.... so he said, "Will you fuckin' get the lead out, pal?  Ladies and Gentlemen, this is James Rotundi... who can't tune a fuckin' guitar to save his life!  [as personal as this "attack" might sound, it was all in "good fun...."     I think that, as much as Mike was tryin' to make James squirm for not being in tune in time, James was enjoying Mike squirming in front of a waiting audience.... it was funny!] Mike then said, "I love that guy over there..... I love him.... that's my boy... <softer> is it in tune yet?" and yet another "I love that guy" as the intro to the I Feel For You began....  awwwww... you could just FEEL the love.... heh... IFFY was pure "smooth....." [improper grammar intended....]  by THIS time, strangers were making out with each other in the crowd.... heh... However, things were not to remain so sedate, as things were again delayed
following IFFY; after a minute of waiting, Mike began to rant once again: "Ladies and gentlemen, when there's a problem, it's always on THIS side of the stage (waving toward stage right - James et al....] Fuckin' help me out
here!  ["BULLHIT" yells James Rotundi...] It's ALWAYS over here....  Do I ever look over here when there's a problem? Have I ONCE looked over here? ......no..... oh... they're fuckin' breakin' my balls over here!  Will you fuckin' yell at these guys?!  It's the year 2000 - the keyboard should work!" The crowd just cheered him on....  as frustrated as the band seemed to be due to the problems on stage, they all seemed to revel in picking on each
other..... Of course, once Desert Search began, all band members were caught up in it... goddamnit what amazing drumming.... it was lovely watching Mike do his throat-tapping vocal moves..... and listening to all of the clicks/etc..... the crowd even behaved well, seemingly because they wanted to hear all of the nuances in the music as well as all of Mike's vocal acrobatics....terrific, blazing guitar sounds.....  the entire band was on - dynamics were very effective - the audience was more rowdy during the louder moments and calmed down a bit when they softened up...  even Trevor really got in to singing the background "Quiyamata...." part (however you spell it)- he even looked up once or twice!  heh - The busy phone signal was loud and quite effective....
The ending guitar and drums was done with a flourish - Danny seemed mezmerized by his own movements....  and the audience, too, seemed kinda hypnotized.... the members of which were,well, you can imagine....

Following Desert Search, Mike did what one might call a band introduction - of sorts.....
"That's Mr. William Wynant on percussion, l & g.... gets my vote for best-dressed man on stage!  [he was wearing a tux]  I don't know... Trevor looks pretty good..... Trevor's on the bass - what do ya way?...  'py
fuckin' New Year! and then we have Squiggy from Korn over here..... [James folds his arms across his chest and leans back lookin' like Jonathan Davis...]  {someone else sad, "what's the matter, don't you like adidas, man?  it's the 'adidas guy...'  "whassup???"  "you rock..."}   "ADIDAS?!" I'm not even gonna talk about this guy over here.....  {Bar} we got dressed up man, what happened???  your dog eat it???! " Then, to the audience:
"Alright, guys, it's been a long night - thanks for STICKIN' AROUND!   I think we're only about half-way done, so it's going to be an even LONGER NIGHT!  Let's do it....."
24,000 baci was next..... and the on-stage dancing became even more entertaining.... heh - esp. on "that side" of the stage.....  just damn good throughout.... "ah ah ah ahhhhhh...." - such soprano voices, guys..... heh....

Goodbye Sober Day - probably had the worst sound-related problems of the night (which NOT due to the band - it seems that some of the mics on stage weren't staying hooked up correctly....... and Mike's cb-mic didn't seem to work at all......  still cool, though.....  and the crowd obviously loved hearing this song no matter how it was played....

More sound problems in Travolta - the opening chord sequences were really quiet.... somebody's guitar was not turned up high enough!!  That problem seemed to be corrected fairly quickly, though..... The audience just bounced up and down, surprisingly right in time with the band.... and in the differently-grooving parts, they kinda swayed in time..... of course, when Mike yells, "as he FUCKS THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" many a hand was thrust up in to the air as people sang along...  the syncopated rhythms seemed to throw some people off, but by this time, people couldn't have cared less.... we were all obviously high - if not through the use of illegal substances, just by the extraordinary performance we were watching..... (awwwwwwwww.... I know, sappy, huh????  well, no apologies, 'cuz it fits....) As Travolta began to fade away, the band blended the music toward and into
Mukherjee...   Egyptian-like dancing on stage???? Isn't this an asian-originating tune??? heh .....   Now, I'm not sure about the ending (it was the one in which Mike sings "You better watch out!"  maybe this is the infamous Lauryn Hill ending???? My Ass is On Fire - some of us in the audience who love Mike's "ch-ch-ch-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" part doing our best to imitate him.... Mike's voice as strong as in the opening song.... major mosh pit toward the end..... band speeded up the pace and then brought it back to tempo right before Mike's "ch-ch-ch-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!  ....is not funny my ass is on fire" Crowd ROARED at the end of this tune...

Chemical Marriage - the band seemed to regain any lost energy on this tune - e.g., more dancing on stage.... Mike jumping up and down like he was wearing trampoline shoes....  and it wasn't "tense energy" - it was more relaxed, fun, extra-ordinary energy.... just damn fun on- and off-stage.... what a scene...
After that, Mike grabbed the mic, exuberant, and yelled, "Woo -WOO"  "Like to thank you guys again for coming!!!!!  It's been okay , right????  Like to thank all of the bands --- the Kids of Widney High - incredible.... Like to thank the rest of Fantomas for showing up on time! No Means No - always amazing!  Ditto - the Melvins!  I would pay to see this show - it was FUN!  Thanks for coming!  Got ONE more song for you.... it features, Mr. Trevor Dunn on the wurlitzer organ... and YOU thought he just played bass..."  heh - he had to join "that side" of the stage to play the wurlitzer.... and so began - Retrovertigo- a few tuning problems herein.... don't think that all of the band members could hear each other... but it didn't negatively affect the entirety of the song... difficult to hear all of the underlying instrument and vocal parts at times...  however, it looks/sounds like the band really enjoys playing this song.... it did go over well anyway.... One particular problem:  at the point where Mike starts singing,  "A tribute to false memories; With conviction; Cheap imitation...", you could barely hear him.... gradually, the volume on his vocal parts came up, but this usually dramatic point in the song did suffer a bit... ending faded off successfully..... only to have Mike yelling, "thanks agaaaaaaaaaaaaain!  Happy New Year!!!"  <falsetto tone of voice next:>  "Goodbye!" The entire band lef the stage, but it didn't take but a minute or so for WW to return ----- getting ready for: Begin the Beguine - and where was Mike??? He was up on the stage overlooking the stage  (like a 2nd-level stage)- just in front of the windows on the elevator...   with his wine bottle... some fans tried to get up close and personal with Mike, but security did a fairly good job preventing that from
happening...   most of them were too drunk to fight with any kind of strength.... ah, Mike as nightclub/dinner-show singer.... and coming damn close to the edge of this 2nd-level stage... if he'd stepped a few more inches ahead, he would have fallen off and on top of WW's drum set... WHILE WW was accompanying him... he must have no fear of heights.... at the end, there was a huge-sounding, fast "Thank you!" by Mike.... WW just looked happy and busied himself getting ready for the next encore song.... somehow, Mike hustled back down through a throng of fans to the 1st level stage after BTB was over...

Vanity Fair - lots of cymbals - nice-sounding sax - slowly and seductively swingin' at the beginning.... think I saw a bit of hip-action from the keyboard section - - - and of course, in the audience... the contrasting fast-hard-punk/screamin' section was awesome....  and the band really played it up... adding a few measures at the end, or so it seemed....

Merry Go Bye Bye - the whole fuckin' place was dancin' or somehow movin' to the music by now - heh - those people who were once shouting at each other were now arm-in-arm doin' freakin' kicks together... (well, almost) ---- and some looked disilliusioned when the band changed gears to a hard/metal/noise cover.... the band took this opportunity to show some freakishness, too... somehow James Rotundi ended up half-way underneath his sampler (I think) attempting to play his guitar with a blown-up balloon that didn't stay blown up for long once he decided to pop it.... several band members looked like they were having convulsions at this point..... I don't remember what Mike was doing here - I think he left the stage early on in this mayhem, and the rest just played it out for 5 minutes or so... use your imaginaaaaaaaaaation... times 1000..... then Mike came back to finish
MGBB.... heh.. fooled us fools... The ending was Mike's salutatory/appreciative "Thanks again for coming!  Be
good!  See ya!"

SOOOOOO  - if you read this far, I don't know whether to congratulate you or condemn you.... what can I say?!  I HAD to do it..... I was COMPELLED to do so..... have a good 2000 - see you at Sno-Core......
-hmm

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