Shows/John Flansburgh/1997-12-20
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Links:
- Newsday listing; Dec. 18, 1997
- The Courier-News listing; Dec. 18, 1997
- The Record preview; Dec. 19, 1997
- The Record listing; Dec. 19, 1997
Setlist:
John Flansburgh
— with The Accidentals, The GrooveBarbers, Five O'Clock Shadow opening —
Bottom Line in New York, NY
December 20, 1997 at 10:30 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
This was a benefit concert hosted by Sean Altman, titled "Holiday Harmonies — Bandless-Aid for Hale House".[1] Proceeds were donated to the Hale House Center in Harlem. All the acts on the bill were a capella groups.
The show was broken into two sets, one at 7:30 p.m. and another at 10:30 p.m. John Flansburgh played in the second set, performing an a capella rendition of Mono Puff's "Careless Santa" backed by members of The GrooveBarbers and Five O'Clock Shadow.
An audience member described the show on the tmbg.org fan mailing list:
The stage was decorated with Christmassy stuff, and the performers came out through a faux hearth, which was appropriate and funny. Sean Altman, formerly of "Rockapella" was the host for an evening of a capella Christmas carols, featuring The Accidentals, Five O'clock Shadow, and the new re-worked Rockapella who now call themselves the "Groove Barbers," as well as other random singers as part of a benefit concert called "Holiday Harmonies."
During the second set, Sean introduced Flansburgh as one of his "pop idols" from "They Might Be Giants." Flans came out wearing a sweater (the first time I've ever seen him perform in 100% wool), and was befuddled by the lack of a microphone stand. He then introduced "Careless Santa" as being from a compilation album, making no reference to Monopuff (??) and then Flansburgh, the Groove Barbers, and the guy who makes percussion sounds from Five O'clock Shadow sang an AWESOME version of Careless Santa. The song was well received by the crowd, and except for the fact that it had no instruments, it was true to the original arrangement. They obviously had worked real hard on this, and it seemed like Sean was just thrilled to be able to work with one of his pop idols. [...]
After the show, we were able to catch Flansburgh, and he signed our ticket stubs and we wished him a Merry Christmas and we shook his hand.
