Friday, June 13, 2003
Hey, it's Friday the Thirteenth! I didn't even notice until I started writing this.
So now let's talk about something other than playing shows with comedians. Let us talk about the brave new world of playing shows for kids. Somehow we got asked to play a show at the Family Fun Center & Bullwinkle's in Wilsonville (a burb a bit south of Tualatin). Now, generally speaking, most of our shows aren't kid-friendly. Oh, we have the occasional stray 2-year-old play on our EPs or play harmonica at our shows, but most of the naughty references go over their heads. So we had to come up with all these new songs for children—and we only found out about the show a week ago.
It is sometimes handy to be a prolific songwriter.
It was also only going to be a fifteen-minute set, so it seemed feasible. The only song that was deemed sufficiently child-friendly was "Pack Up Your Grandma"; we also decided to do "Meat Shower", an actual children's song written for a children's tv show, and one which we've covered many times. And we wrote two new songs, which don't really have names yet but which, for convenience, have been given obvious names below.
(And you know now that I think about it the 2-year-old mentioned above just turned three a few days ago. Happy birthday, Finn!)
Anyway the set went surprisingly well. It was the kick-off of the Oregon Library Association's Summer Reading campaign, and we were mostly there to serve as a warm-up band before some large fake checks were awarded. Both the folks from the banks and supermarket chains and the other major donors as well as the parents were entertained by our songs. The kids were curious but mostly interested in another round of mini-golf (and who can blame them!). A tv crew was there and so yes, we have a smidge of video footage.
Although it was overall a good show, but really the saddest thing about it was that Charlotte was out of town for the show, and yet this was obviously a setting that she would do particularly well in. Jake and Chris muddled through somehow without her—yes, that means that Chris sang "Meat Shower".
And yes, we are looking into doing more children's shows (although perhaps under a slightly different name so people expecting a kid's album won't accidentally pick up one of our naughtier songs...).
Here's the kid-friendly set-list:
1. Chickens
2. Give Me A Dollar
3. Meat Shower [Between The Lions]
4. Pack Up Your Grandma
