Tim started his show at the Paramount with "Rock and Roll Nerd." It was just like they start movies at the Paramount. No cartoon, no previews, no message about turning off your cell phone, just roll 'em!
The crowd didn't need warming up anyway. This was the perfect opening number for Austin. They came to see Tim and they were ready. Some people can really yell loud. Somebody in the balcony loved Tim at the top of her lungs. He loves her too, even though he can't see her, as it should be.
The piano was well equipped with microphones too. The sound was actually quite good. It pleased me immensely that the songs were familiar to me from YouTube, yet the live sound was SO MUCH BETTER than on my built in computer speakers. It reminds me why I studied audio and acoustics in college. I just love how good live performances can sound. Everything was perfectly understandable, I didn't miss a word. They used just enough reverb in just the right places and it all made me very happy. That's why I buy tickets and go out.
He did some lovely jokes between the songs. He did "If I Didn't Have You" to a recording of himself singing harmony. I like this song because it's about how fate is bullshit. It's really the ultimate love song because it doesn't attribute any mystical nonsense to why two people get together and stay together. He also did "Storm" to the jazz track like in the animated version. Pretty much the rest of the time he played piano.
And I mean to tell you, damn, he can play piano. I really enjoyed it a lot. I appreciate that he knows he can play too, as evidenced by his beat poem "Mitsubishi Colt" which he didn't do tonight, but that one ends up with him hitting a guy in a bar who implied he was inferior to Elton John. He is not a comedian who plays piano. He's a musician.
He did his new song "Context" that I'd seen on the Comedy Central web feed from Bonaroo. That went over well even though it's pretty corny. He did "The Pope Song," very catchy, I love that one, have mentioned it here before. He did "Prejudice" which is a favorite of mine. I can go a whole day singing over and over "Only a ninja can sneak up on another ninja."
He did a joke about his 4 1/2 yr old daughter and then played a lullaby in the "Go the Fuck to Sleep" vein. This makes four shows I've seen at the Paramount since I moved here and in every single one somebody did a bit about their kids. I feel compelled to rank them.
- Patton Oswalt -- "Lack of sleep smells like cake mix and violence"
- Tim Minchin -- "My heart says I love you but my brain's saying fuck you! I'm hoping a child trafficker will abduct you."
- Adam Savage -- His twins are teenagers. He told of catching his son looking for internet porn for the first time. He knew it was the first time because browser history showed he googled "Nudies." They had a talk where he explained the concept of things you can't unsee.
- Craig Ferguson -- I can't remember, which is why he's #4. I just remember at the time thinking Patton Oswalt's bit was better.
Tim closed with "Dark Side" enhanced with a funny fog machine then came back to do "Confessions." For his second encore he did "White Wine in the Sun" which I was really hoping he wouldn't do because it makes me feel bad about how Christmas goes with my family and makes me cry. For the third encore he did what he calls butchering Cohen, but it was a really lovely version of "Hallelujah" with the audience singing the lead and Tim on harmony.
I hope Tim had a good time in Austin and it wasn't too hot and weird for him.
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