I sat down to write something about how I'm a sappy useless tool piece of shit who talks shit on the internet & then blogs about musicians who he really loves, but would like to stop having dreams about on a nearly nightly basis.
For serious, I'm sick to death of hearing [in dreams] that I am to be presented a complete recording of both Zoop concerts. For those of you who dont know, Zoop is an event held by John Darnielle & Farm Sanctuary East in Watkins Glen, New York. It's a wonderful two night event in which you get to camp out on a farm sanctuary & take in the scenic NY landscape & learn about the animals on the farm by day & by night be rocking out to the Mountain Goats. John has stated somewhere that he plans on doing Zoop every other year, so that means the next Zoop is in 2011[but heres to hoping.]
Okay, so here's some zoop history.
The first Zoop was held June 16th & 17th of 2007. Zoop II was June 13th & 14th of 2009. There is a recording out there that exists of both nights of Zoop 1, however it has yet to surface. On the internet archive [archive.org] there is a recording of the entire set from the second night & 1/3rd of the set from the first night. Why this is personally sad to me is because well, when I went to Zoop I got drunk the first night & while it made me have a more social & fun time it did make me forget what was played that first night. Thankfully the internet is there with the setlist & it legit makes me cringe to think I forgot about that. But that's that, it's been almost three years now, I feel like I'll never get to hear the songs played on the first night of the first Zoop again, unless I listen to other recordings of them. But I dont want to. I want to listen to them. I want to hear what I personally experienced, I suppose.
On the first night of the first Zoop the lineup was
Perry Owen Wright
Peter Peter Hughes
the Mountain Goats [John Darnielle solo for the most part, Peter Hughes on vocal bass.]
On the first night of the second Zoop the lineup was
John K Samson
Peter Peter Hughes [Note: I'm going to go off about this set later in the entry.]
the Mountain Goats [again, Solo.]
Night two of Zoop has always been a solo all request set. The first year John set up an email address people could mail in their requests to. Basically the idea was you'd pay a certain amount for a certain song era & you'd have that to pick from, the proceeds all going directly to Farm Sanctuary. Since they're letting you stay there, this is most definitely one of the best ways to donate if you're not someone who's all about the cause. The second time around John didnt have time to set up an email address so he brought a large pad of paper out during day 2. basically you wrote down what song you wanted to hear & how much you'd pay for the song. I'm pretty sure golden boy went for something unbelievable, I really would like to know that total, as the initial price on it was something like $100 & people kept just throwing money up there when they heard something they liked. It was really a very excellent experience.
Lets talk about Zoop II night 1 for a second shall we: I was so fucking hammered that I made Zoop look like House Party 2, this was Zoop II & I was belligerent! Excellent. & now, in true Zoop fashion, I'm just going to forget to tell you about this part for a while.
I will tell you that once we finally got there we started drinking & listening to music inside our tent, as the night went on & everyone got ready I was about 12 beers deep & feeling great. Eventually I had a discussion with John that I dont even really remember anything about despite the picture we took together, in which you can tell I am already that drunk. My girlfriend has an excellent story I've been kicking her to write about Zoop II as she came with me this time around. It really was a nightmare to be around me, I suppose. I'm sorry.
Either way, John K played & it hit home for me as the first song he played, "I hate Winnipeg" was a song that was introduced to me by a late friend, who coincidentally died a month after the first Zoop. It kind of went from being one of those nights where all is right with the world to one of those nights where coincidence hits hard & you're hammered. I stayed seated for that one song, mostly because I was drunk & I felt the urge to just keep moving, I guess it was because my mood went from mindbendingly positive & happy to depressing nostalgic mess. I thankfully battled this, I'm actually kind of sure that's when I ended up talking to John, but since I'm just now piecing it together & writing about it it's going to be a little disjointed.
I fought my way out of thoughts that werent meant for Zoop & managed to have a good time, I decided to stop drinking until John went on, at the behest of John & my girlfriend. That plan went well, until the fateful moment in which Drunk Will handed me his bottle of 100 Proof Ol' Grandad because I was one of the only other people dancing during Peter Peter Hughes' set. Now, I'm just going to outright say that while I do long for the complete Zoop bootleg, I would die happy just hearing Peters set again. I mean that, for real. Either way, I drank a lot of that whiskey, because I was drunk to the point of not tasting a damn thing. Which can also account for the mass amount of vegan jerky I ate despite the terrfying aftertaste. Sorry guys, I know vegan food can rule, but keep jerky to the carnivores, pleez.
John played a great set. He always does. He's amazing, the true messiah. Oh, yeah. I was really drunk too so you can imagine I not only missed out on remembering the rarities he played, but managed to consistently try to harmonize [poorly] with the songs while dancing & generally being that guy. Apparently there was an accapella No Children somewhere in there, which definitely sounds awesome in my book. Anyhow, after the set, like always there was a bonfire & John came out to tell Colin Pound he was playing a song of his completely wrong. Theres a youtube video for this moment, it's very dark, but you can still see me & my girlfriend directly on the right of John.
I managed to stay up for a bit longer, singing & dancing & being drunk, then I went to the bathroom a nearly shitpissed myself. I'm pretty sure I missed the toilet, but hey I TRIED TO CLEAN IT UP. I aint no Tucker Max shitting all the way across a hotel lobby & shit. Immediately following this debacle I exit the toilet, having cleaned myself up to an extent I ran into PPH who I ended up talking to in the bathroom, belligerent ass blacked out drunk about how his set was amazing & how my best friend had died the same year as Zoop but since Zoop was so awesome it kept my memories positive & a bunch of dumb drunk asshole bullshit. I then proceeded to pass out in the tent.
I'm leaving the rest of the story to my girlfriend. Let's hope she writes it sometime soon.
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