CMU Carnival 2009: Zach Galifianakis & The New Pornographers

I have to give it up to CMU’s Activities Board. Year after year I have been able to enjoy their programming despite no longer being a student and not having gone to their school. Five years ago (!) they brought in Mitch Hedberg, who I practically begged Pitt’s student stupid activities board to get.  Three years ago I saw The Shins with The Brunettes. I don’t think I even tried to get into Demetri Martin because it was indoors that year.  Last year they had the Human Giant guys. Good golly.

I was surprised to find out they got Zach Galifianakis this year. I mean, he’s kind of…weird? While waiting in the non-ticket holders line, I overheard one student ask, “Who is this?” and her friend replied, “He’s a stand up comedian.” She then said, “I don’t really like stand up comedy.” WHAT? While this really irritated me, I was glad all these dummies would get their minds expanded. Unfortunately, as everyone was vacating the tent, I heard another girl say, “He started out really funny,” and her friend finished, “But he went downhill really fast.” Patently untrue. In reference to a video where his head was superimposed on a woman with her chest revealed, she said, “I mean, there were kids watching!” Again – what? I think it was pretty clear that this part of the carnival was not for children. Unless she was referring to little tittybabies like herself.

My idiot friend was running late so I made this video. The sound quality is fine, but the image is not all that great. It’s the first piano segment of his act:

I stopped taping for a minute while he ranted about the kid who took his picture with a cellphone. Here’s where it picks up again.

I have two more videos to post once they are uploaded.

The next day, I came out for The New Pornographers. I’ll admit that while I’m a big fan of both A.C. Newman and Neko Case, I never really listened to them. I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, but I found out I knew more of his stuff that I realized. I weaseled my way up the second row after they were done and found myself surrounded by really affectionate couples. During the show I felt like I was an unwilling participant in a nerd orgy.

A.C. Newman joked about getting 83% on expert vocals on one of their own songs in Rock Band. I never thought about musicians trying to do their own songs on their. It blew my mind a little. A loud kid behind me kept commenting on everything the drummer did, but he was pretty entertaining. He looks like Eugene Mirman yet drums like Tim Brown! Here’s a video of their encore, ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down.”