2004-09-27 - 4:35 p.m.

I've been wanting to play at the Variety Playhouse for a long time. I finally got to the other night.
After the Charlottesville show, I got to bed about 3 and woke up at 6 and got on the road soonafter. So, I was really, really tired by the time I got to the venue. I went and took a deep nap in the dressing room for at least an hour. Then, I got up and watched an episode of Aqua Teen Hungerforce on the dvd. And then I slept some more.
I was a bit zombie by the time I was on stage so I was a little slow with the audience.
I had at least 3 hecklers that night. I handled them best I could but had a hard time because I was so tired. The weird thing is is that they were cool. I've never had that before.
The first guy:
As soon as I walked out he yelled,
"They Might Be Giants!"
I can't remember what I said but it was something about being the opener.
After my first song he yelled, "You're awesome! I'm sorry about before. I was impatient!" or something like that.
The second guy:
"You're mildly amusing."
I responded with "I'm not sure if that was a compliment or not." I knew it wasn't but I was out of it. Flans said the response should have been, "So are you." I saw his girlfriend hold her head down and he left.
After the show I saw him and was thinking, "That's the guy. that's that guy. What a dick."
But then he turned to me and held out his hand and said, "You were awesome. I really enjoyed your set." And I was really confused. But happy that this fellow wasn't the dick that I thought he was.
The third:
This girl in the front row yelled something and I don't know what she said but I saw her duck down so I guessed it wasn't good. But then, I get this email today:

Corn Mo,

I was heckling you really bad from the front row at your Atlanta
opening (Sept 25) for TMBG. Just have to say, im hooked on your music
now. its great. random, yet awesome. Checked your site out, and saw you
were from my hometown (just about) in MD. Just have to say again, your
stuff rules, and now i can say i grew up 15 min away from a musician
lol

This is all new to me. I've been doing this long enough to know when someone doesn't like me but it's a new thing where I can't tell. It's a nice mystery.
I told Iggy, the lighting guy, about this and he told me how that happens at Giants shows to the Giants.
I'm very proud that I've graduated to this level of misunderstanding.