The Mads: Trace & Frank in St.Louis (and Denver!)

[standbymejd]

I had such a good time Saturday night (December 12th, 2015) I thought I would share some photos. (And yes, I know they are not great quality...but at least it will give you an idea of what the evening was like.)

In the past I have had the pleasure of seeing Trace & Frank perform with Cinematic Titanic, but never as simply “The Mads”. Let me tell you, it was a wonderful evening. It couldn't have been a better night, perfect weather, great venue, and of course hilarious entertainment!

Luckily I stumbled on the fact that Trace & Frank were playing 2 shows in St. Louis just last week. I was even more fortunate that both me and my Nephew had the evening off...so we immediately ordered tickets for both shows. (Which was some money that the MST Kickstarter campaign did not get from me!)




After a three hour drive, (...a three hour drive...cue lightning) we arrived at the Ivory Theatre about two and a half hours before showtime. The theatre is a renovated church in a nice little neighborhood...I love not having to fight big city traffic!

After killing about an hour eating pizza a few doors down from the theatre we walked back and found that people were being admitted, so in when we went. I wish I would have taken a picture of the main lobby, it was all decked out for the holidays and looked truly amazing.




We strolled into the theatre and picked our seat...front and center of course.



Looking back up into the theatre.

It was a VERY laid back atmosphere, both Trace & Frank were easily assessable walking around the theatre before the show.

I attended both shows, and both shows started the same way. Jim Kimber, the theatre's manager took the stage and thanked everyone for coming. He told everyone about upcoming events and also a little about the neighborhood...then The Mads took to the stage.







Trace & Frank started the show by riffing two truly strange cartoons. (I do not want to kill the surprise for anyone who might be seeing them in the future, so I won't mention the titles.) Then it was time for the main feature...”Plan 9 From Outer Space”!



After both shows Trace & Frank had a nice Q&A session with the audience.









Three lucky people were awarded various volumes of MST3000 courtesy of Shout Factory during each Q&A session!







After the Q&A session Trace & Frank hung out in lobby for a meet & greet to answer more questions, take pictures...and of course sign autographs...I had them sign the poster that they had created for these shows.



I REALLY appreciate that they take the time to meet their fans.

The second show of the evening was another Ed Wood classic, “Glen Or Glenda”. Even though I have owned it for years on DVD, I had never sat through the whole thing...it was a lot less painful doing it with friends! On a side note, I did notice that the “Glen Or Glenda” riffing was more explicit than the 7 o'clock show...I don't know if that was because it was the late show or if that is how they always do that picture. (No, it didn't offend me...it's just something that I noticed...it was odd for me to hear Crow drop the F-Bomb.)

So, in conclusion, if The Mads come anywhere near your town, don't you dare miss them! As usual, Trace & Frank couldn't have been nicer, or funnier. It was a fun evening and totally worth the six hours total driving time.

I wish The Mads all the best in the future and look forward to seeing them again.

(P.S. I have never posted a “trip report” on this site...so I do not know if they are allowed, if not a mod can feel free to delete it. I also did not know where to post it...maybe The Mads deserve their own category since they plan on touring more often.)

[crowschmo]

Nice pics. Looks like it was a fun evening. I hope they come somewhere close enough for me to go see them.

[gamera99]

What a nice venue. Thanks for posting all of those great photos.

[wedestroymyths]

I really dug seeing them, too. We only did the early show because my girlfriend isn't a night owl like me, and is just now "getting" MST as she hadn't watched it until dating me, but it was very cool to meet Trace and Frank and see them riff in person. I'd highly recommend checking out one of their shows if you have a chance.

[travis]

So cool! I really hope Frank & Trace get to do a gig in New England somewhere, I'd LOVE to see them riff GLEN OR GLENDA!!!

[Mr. Atari]

Awesome!

I saw them in Denver back in November. It was the night after my mom passed, so it was a pretty emotional night for me. But laughter is always great medicine.

I saw them riff "Plan 9". "Glen or Glenda" was the next day. Here's a full review:

Mrs. Atari and I got to the theater early because they had a full restaurant and bar. As we enjoyed our hamburger sammiches and french-fried potatoes, I was wondering if I could make it through the show (it had been a long 24 hours). Suddenly, my tunnel vision was interrupted by the sight of TV's Frank casually walking across the lobby. He looked like he was on a mission, with a serious look on his face. I wondered how he was feeling. Joel's kickstarter had launched earlier that week, and the Paris terror attacks had happened that afternoon. It seemed no one was in a jolly mood, or ready for some football riffing.

By the time we finished our meal, the autograph line was starting to form. I took my place, and had the Mads sign my copy of the ACEG, as well as a cartoon drawing of the show I got off of etsy a few years back. I mentioned my role here at the Discussion Board, and they both seemed to light up at the mention. The merch girl very excitedly said she comes here all the time. (Hi merch girl!)

As for the show itself, the Paris and #Bringbackmst3k stuff were definitely in the air, making everything feel a bit tense. Frank missed his entrance (he was in the bathroom), and everything started disjointed. They didn't announce the name of the movie, it just started. But as soon as Criswell showed up on-screen, the place erupted. Lots of great riffing, and it reminded me of some of the better Rifftrax Live shows. An audience unquestionably makes the night funnier. I was ready for Frank's republican-bashing humor that seems to be all he does on social media anymore, and it was there in spades. What I wasn't prepared for were the F-bombs or the sheer number of gay jokes. Pretty much any time two men were on screen together, you could count on some sort of buttsex joke. I wasn't sure who would be more offended-- the gay folks in the room or the religious folks in the room. It was pretty bad both ways. I wasn't offended, but it did come across as lazy. Nevertheless, it was a fun time with lots of belly laughs.

After the movie, they took a Q & A. Most of the questions were the standard fanboy stuff that I'm sure they were sick of back in '95: "What's your favorite MST episode?" "What do you think was the worst film on the show?" "How did you pick the movies?" "Were there really films worse than Manos?" and other tedium. I REALLY wanted to ask about the "hum diddy hee-hee...hoo-ah, hoo-ah!" song, since that's a long-standing unexplained esoteric reference around here, but I didn't have the energy. Finally, someone asked about whether they were going to be a part of Joel's re-boot. Frank responded with a diplomatic, "Anything's possible, but we don't know yet" answer. Trace interrupted him with a curt, "Bulls**t!" No one seemed to want to press him further on why he was so upset, or ask about relationships with the other Brains. Like I said, it had been a rough day for everyone.

I messaged Trace about a week later, told him about my mom, and thanked him for the pick-me-up I needed that night. I also asked how the MST Discussion Board might be able to help them on their Mads tour. He was very gracious and said we have always been a good encouragement to them. He told me to keep up the good work. So I shall.

[standbymejd]

Mr. Atari, Thanks for the nice review and photos! (I am sorry for your loss. Until you lose a parent you really can't understand what it's like...my heart goes out to you.) it was interesting reading your show review from when the Kickstarter campaign had just started and comparing it to my show experience when the campaign was one day from ending. I danced around it in my review, but several moments in the Q&A sessions were really awkward. There were a couple of people in the audience who did not want to just "let sleeping dogs lie" with the first couple of diplomatic answers about the Kickstarter campaign and badgered them until they finally started giving the crowd more specific answers. I felt bad for them because it was obvious that they wanted to ignore the campaign and concentrate on questions about themselves and their new project...it was the only downside of the whole evening. As I mentioned, Trace & Frank were easily accessible in the lobby before and after the shows...I wish that if these people were so intent on bringing up the Kicksterter campaign that they would have done it one on one and not in front of everyone.