Late Night with Conan O'Brien
New York, NY, 10 July 1996

Set List

  1. Only Talking Sense

Reviews by:

Elizabeth Setler
David Weil (dweil2@aol.com)
Nancy Kunz (choral2020@aol.com)

Elizabeth Setler

Today I went to the Conan O'Brien taping. Hoo baby. I wish to claim all awards having to do with endurance in the name of one's favorite band. Basically, I went because it was free and I was stuck in New York for a day all alone with not much to do (although I found a great restaurant, Zenith Vegetarian Cuisine... try it if you've got the chance). I should have panhandled instead.

I was seated next to a chair that was blocked off by tape. I figured, OK, it's broken, fine. As minutes ticked by I noticed that nothing was wrong with the chair. I then started to think maybe it was reserved for a turkey puppet or Zany Ostrich Guy or whatever those skits are... AND I WAS GOING TO BE TRAPPED IN IT. As I was plotting my escape, they took off the tape and seated a perfectly normal person beside me. OK, cool. I relaxed. No problem.

Little did I know that the host of the show was going to come out pre-broadcast, grab some poor woman from the audience and serenade her with a shrieking version of "Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love" just two feet from me. Or that he would then leap onto the step beside me and begin gyrating wildly in a Tim Finn-rivalling way, like six inches from my head. Now remember, I'm the same woman who left the front row at the last CH concert because of alarming pelvic proximity. And this was, like, Conan O'Brien. My intensive psychotherapy begins tomorrow.

Anyway, besides that, they did Only Talking Sense and it was pretty good, although as I said Tim's vocals weren't loud enough. During the commercial, it was sort of a hoot to see Neil grooving in an incredibly white way to the sounds of the Max Weinberg Seven. And really, that's all I can say about that. I don't know if you'll see me in the audience or not... red hair, black dress, sitting on the aisle a few rows back from the Boy Scouts. If so, hey, that'll be national television in two countries in one month's time. Perhaps I should put that on my resume.

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David Weil

Closed the restaurant and turned up the volume on the TV during Conan. Poured a single malt (Lagavulin), slipped a little water to 'er and a tiny ice cube to cool 'er down. Waited through Marla Maples (little chilly in the studio eh, Marla?). Did some paperwork. Walked through the restaurant again........

Then I heard ".......Finn Brothers!" Settled into a barstool in an empty restaurant. I've got a one word review................................

Languid.

I DID hear some Hawaiian guitar in my head and felt the swaying palms.

....or was it the scotch?

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Nancy Kunz

It was moderately fun being at the Conan O'Brien show, but you know, one song goes by so quickly. Conan is so much taller than Tim and Neil! They had to look up to talk with him during the commercial break. I hope you all got the chance to tape the show. Their performance wasn't as good as the night before - but what do you want for one song? It was still worth every second.

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