The Best/Worst Moments of last night's show

[Jason from Huntsville, AL]

I'm happy that pebbled trash cans have crossed back over from the Extended Newbridgeverse into the canon.

Also, it was even nicer to hear Tom and Spike doing what they do again than I expected it would be.

[AllSussedOut]

I love the sound collages.

And Gary.

And, um, "Worn."

But my favorite part of the show over the years is the degree to which Tom and everyone involved can motor forward, referencing recent show highlights or not, all while losing NOTHING in the process.  The show is the show, and Tom never feels the need to tick off any boxes (positive or negative) for it to be exactly what it is.  LOVE it.

Continued thanks, Tom.  Every show this year has been stellar.

[Epic Soundtracks]

I'll admit it, I teared up when Spike called.

[JRSly]

I'm happy that pebbled trash cans have crossed back over from the Extended Newbridgeverse into the canon.

Also, it was even nicer to hear Tom and Spike doing what they do again than I expected it would be.

I was half expecting Tim Sklorplin to have cleaned up at the Newbridge Comedy Awards.

[Joe Rogaine]

Was kind of disappointed Worn wasn't mentioned again this week. Has Tom ever discussed Billy Joel's early prog rock band?




I tuned in around 9:30 and it was playing a rerun I didn't realize it until about 20 minutes in and went to reload and it started playing the live show. Has this happened to anybody else?

[Joe Rogaine]

I LOVED last night's show!  If this is what the Best Show is turning into, this is going to be a great year.  It had all the ingredients of a classic FMU-era Best Show.

BEST:

- Long Island City, Queens call... the brief "mute" moment, especially.

- SPIKE!

- Gregg vs. Tim... Very reminiscent of previous calls by Tim & Eric, although Gregg's deadpan optimism was sooo dry and amazing.  I expected him to be funny, and his ability to not flinch at all throughout the whole call was even funnier than expected. It probably helps if you've been following Gregg Turkington's various outlets.

- Darren: I love the Newbridge calls where Tom finds out he's left out of the most amazing event ever right in Newbridge, but especially as the key narrative.

...

And this was the first show with an ad.  I agree it was painless.  Maybe it would have been a little jarring to new listeners, but Tom has done very similar when he's had guests on the phone or in the studio on WFMU, where Tom goes out of his way to plug certain things for guests e.g. Todd Barry.  The ad was basically just that, but without the company on the phone or in studio, that's all.  I'm really happy Tom didn't break character at all throughout it either.  It's actually reminiscent of old radio ad spots where the DJ recites the ad, except relatively unscripted here.

Also, I'm looking forward to THE HALF-HOUR OF POWER.  That final stretch of quick unscreened calls in the finale is one of my favorite parts of the Best Show, so if the plan for the HALF-HOUR OF POWER is basically an extended version of that, it will be truly awesome.

"WORST" in quotes:
- not really "worst" at all if it's a cost-saving measure, but having to play music from the Free Music Archive and announcing that. Nothing wrong with the Free Music Archive at all, but it felt that Tom was constrained on the Music portion of last night's show.  That said, I understand that if it's a publishing fees issue, they are punishingly expensive, having been in college radio before.  I just really hope the BC'ing falls under Fair Use, so it can continue, and at least live out its full life.  Also, if this means that small labels can work directly with Tom on something, maybe this will blossom into something unique too.  (I did see the tweet calling out for "Cool Labels" to make contact.)

- oh, and I guess we won't have calls about the Jeff Bridges meditation album, for obvious reasons.

SO happy with last night's show overall.

I was kind of hoping they would talk about Greg's new film, but I guess that would have been out of character.

[fonpr]

I'll admit it, I teared up when Spike called.

Mush.

[Epic Soundtracks]

I'll admit it, I teared up when Spike called.

Mush.

Hey, man!

[fonpr]

I didn't say "The Moosh."

[noah]

I think the two horns joke is one of the more organic things to happen on the new show.  I hope it continues to evolve. #2Hornz

I second Jason's comment, I'm glad that pebbled trash cans have made it to the cannon.  I'm really hoping that the merch table at the upcoming March shows have pebbled trash can tumblers for sale.  It would be the only other thing besides a Frank's can that I'd drink my Black Cherry Wishniak out of. 

Didn't care for all the new users in the chat complaining about the Squarespace ad.  Did like Mike's impression of Spike's laugh. 

[Crusherkc]

Best: "Hello Scharpling HAHAHAHAHAHA"
Worst: Nothing really bad.  Ads and music restrictions aren't going to be counted against The Best Show. 

Every JW call is solid gold so far in the new .net era.

[bovio]

Worst part was being in the chat while listening to the show, dealing with duds complaining that the Gregg/Tim call was boring and not funny and hoping it wasn't in place of a Wurster call. It was a hilarious bit and felt very "classic" Best Show. Loved the show this week.

[GuyPersonton]

I was seeing complaints about the chat on Twitter last night. Did this place just get trolled or something?

Anyways. I thought last night was great. The Gregg/Tim call was great. The Darren call was great. The Spike call was great. The organist call was great (his name escapes me at the moment, and I feel bad about that.) The Super Bowl talk was great. Everything was great.

I'm excited for the Half-Hour Of Power next week. Darren mentioning his podcast made me kinda wish they do supplemental episodes of other Newbridge-based podcasts. That'd be a fun thing to see in the podcast feed every so often. Just a thought.

 

[Andrew F]

The organist call was great (his name escapes me at the moment, and I feel bad about that.)

Josh Kantor. He also made the music used on the live feed as Tom intros the show.

[BklynMnky]

Anyone have a link to Spike's instagram? Sounds like it comes *highly* recommended by Tom!