From: nebusj-@-rpi-.edu   
      
   	Brian McCann's spiel warming up the audience to Late Night   
   included --- in 2009 as in the times I'd visited the show in the 90s ---   
   a few further warnings, like not to take pictures, do obey the APPLAUSE   
   signs, and if you see on the TV monitors that you're in frame, don't look   
   up, because cameras work at the speed of light and what people will see   
   at home is pictures of your throat and you will look silly, which would   
   of course be quite dangerous.  And with that it was time to bring out the   
   Max Weinberg 7.   
      
   	The band is called out to the theme of the Blues Brothers, then   
   as now, with each member running from the stage doors across the set to   
   take his position in turn, with Max Weinberg coming in last.  As in the   
   90s, they start right off playing some exciting jazz piece that if I knew   
   a blasted thing about music I could probably identify.  It sometimes would   
   turn up in commercial intros and outros, though.   
      
   	In the 90s, when Conan came out for the warmup, he would also   
   mention the band and give some line about getting closer to the audience,   
   and then order the band to ``GET THEM!'' at which point they leapt up   
   from the band shell and climbed on the railing to the audience.  This   
   would be stopped by Mark Pender grabbing a loose piece on top of the   
   railing at which point all would stop, sheepish at the broken set, and   
   Conan would complain about what a cheap set this was, and they'd settle   
   back to their podiums and Conan would go off behind the proscenium to   
   start the show.   
      
   	They didn't do that this time, and I think even had Conan been   
   out they wouldn't have as there was no obvious part of the railing which   
   could come lose.  They did keep up another tradition, though: at one point   
   in the warmup songs Mark Pender comes to an extraordinarily long held   
   note.   
      
   	Which he holds, and holds, and holds, as the rest of the band   
   slowly falls away and comes to stop, staring in awe at Pender continuing   
   to play as his head turns bright red and veins throb across his skull in   
   this last moment of warming-up excitement before the show proper begins.   
   I've never known how long Pender's Long Note goes on, but it's always   
   impressive and draws a great applause. The difference this time is that   
   La Bamba was by his side taking pictures.   
      
   --   
   								Joseph Nebus   
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)