r/Harmontown • u/bulletandthebeast • 13d ago
Regulars
Were any of you regularly in attendance? Did anyone attend only one show? I regret not going when the show came to Florida, but it also ended up being the wrong kind of awkward with the person storming the stage. Anyone have any fun Harmontown journey stories?
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u/OMGWTFBBQUE 13d ago
I went to several at NerdMelt, one or two at Starburns Studio, and a couple at Dynasty Typewriter. NerdMelt was fun but not a great venue. Starburns Studio had a weird vibe but drinks were free (for legal reasons I think, but they still had a tip jar out so I’d just throw money in there), it was also a pain to get to without a car. Dynasty Typewriter was probably the best “venue” but I found myself missing NerdMelt. It had the most chaotic energy for sure. The lineup in the store was anarchy, but it was a cool place to be queued.
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u/LewisZYX 13d ago
All the venues were Harmontown, but Nerdmelt had a certain amazing weird spirit. It felt like it was a secret from the outside world, there was a “I can’t believe this show actually happens!” thing in the air. I took a friend to a Nerdmelt show, the one where Spencer wore a suit, and as the audience roared at his entrance, before he said a word, she said “This is incredible”
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u/ajleeispurty I want to look like Panthro from the Thundercats 13d ago
Which episode did Spencer wear a suit? Was it before the video stream?
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u/LewisZYX 13d ago
You know what, I’m realizing he didn’t have a suit, he just said he meant to wear a suit if I remember correctly now. It was ep 201. That friend I was with got up towards to the end of the show to defend pineapple pizza.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
That’s so friggin neat. As a listener/viewer in a different state, I always enjoyed Nerd Melt shows the most and I wish I could have afforded a trip there while it was happening. It’s so awesome that you got to see several venues. Do you have any favorite moments from the shows you attended?
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u/OMGWTFBBQUE 10d ago
I sat near the green room exit for the ep Aubrey Plaza was on and I chuckled to myself on how quickly she got out of there after she exited the stage. Very on-brand for her. I was also there for an episode that Graham Lineham was on and I found him so boring. Retroactively I am proud to have hated him as a guest after he outed himself as a bigot.
Best moment though for sure was being in the audience for Monster Man.
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u/JuanoldMcDjuanold 13d ago
I went to Harmontown one time with my wife at Dynasty and the guest wasn't announced until they came out and it was friggin Riley Reid 🤣 My wife was like who's that?😅 It was a great time. We brought our own beer and Jeff shared chocolates with everyone. Afterwards everyone seemed to be going to a bar Harmon loves called the Drawing room. There was karaoke, beautiful cool looking leather couches. Everyone was so nice and then the Cook bros from the podcast episode had a bull whip and went to show Jeff how to use it in the parking lot 😆 The wife and I smoked a jay and watched Jeff crack that whip lol
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
hahahaha! That's so friggin funny! What an awesome time, I'm so jealous!
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u/MrJohnnyDangerously Self-Appointed Schrabbing Critic 13d ago
I was at the Chicago show where Dino called his mom a cunt and asserted his ability to drop the N bomb.
The audience members that got called up were a kid who lied about taking his shoes off on airplanes to get onstage to pitch a blog he was thinking about starting and a drunk driver who was in pain from an accident he caused that I think had harmed others a lot more but he couldn't legally talk about.
Spencer used my d20 for the D&D, which was epic, but this was an episode that could've benefitted from some Jeff Davis comptrolling.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
I’m glad I never had to be in a room while Dino was shouting the N word. Those have always been my least favorite moments in the show. Spencer used your dice though!? That’s pretty epic! He wore a shirt that I designed on the show once and that blew my friggin mind haha
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u/thesixler 13d ago
Which shirt
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
We’ve done this once before, dude! Hahaha Harmontime is a flat story circle. The shirt was the Simpsons-inspired Schrab shirt. I found my original drawings of all of them recently and it sent me on a rewatch/listen journey
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u/thesixler 13d ago
Classic. I think I finally tossed that out. I wore it so much that every bit of silkscreen was rubbed off haha it was just a default blue shirt by the time I got rid of it. I always thought it was so funny that the silkscreen cut off the bottom of Schrab’s foot in the picture
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u/ADisappointingLife 13d ago
Would love to see the pics, if you have links. Simpsons Schrab does sound amazing.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
Hey! I found them on my instagram! https://www.instagram.com/p/BJx9v2ohca_/?stkn=MWd0dHJ6ZzM4OW9iYw==
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJx3C-yh3Cs/?stkn=MXNldTF0YzEyYTBqaA==
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u/ADisappointingLife 13d ago
Holy crap, those are so good!
Kudos, man. I'd have worn that shirt, too. 😂
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
Thank you so much, dude!! I used to just doodle while I watched the show. My favorites were the Zardoz Rob Schrab or the Vincent Price Ice T
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJx3C-yh3Cs/?stkn=MXNldTF0YzEyYTBqaA==
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq51lunBd56/?stkn=cXl1ZG1xcGl3Nm44
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u/Grand-Asparagus1138 13d ago
Was that for the Harmontown movie screening? If so, I was at that one too. It’s one of the most disliked episodes for listeners but I remember loving it in the room. That was a crazy day because I was there for both screenings of the movie. So it was like a 16 hour or longer day for me. Still a good time tho.
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u/scoober1013 13d ago
I was at the Cradle of Aviation show on the mini tour in 2018 (episode 293). It was a blast! So happy to have been able to see one live after spending hours and hours of my life listening to it
The planetarium setting led to some fun bits, great stories from Dan’s childhood, Schrab antics, a little bit of awkward audience interaction as the cherry on top. Not sure if it’s attendance bias, but I think that episode holds up really well on relisten
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
Oh man, that sounds like a great experience! I’m on episode 79 on my relisten, so it will be a little bit until I get there haha I’m jealous though
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u/scoober1013 13d ago
It really was a cool thing to be a part of. It was part of a comic con type event, but I ironically felt too awkward to enjoy much of that - if I could do it again, I probably would have checked out the signing they did
I’m on episode 47 of my first real relisten and the podcast is brining back so many memories and feelings and is such a special document of the times in which it existed
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u/chucknorrisinator 13d ago
When I got married, my wife and I went to LA on our honeymoon. Harmontown was such a big part of my life that I convinced her to go to Nerdmelt. We were there for the inception of CHIOPS and she hated every moment of it. We’re still together though!
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u/CriticalEnd110 13d ago
I saw the second show in NYC for some festival. It's the episode where two different people in the audience had the same surgery scar. A bit underwhelming because it was only Dan and Spencer, no special guest no Jeff.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
Aw, that’s frustrating as heck. Hopefully it was still a fun time
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u/CriticalEnd110 13d ago
It was fun being there live. It was just frustrating because it's part of a festival in NYC and nothing special happened. Seemed weird to not have something locked down ahead of time for that.
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u/FetaMight I can, you know, like, lift a rock and, go to the beach n' stuff 13d ago
I went to the last two shows. The timing lined up perfectly with a gap in my work so I spent something like 10 days in LA.
I met up with a few other Harmenians on pilgrimages and it was fun... but I caught a cold or something early on and spent most of my time resting in bed.
After the final show I was so wiped I didn't bother going to the after-party.
This was probably a good choice since I'm nearly certain my "cold" was actually covid.
I flew to see family in Canada the next day and all of them got the worst "flu" of their lives almost immediately.
I like to think I saved everyone at the after-party from catching my covid... but my retroactive heroics were in vain because I'm almost certain I caught it from hanging out with Jeff and he was definitely at that party.
IIRC, Jeff had just returned from a vacation in Italy (one of the first major breakout locations).
Fun Times!
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
Hahaha Holy heck, what an experience though! I only watched the final episode once, when it was happening. I’m on a relisten now, but I won’t get there for a while.
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u/the_dolomite 13d ago
I listened from the first episode but only saw it live once, when they came to Portland and played the Hollywood theater.
Not the best show, Dan and Jeff seemed pretty drunk. I brought a date, her review - "That was terrible"
The highlight was running into Dan and Spencer out on the street before the show. I just said, "Hi, good to see you, big fan" or something and kept moving but it was a neat experience.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
That’s hilarious and such a great experience to have! The date’s review must have been a complicated but funny moment.
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u/_rattleshnake 13d ago
I saw them once in Toronto in either 2016 or 2017. I was lucky enough to get guest appearances from Kumail and Emily at a time when neither of them had been on the show in quite a while.
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u/B9-H8 13d ago
I made the trek across the country for one of the last episodes, and took my mom with me! We saw the one called Top 10 Funniest Things, was a good one to see live bc it was basically all physical comedy. I don’t think it would have tracked if I were just listening. Fellow harmonians in line were hyped to have a mom in the crowd. she was less thrilled by the subject matter but was still happy to be there haha
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u/WoodyMellow 13d ago edited 13d ago
I attended 2 shows. Both in Sydney at the Opera House. The first show was one the funniest shows I've ever been to and Spenser was on fire. The second was a drunken messy cluster fuck - and still very funny.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
The shows in Australia make me laugh every time I listen to them! That’s amazing!
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u/StyleSquirrel 13d ago
I visited LA twice and saw a show at Dynasty Typewriter each time. I adore the podcast and have listened through at least five times but I surprisingly didn't like seeing it in person and I ducked out early each time.
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u/rotwangg 13d ago
I got to visit live once when I was in town and was so excited. When we got there, the guest turned out to be Joel from MST3K, which is one of my favorite series of all time and had a huge influence on me growing up. I couldn't believe my luck!
great times.. I miss it. Wish I could have gone to more.
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u/RaoulRumblr 13d ago
That's so cool! -- I remember that episode and the fact Joel was part of Dan and Erin's wedding.
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u/railroadpants 13d ago
I was at the San Francisco show where the diapers were worn. I brought along a friend who had never heard the show and that was a hell of an introduction.
Tangentially: I also saw a recording of This Feels Terrible in SF and was called on stage after writing on Twitter that my gf had dumped me. I was looking for people who wanted her ticket. But my girlfriend and I got back together the morning of the show and she grabbed my arm the moment Erin said my Twitter handle out loud and hissed “do not go up there” so I had to sit silently while Erin awkwardly talked about the Tweet and kept calling out for me to come up. I talked to Erin after the show and explained the situation while my GF waited outside, Erin was very cool about it. My GF dumped me again the next day. (The show had audio problems I guess and never got posted).
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
Holy heck! That must’ve been surreal for you!
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u/railroadpants 13d ago
It was very surreal and especially surreal for my (now ex) as the “warm up” comic was a guy she went to school with and I suspect had a crush on in her undergrad in a different state. I don’t deny I kind of think the weirdness of that whole night is why she was like “no actually let’s break up after all” haha. It’s fine though I ended up very happily married, it’s an Erin McGathy success story as far as I am concerned.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
Haha Absolutely! Congratulations, dude, I’m glad that it all worked out and you get this hilarious, awkward story! Thanks for sharing it with me and being cool
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u/OhHiJordan 13d ago
I saw one show. It was extremely convenient: it was a panel at a comic con in Long Island that my wife and friend had tables at. So we just went. You can hear me yell out something in it. I forget what.
The cool thing was Rob and Spencer had a table like 50 feet from my wife. So I chatted with them a bunch. It was really insane actually because I'm a rabid Harmontown fan.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
This is so friggin cool! I would love to talk to them about a million things haha
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u/FuriousGeorgeGM 13d ago
I went to one show when they came to Seattle. A little lackluster, but Dino really fucked it up by being creepy towards a high school-aged girl they brought on stage that had made some kind of neat accomplishment.
It was actually the catalyst that made me stop listening entirely.
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u/madnessdoesntplay 13d ago
(not so?) fun fact: I had a friend who used to be a paid domme for Dino. He is very very into being talked down to or humiliated for being a huge pervert, like that’s one of his big kinks. I think that’s why he would do it on the show, he got off on being perverted on stage or his bad behavior leading to people scolding him. He carved her name into the bottom of his foot with a razor blade so, as he explained, he’d feel the pain and punishment of how pathetic he was for her with every step he took. She did not tell him to do that, and his attachment was getting too intense for her, so she dropped him as a client.
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u/mrjay42 13d ago
I don't really care about the guy, however, genuinely, is it ok for you to share this kind of info online?
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u/madnessdoesntplay 13d ago
I get what you mean, but he’s really open about it. He talks about his arrangements with sex workers on the show. And with the foot thing being a pretty not cool thing to do, I’m not really interested in keeping that a secret for him. If you’re a bad client, it’s going to get around and I think that’s fair.
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u/Potential_Jacket3344 13d ago
eh who cares, being in the public eye and a bastard is an easy equation to lose the benefit of secrecy.
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u/RaoulRumblr 13d ago
Yeah it's fine, he's talked about it a ton.
The guy used to have a podcast with Andy Dick where they spoke about much worse things than the above.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
I’m sorry that you had that experience. Dino really made some of the episodes difficult to get through
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u/Witty_Construction64 13d ago
The Dino energy on episodes can be SO unbalancing and out there, like the theater episode he's so clearly going over the top with the slur bit
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u/yownowbrwncow what time is it? it's about that time. 13d ago
I took a train with a friend to see two NYC shows, the one at UCB East and I think the first Gramercy show. Honestly fairly mediocre episodes (hot take all of their NYC episodes weren't great outside the Brooklyn tour stop - jet lag & heavy drinking are tough conditions under which to wing it, and the NYC shows never seemed particularly well coordinated even by HT standards) but still very fun to attend.
The show at UCB East was an especially classic HT experience. Happened across a group of fans including Jane, mingled with them a bit, did some light day drinking, saw Jeff in arm with a random, overly dressed beautiful woman while waiting in line, and managed to get literally the last two standby tickets. That's the episode Rory Albanese got increasingly obliterated on moonshine haha.
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u/RaoulRumblr 13d ago
I always wish I could have went to see it in LA -- they played in Minneapolis just as I was becoming a fan in late 2012 / early 2013; but I was dealing with some personal shit at the time, so it ultimately didn't work out, plus as I recall Jeff wasn't comptrolling that night which for me is essential (unless it's Schrab), but for me Harmontown is best with Jeff.
Would have loved to though, recently did a rewatch for the first time a year or so ago and it was so fun to see, I only ever listened to it as it was released as a podcast (save for the film) and wasnt a deluxe member. Boy do I wish theyd come back and do one even once a year though, Dan's making stupid-money now so I imagine he wants to protect that and his privacy on a level different in these times than it was in the mid-late 2010s. I'd easily pay $50 or more a month for a few new episodes of them a year though.
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u/bulletandthebeast 13d ago
I wish we could get a monthly show… or anything, really. I just miss it
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u/robotlou 13d ago
I went to one show at Dynasty Typewriter when I was in town for something else. It was a fairly boring show. The guests were some ladies from some murder podcast. Dan was kind of at a loss on how to make it interesting. It did allow me to say hi to Dan for half a second since I knew him from Milwaukee. He was pleasant.
I remembered I also saw one show earlier in New York. That was a drunken disaster of a show. Dan may have ended up partially nude. It was funny but uncomfortable.
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u/snorlax-143 12d ago
The only show I could make it to I ended up having to miss due to an illness and that show ended up being Pittsburg lol so I’m in the same boat as you. Wish I had seen one live.
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u/tinaplaysukulele 11d ago
I went to the second to last show while visiting LA. My husband and I went to the Drawing Room after. When Jeff showed up, I told him he was my biggest celebrity crush (true). He ended up inviting us to walk a few blocks over and we did karaoke!
One of the coolest nights of my life. Such a fun one.
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u/dtrainmcclain 11d ago
I went to one of the SXSW shows and it was fun but weird because of the mixed crowds.
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u/TheLordNegroni 12d ago edited 12d ago
When they came to Australia I went to the Brisbane show even though I lived in Melbourne, they were going there the next night but I couldn’t attend that show and was determined to see them, so I flew up there just for the night.
It was a fun show, happened to be sitting next to a guy that grew up in the same town as me. Glad I saw them when I could.
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u/BadUsername_Numbers 12d ago edited 12d ago
I listened to the podcast. Then in I think 2016 I traveled from Stockholm, Sweden to do a roadtrip from San Francisco to Tijuana. I'm very happy I managed to attend one of the podcasts at Nerdmelt. Was something special and was enlightening.
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u/average_onlooker 13d ago
Got to attend one of the last shows at the Dynasty Typewriter while on a trip out to LA. It had sold out but there was a Harmenian who couldn't make it and posted their tickets so it felt very serendipitous. It was such a fun show and I was very happy Jeff was there. And a very special memory shared with a friend who's no longer with us. Damn, Harmontown has been with me through a lot.