They Might Be Giants

No one wants to hear this maybe, but here's a "review" of the TMBG show Saturday night. The Incredible Moses Leroy opened for them, and they were cool, showing 1980s-based video collages in the background during most of the songs. When John Linnell and John Flansburgh came out, it was cool to finally see them in person, and that's always my favorite part of any show: just seeing them for the first time. The music isn't as important to me, since I can hear that at home. I had a good place, on a slight platform so I could see over everyone's head on the floor. The only good place on the floor would have been in front of the stage, but I learned my lesson when I went deaf at the Modest Mouse show (sorry, Steph, that you didn't get to see them) and I'd rather have a clear shot of them all rather than having to hurt my neck staring at one of them. It was probably the most entertaining show ever, though the first Magnetic Fields show I went to is still my favorite in terms of overall magic. TMBG is easily second, even over the other two TMF shows I went to.

The songs they played, and a comment about the more gimmicky performances:

1. James K. Polk –I involuntarily went “whoo!” when the big-confetti machine popped when they hit the words “James K. Polk.”
2. Cyclops Rock – They didn’t do the “somebody took my eye” intro, but they still cyclopsily rocked.
3. I’ve Got a Fang
4. I Palindrome I – They introduced this as “our mothers’ favorite song” since the first line is “Someday mother will die and I’ll get the money. Mom leans down and says ‘My sentiments exactly, you son of a bitch.’”
5. Bangs
6. Lie Still, Little Bottle – Flansburgh brought out a 12 ft. stick, introduced as “the stick,” explaining, “The stick wants to perform tonight, but the stick is shy. It has a microphone attached to one end and a Yamaha chip attached to the other end which only plays one sound: Phil Collins’ snare drum from 1986.” Which it did, and he banged the stick on the ground with the song so the drum would sound and then held the mic end out every now and then while people sang.
7. Birdhouse In Your Soul
8. She’s An Angel
9. Subliminal – Linnell looked cool squeezing out the opening notes on his accordian.
10. The Famous Polka – The one where the crowd looked like they might almost mosh.
11. She’s Actual Size – During the middle of this, Flansburgh went to Dan Hickey on the drums and said he was ready to serve everyone’s drum solo needs, and the requests would be filled in the order they were received, then went through various people and styles: “Buddy Rich, press three. John Bonham, press two. Mid-70s rock ballad, press four. Ringo Starr, press six. Keith Moon, press seven. Animal from The Muppets, press five. Keith Moon, press seven,” then showed how Animal and Moon aren’t very different, or the same.
12. Fingertips – They went through the entire “Fingertips” collection, in order, with appropriate lighting. The “I Walk Along Darkened Corridors” ending was especially nice.
13. Spy – The end of this was Flansburgh holding out his arms to various members of the band who would play as he pointed to them, usually two at a time. I can’t remember what song it was, it may have been this one, but there was one part where Flans kept singing “
14. Robot Parade – This is the part that cracked me up the most. Flansburgh sung with his voice filtered through one of those “robot harmonizers.” This song is from the upcoming children’s album, so not as many people knew it (though I did since I’m a nerd), and it was the only song that people didn’t know, so Flans went over to John and started singing, “John, I think we’re losing the crowd.... Nobody wants to hear a song from the record after this one... If only we had a glockenspiel...” Then they brought out one. “But who will play the glockenspiel? Who will play the glockenspiel?” Still using the robot voice and robotily singing. “G-L-O-Kenspiel! G-L-O-Kenspiel!” Then Dan Hickey comes out from behind the drum set and they go into the next song.
15. Shoehorn With Teeth – Dan stands in front of the glockenspiel waiting for the appropriate time to go “ding!” on the instrument. It’s funny.
16. New York City – Mostly played because of 11 Sep and because they’re from there. Ended part one.

17. The Guitar – Returned for encore.
18. Yeh Yeh – They asked if anyone had seen the Chrysler commercial which features this song, which I have once.
19. Man, It’s So Loud In Here – True to the nature of the song, they made the room look like a disco when playing this.
20. Particle Man
21. Why Does the Sun Shine? – It was fun to see 25-yr-old boys and girls jump around like crazy to this children’s song.
22. S-E-X-X-Y – “This song goes out to my one true love... the ladies.”
23. Doctor Worm
24. Older
25. Drink! – Everyone swayed to the drunken tune.
26. Boss of Me – Ended first encore.

27. Maybe I Know – After the first encore, everyone started chanting “Is-Tan-Bul!” (though not me, since that was pretty annoying, and since I never considered it their best song or anything, especially since they didn’t write it). When they came out, they said, “Well, we don’t know what you’d like to hear, but we’re going to play this.”
28. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) – And then they played it, and the show was over.