They Might Be Giants vs. The Patriots?
Feb. 3rd, 2008 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yesthattomWith the Superbowl so near, you’d think someone talking about The Giants would mean a sports team. Ah, and you would be wrong. To me, the Giants means the alternative, weird, awesome band They Might Be Giants (Wikipedia). Yes, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
quietchris and I saw two shows in one week.
(Oddly enough, we drove right by Giants Stadium on our way through New Jersey to NYC’s Beacon Theater.)
On entering the theater there was a women handing out those big green foam “We’re #1” hands to people as they entered. It says, “They Might Be Giants” on it. This gave the show an odd feel as so many people were holding these giant hands.
We had plenty of time to buy schwag and drinks (full cash bar!) and run intocartographer who was there with a spare ticket (which I believe went unused). Her seats were in the loge , which was better than our upper balcony seats.
After getting out drinks on, we went up to the show.
No opening act, but they did 2 sets. As they explained that they were opening for themselves. “We’re the most authentic They Might Be Giants tribute band. We know all our songs, and sound just like us. And our John Linnell looks just like the John Linnell.” They made comments about how excited they were that first the first time they’ve sold out The Beacon Theater’s 2800+ seats, especially since this theater is so convenient “gotta love that Metrocard!” Metrocard is the subway pass in NYC... they live in Brooklyn.
Other typical jokes they made were like, “this next song is from our new album... and by ‘new’ we mean ‘the most recent one we’ve released’”.
The first words they said when they came out was, “You must stand up. This isn’t TV!” I thought that was excellent. However it wasn’t nearly as cool as the fact that after they sang their song about the sun (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) the paused to point out that the sun is powered by a nuclear reaction resulting from the collision of a failed foreign policy, a failed domestic policy, and a failed presidency. That statement got tons of cheers.
Our seats were pretty bad but it was mostly because of tall people standing in front of us. We were able to move around and see what we needed and we could hear them really well.
Oh, and the music? They had a 3-piece horn section, drummer, guitarist and bassist. The drummer was good, though I think he was off-beat during “Ana Ng”. Their new material isn’t as childish as their older albums, which were, at times, often only one step away from sounding like Sesame Street. To be honest, I prefer the stuff that sounds like Sesame Street the best (can you say “Cow town?”).
Post Script: While writing this LJ post I discovered that wikipedia has articles deconstructing many of TMBG’s songs but more importantly there is a wiki dedicated to the band called This Might be a Wiki. I see it is already updated with notes about last night’s concert as well as updated trivia about certain songs based on what they said.
Oh, and if you are really interested in this band, you absolutely have to watch the documentary about them called “Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) - A movie about They Might Be Giants”.
quietchris and I saw two shows in one week.(Oddly enough, we drove right by Giants Stadium on our way through New Jersey to NYC’s Beacon Theater.)
On entering the theater there was a women handing out those big green foam “We’re #1” hands to people as they entered. It says, “They Might Be Giants” on it. This gave the show an odd feel as so many people were holding these giant hands.
We had plenty of time to buy schwag and drinks (full cash bar!) and run into
cartographer who was there with a spare ticket (which I believe went unused). Her seats were in the loge , which was better than our upper balcony seats.After getting out drinks on, we went up to the show.
No opening act, but they did 2 sets. As they explained that they were opening for themselves. “We’re the most authentic They Might Be Giants tribute band. We know all our songs, and sound just like us. And our John Linnell looks just like the John Linnell.” They made comments about how excited they were that first the first time they’ve sold out The Beacon Theater’s 2800+ seats, especially since this theater is so convenient “gotta love that Metrocard!” Metrocard is the subway pass in NYC... they live in Brooklyn.
Other typical jokes they made were like, “this next song is from our new album... and by ‘new’ we mean ‘the most recent one we’ve released’”.
The first words they said when they came out was, “You must stand up. This isn’t TV!” I thought that was excellent. However it wasn’t nearly as cool as the fact that after they sang their song about the sun (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) the paused to point out that the sun is powered by a nuclear reaction resulting from the collision of a failed foreign policy, a failed domestic policy, and a failed presidency. That statement got tons of cheers.
Our seats were pretty bad but it was mostly because of tall people standing in front of us. We were able to move around and see what we needed and we could hear them really well.
Oh, and the music? They had a 3-piece horn section, drummer, guitarist and bassist. The drummer was good, though I think he was off-beat during “Ana Ng”. Their new material isn’t as childish as their older albums, which were, at times, often only one step away from sounding like Sesame Street. To be honest, I prefer the stuff that sounds like Sesame Street the best (can you say “Cow town?”).
Post Script: While writing this LJ post I discovered that wikipedia has articles deconstructing many of TMBG’s songs but more importantly there is a wiki dedicated to the band called This Might be a Wiki. I see it is already updated with notes about last night’s concert as well as updated trivia about certain songs based on what they said.
Oh, and if you are really interested in this band, you absolutely have to watch the documentary about them called “Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) - A movie about They Might Be Giants”.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Cool!
Date: 2008-02-03 05:02 pm (UTC)You do know they have 2 actual kids albums out ("No!" and "Here Come The ABC's) and one coming out in a few weeks ("Here Come The 123's")? Good stuff, and fun for the whole family!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 06:36 pm (UTC)Glazer's style was a lot better than that page, though. Imagine Tom Lehrer doing straight kiddie-folk.
Yay Giants.
Date: 2008-02-03 09:38 pm (UTC)Re: Yay Giants.
Date: 2008-02-05 01:09 am (UTC)Re: Yay Giants.
Date: 2008-02-05 03:17 am (UTC)Trombone
Date: 2008-02-03 10:01 pm (UTC)So, anyway, 6 degrees and all that.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 01:54 am (UTC)The last time I saw them, they made everybody Conga.
Conga like we meant it.
They weren't fuckin' kidding.
Everybody Conga.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 06:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-05 12:37 am (UTC)I love those guys. Wonderful concert. I moved from my seat to stand at the front of the balcony. I had the best view ever.
They did the "failed foreign policy, a failed domestic policy, and a failed presidency" bit at the Bowery Ballroom in July too, and also got cheers.