Shows/1990-05-05
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Links:
Setlist:
- Lie Still, Little Bottle
- Particle Man
- Your Racist Friend
- Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
- I'll Sink Manhattan
- Ana Ng
- Lucky Ball & Chain
- Kiss Me, Son Of God
- Hearing Aid
- Whistling In The Dark
- Purple Toupee
- The Famous Polka
- Where Your Eyes Don't Go
- She's An Angel
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
- (She Was A) Hotel Detective
- Chess Piece Face
- Birdhouse In Your Soul
- Cowtown
- 32 Footsteps
- Road Movie To Berlin
- Twisting
- Happy Birthday to Flansburgh
- Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes
Encore:
They Might Be Giants
— with Eek-A-Mouse, Michelle Shocked, John Wesley Harding opening —
SUNY New Paltz in New Paltz, NY
May 5, 1990
Fan Recaps and Comments:
- I was not yet born when this show occured. Why, then, am I qualified to review this? Well, my bootleg collection can only grow; and I recently obtained footage of this whole show, shot by a man in the audience. He had a steady hand, although he sometimes was jostled around and randomly panned to the other side of the room. The sound quality was drenched in reverb and the vocals were near-incoherent, thanks to a combination big gym and loud, loud amp. This one cameraman was able to capture everything; thankfully, it was a small-scale show in a gymnasium and that one camera only had to capture the two men onstage; no big stage or various members to zoom in on during key parts.
- The performance itself, however, was extremely enthusiastic and in perfect harmony with the tape. The lighting (featuring the amazing options of on, off, and blue) was handled with drama. This was Flansy's birthday, which may explain his extreme enthusiasm; he runs around the stage like a madman, jumping and ducking randomly. (Linnell, however, stayed put; then again, you would if you had a huge accordion hanging off of you.)
- The audience was big, packing the gym and dancing. It was drowned out by the enormous volume of the amps, so it was only audible between songs; the image of a huge crowd of square-dancing, congo-lining kids near the back of the gym (the cameraman was left with no choice but to look at this) speaks volumes without any real volume.
- High points included the "screaming" section common in Istanbul peformances of the time, Flansy picking up his mic stand and jumping towards Linnell during 32 Footsteps, hearing Whistling In The Dark in Linnell's normal voice, and some weird guy wearing large red paper wings jumping around near the back. Um.
- After Twisting, Linnell announces that it's Flansy's birthday. A woman with a cake and the bizzare wing man come onstage, with Flansy blowing them out. The crowd sings Happy Birthday, and then they try to start Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes; except Linnell starts singing a bit too late, requiring the song and tape to stop and begin again.
- The band leaves as the crowd voices it's happiness. Then Linnell walks back out, making a speech I can't hear over the reverb. Then we get Shoehown With Teeth; the band stands and sings, instrumentless (Linnell is unadorned for the first time), leading to some various gesturing to emphasize the song through the song.
- Then we get an explosive Don't Let's Start with loud audience reaction, lots of jumping, and an attempt by the cameraman to capture some kind of huge dance in the back (sadly, it's too dark and invisible).
