Shows/1992-09-06
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Links:
Setlist: (incomplete and possibly out of order)
- Space Suit
- Ana Ng
- She's Actual Size
- Mammal
- 32 Footsteps
- Twisting
- Boat Of Car
- Stump The Band
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Encore #2:
They Might Be Giants
— with Young Fresh Fellows opening —
Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, BC
September 6, 1992
Fan Recaps and Comments:
A review of the show by Mofo
Discorder, Oct. 1992:
I was stoked for this one. I had been waiting for three years to see these two Johns and their wacky musical stylings. I came in to find that the Young Fresh Fellows were opening which was even cooler since I had not yet seen one of the northwest's few decent original bands. They, of course, got the joint moving with their anything-goes party music.
TMBG came on reasonably early (since the liquor Nazis decreed bars must be closed by midnight on the day of the Sabbath), starting off with "Apollo 18," an odd instrumental from the newest LP, followed by the bouncy "Ana Ng" from the Lincoln LP. The band sounded terrific, featuring large amounts of woodwinds substituting for the band's weird samples that appear on their albums. They played flawlessly.
I suspect most of the crowd had only heard "The Statue Got Me High," the single off the new album, because there were many perplexed looks from the crowd when they played their weirder stuff like "32 Footsteps" and "Boat of Car".
Some disappointments: they sold out of Fezzes and not many people danced with their dates (facrissakes! not many bands this cool that play good dancing type tunes come out here this often, so it would be nice if some of you clued in!).
Some cool things: they played "Billie Jean" AND "Frankenstein."
Some pissoffs: the assholes who pushed into me, yelling "Play Sabbath!" and the losers who wanted to start a slam pit (getta grip!).
But all in all, a great show!
From "Pop Giants deliver fidelity, melody and quantity" by Graham Cook
The Ubyssey, Sept. 8, 1992:
When the Giants took the stage, the three words of their newly declared (but always apparent) motto lit up behind them: Fidelity, Melody, Quantity. Despite my fears, the Giants provided all three.The set was a good mix of back-to-back classic tracks from their second and third albums. "Ana Ng," normally the most precise of songs, came off a little muddy live, but the essence of the song's bizarre love story and the Disneyesque chorus of "it's a small girl after all" made up for it. There were many die-hard fans in the crowd, though the majority seemed to prefer the newer songs and the ones played on MuchMusic. The John Zorn-ish ending tacked on to the surf ballad "Twistin'" and the heroically skewed "Boat of Car" didn't go over too well, and the degeneration of "Istanbul" into a wonderful mix of Star Trek wormhole and whale sounds left more people a mite bemused. But the pop music just kept on coming, fulfilling the "quantity" third of their motto and keeping the crowd energized. TMBG's encyclopedic knowledge of tunes came through in the "Stump the Band" section, when the audience could request any popular song they liked. They played a not bad rendition of "Billie Jean" − something which would admittedly be difficult with just taped backing.
And at the end of the second encore, a cover of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" from 1973, showed off John Flansburgh's wicked axework and a love for music that belies their humorous image. These folks are serious about pop.
Dial-A-Song sticker handed out at the show
Bumper sticker handed out at the show
