Shows/2001-10-16
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Setlist:
- Cowtown
- Doctor Worm
- Cyclops Rock
- James K. Polk
- Your Racist Friend
- Lie Still, Little Bottle
- Yeh Yeh
- Birdhouse in Your Soul
- S-E-X-X-Y
- I've Got A Fang
- She's Actual Size
- Don't Let's Start
- Robot Parade (Adult Version)
- Older
- Boss of Me
- Man, It's So Loud In Here
- Maybe I Know
- Drink!
- Particle Man
- The Famous Polka
- Working Undercover For The Man
- Bangs
- The Guitar
- Why Does The Sun Shine?
- She's An Angel
- New York City
Encore 1
Encore 2
On the setlist but not played:
They Might Be Giants
— with OK Go opening —
Otto's in DeKalb, IL
October 16, 2001
Fan Recaps and Comments:
Review by Gary Butterfield:
First of all, though I've seen TMBG before several times, I was surprised to find them playing at a small club in my podunk town.
I've gone to them so many times, it was nice to see them come to me.
That said, this was an amazing show, maybe the best I've seen. Before I get to specific things I'd like to talk a little about the
general atmosphere of the show. OKgo opened and were pretty good, but thier levels sucked. They did do a respectable version of
"Kiss Me, Son of God" by TMBG. How postmodern of them! The crowd was huge for a tuesday night and generally reacted very well to
OKgo. After say 7 songs they got off the stage and, after some setting up, a low rumbling was heard. I'm guessing this is the
"Space.K." that was referred to in the setlist. Now, I was right up front center and when John and John came out I was amazed at
how close they were. There wasn't a point in the show really that I was more than 8 feet away from Flans and 11 from Linnell. And
they kept getting up on the boxes that separated us from the stage so I was several times literally 6 inches away from Flansburgh
or Linnell or either of the guitar Dans. That was awesome. The crowd was really cool except for a rude girl next to me who kept
shoving and screaming. If you're reading this, rude girl, know that you made a great concert a little less great with your
selfishness. Take that!
On to the individual song notes.
Cowtown-First song they played before saying anything. Pretty good. Dan Miller played keyboards instead of guitar on this one.
Dr. Worm-Before this song, Flans goes on a tangent about how he's been sleeping in his clothes and how he just tried RedBull, to great effect. He says that they will probably discover it causes brain stems to disinegrate and Linnell jokes that he doesn't need that stem any way. Flans says they throw away the stems. This, by the way, was the best performance of this song with horns I've seen.
Cyclops Rock-Flans says it's about a guy with one eye and they play the song. However, musically, it's the Working Undercover version and not the Mink Car version. After the song he says that he feels bad because people in the front row (that's right, me) were singing along with the original lyrics ("Nixon was sick...") and that he's noticed that at every show and it makes him feel bad. Then they went into...
James K. Polk-Solid, no Confetti cannon.
Racist Friend-Good performance.
Lie Still Little Bottle-Good, with stick, which Flans described as the "Phil Collins Stare Drum sound that people can't get enough of."
Yeh Yeh-Decent song, better live. But before it Dan Miller played the saturday night live ending music and they all started thanking imaginary guests like Jewel. Then they made fun of Dennis Miller cuz he's so emotionless after the show and no one hugs him.
Birdhouse-Nothing special really. Solid though.
S-E-X-X-Y-Great performance, but I wish they had had the horns.
I've got a fang-Ok song but at the end it was funny cuz Linnell said "Fang you very much" and made a wierd face.
Actual Size-Great performance and they did that "Drum styles through the ages" thing that has been referenced in other reviews. I've never seen it before so I was impressed and amused.
Don't Let's Start-Before the song they went on a tangent about a guy the night before who kept yelling for this song and they didn't play it out of spite. It was reserved for us.
Robot Parade (adult version)-Spy is on the setlist but they played this instead. It's funny and during the song Flans pushed Dan Miller up to the front of the stage very roughly to get him to showboat for us.
Older-Pretty standard with an extra long pause in the middle.
Boss of Me-Decent, no talk or fanfare.
Man,It's so loud in here- The fantastic disco version with a disco ball and everything. Afterwards Linnell says he's been thinking of clever things like, "Fang you very much" to say after every song and the best he could think of for this song is, "Man, thank you"
Maybe I know-Just the Johns.
Drink-Flans says before the song that it's only a minute and 15 so don't get too attached to it.
Particle Man-Decent and I think Linnell played, "Lines upon a tranquil brow" during the break.
Famous Polka-Got to play the guitar for the first time. Yea!
Working Undercover for the Man-Flans says before this song that he's probably just paranoid.
Bangs-Linnell talks a bit about the new album and says this is the first song from it about a hair style.
The Guitar-Pretty basic, really long bass solo.
Why does the sun shine-Linnell sang lead and Flans the fill-in parts. He messed up the "The sun is large" response by saying, "Everything on the sun is a gas...fuck...and why is it a gas? Cuz the sun is so fucking huge!"
She's an Angle-Standard, good performance.
NYC-Flans says in the beginning that even though there's been some shit going on in NY, he's still proud to call it home.
(Encore1) Mink Car-Just like the album version.
Istanbul-Featured a great solo by Dan Miller before the song.
(Encore2) Fingertips-Fantastic. I've never seen it live and was very impressed.
After the show I got a setlist and had it signed by Flans. He talked a bit about how he was impressed with the turnout even though it's tuesday, the worst day of the week.
