Shows/2001-10-30

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Links:


Setlist:

Encore:

Encore 2:

They Might Be Giants
— with OK Go opening —
Avalon Ballroom in Boston, MA
October 30, 2001 at 8:00 PM


Fan Recaps and Comments:

(I originally started writing this review right after the show, but never finished it. Just found it on my harddrive)

My 2nd and 3rd concert on this tour, my 6th and 7th overall....and my 8th is in 2 more days. Yes, I am nuts. I attended this mini-tour with my "friend" Quinn, who was fresh off Monday's show in New Haven which I wasn't able to make it to. I met her at the bus station in my town and then we took the train to Boston......I noticed that there were a bunch of other WPI students on the train who were also going to the show. We arrived in Boston at 657, and since it's been more than two years since I've been there, I decided that we should probably take a taxi over there instead of trusting our map reading instincts. When we arrived, they were already letting people in so we got into line. The Avalon has the most idiotic security staff I've ever seen. They wouldn't let us in because Quinn had a backpack with her --- they wouldn't even let her check it at the coat check "the coat check is only for coats"...yet they were also letting people in with purses as big as her backpack.....and we even offered to let them search the bag "read the sign -- no backpacks in the building" ....and finally after deciding that trying to argue with people with 8th grade educations isn't gonna get us anywhere except not into the show, we stepped out of line and ran down the street looking for the closest place to store the bag. We went into a nearby Gold's Gym, where they charge $10 per bag overnight for non-members. Not wanting to waste anymore time we accepted the outragious fee and got back to the show. Amazingly we were able to get my usual spot -- in front of Linnell's keyboard -- but the best we could get was up to the 4th row.

The Avalon was decked out for halloween, the highlight being this cheap haunted house backdrop that covered the entire back wall of the stage. It was also covered with disco balls. The process of waiting wasn't too long this time. OK Go got out there pretty fast and did the same vote for a cover song. I yelled out TOTO and he said "wait...not everybody was at the show last night you know" and the Smiths ended up winning AGAIN. Ah well.....the set was changed around a bit from last time, but all of the songs that I like were played again, including Kiss Me Son of God. After finishing with Don't Ask, they said there was another 3 minutes so they'll play the Toto song "Hold the Line". Wow.....how.......cheezy. It was cool though. So then the process of waiting for TMBG began. We noticed that this time they actually DID plug in the confetti cannon, which were mounted on top of the PA's.

Finally Space Krickets started playing, and TMBG walked out. Instead of playing something right away, JF came out and said "Hey everybody we're They Might Be Giants from Brooklyn, NY. This is our first song called Cyclops Rock." They sang "chucky" again...I guess it's a permanent thing now. Everyone sounded healthy, but the Providence show last week seemed to have more energy. And then JL said "How the devil are you??? Yeah, that's what I thought. Here's an oldie" and they started off Ana Ng very softly, but then turned it up for the rest of the song at the first refrain. It was too packed to do the Ana dance tonight. For the last set of refrain pauses, JL played some vibraphone arpedgios and went straight into She Think She's Edith Head, which was actually sung closer to the Mink Car version tonight, and at the beginning of the instrumental part said "she lost her mind...."

JF just said "this is a song about a president" and they went right into Polk. YAY!!! The confetti cannon worked! I used Quinn's hat to catch a large amount of confetti and glitter, making one of a number of nice collector's items we collected. Polk went straight into Actual Size, with a very interesting drum solo section. It started off #2 for Spanish, #3 for Gene Krupa, #4 for Joey Knots, #5 for Mitch Mitchell, #7 for Animal from the Muppet Show, #8 for John Bonnam, #9 for John Bonnam's cell phone, #10 for John Bonnom's pager, #11 for Clyde Schofeld, #12 for Stevie Wonder, #13 for Keith Moon, and then #14 for a drum solo that is half Keith Moon and half Animal, and then kept having Dan Hickey switch between Animal and Keith Moon a-la Spy improv for a minute or two, and then #15 to turn this mother out and have the audience start screaming, which they did a great job at. The song finished up as usual, with an echo on "she's got got got got got got". Note that JL was playing organ instead of sax on this.

After the song, JF commented that he's gotta start thinking of new drummers to add to the list. The audience started suggesting names, such as the guy from Survivalist and Grand Funk Railroad. JL then recommended that anybody in the audience that travels by tour bus should come see the show tomorrow night in DC. JL: because I know there are some of you out there who travel in tour busses. JF: I know I'm going John!. JL: John Flansburgh is one of them. You should come see the show because we'll be playing with a band that ranks as one of.......an up-and-coming band that does TMBG cover songs. So in mememorium of them -- err, reverse memerioum actually because it hasn't happened yet, we're gonna cover one of the song that they cover of us. It's called We Want....a Rock. YEAH!!!!!!!!! I've never seen this song live before, and it totally kicks ass live. Too bad it wasn't on accordion, and I screwed up my bootleg of this show by singing along so energetically, but it was still great!

JF: so here's a new song from the new Mink Car album about drinking called Drink. it's usually right around this spot in the set that we get into the D's. First accordion song for tonight...JF was waltzing with the mic stand throughout the song, and Quinn and I found room on the floor to waltz along too.

JL: we're still in the "d-r's".....this next song features Dan Miller, formerly on the acoustic guitar, on the keyboard. JF: he's double dipping! Don't call the union!! Dan then started to lift up the front edge of the keyboard, and JL said he's able to lift up the whole thing and show the audience if he wants. Dan then pretended it was too heavy to lift, and eventually lifted it up and showed the top end to the audience. Just a typical Roland A-30. JL then confirmed: it's real. 100% geniuine. So here's that song...called Dr Worm. YEAH!!! During the vocal solo, Hickey played a bongo part. After Dr worm -- JF: THE OTHER D-R SONG!!! JL: well, now it's time for the D-E songs. JF: this is a song we never ever do. JL: we're not even doing it now. JF: how do we start it? JL: uh I just start and you try to come in. And then they started playing DEAD. eh......it's Quinn's fav song tho, so I was happy for her that we got to hear it. There were A LOT of people in the audience singing along on this one.

JF: song's beginning with the letter D. Dead...never to return! audience: awww JF:They Might Be Giants: delivering disappointment since 1985. JL: but disappointment begins with D!!! JF: I don't wanna talk about it. This next song was written in the 50's, recorded in the 60's, covered now. It was NOT written by Jimi Henrix and it's called Yeh Yeh. I love this song live :)

Next was the Doom intro to Spin the Dial. JF kept mentioning that the maker of their radio was from MASSACHUSETTS. JF: just to demonstrate that this ins't some phoney-baloney scheme, let me demonstrate. On switch, off switch, AM, FM." The first song was Once, Twice, Three Times A Lady and some guy in the audience yelled out "TOO EASY!!" Next they tuned into Pearl Jam's Daughter. And then JF started making up fake lyrics -- "I'm so fucking old. I have long scrappy hair. I work in a parking lot and I live in a cave and I sing like an ape. What the fuck is wrong with me?" after that they mostly turned into talk shows and commercials and then they just went into Older. JF didn't mess up the guitar solo this time and they didn't pause on the "time is marching on" part this time. Older segued straight into Twisting, which rocked as usual and included the "awwwwwwwww shittttttttttttttt" part by JF. For the organ solo towards the end of the Jam part, JL took out a DUCK CALL and played teh solo on it!!! Weird!!! A conga line also started up :)

After Twisting ended, Space Krickets was played again and they started the exact same routine as in Providence with So Loud followed by Robot, followed by Shoehorn. Unfortunately the conga line from Twisting brought over this drunk, ugly, sweaty guy wearing a dinosaur mask who put a huge dent into our enjoyment for a while. he's one of those guys that never stops screaming and jumping around, and we eventually told him to shuttup and he said "I came here to have some fun and you ruined that. I want you to go home and think about what you did." Who's he to talk to US about having fun at TMBG shows!!! I considered pushing him behind me, but I didn't want to risk getting thrown out. Why lower to his level?

One other crazy thing to mention was that during the Istanbul jam, Linnell lifted up his keyboard again, but then held it face out for the audience to play, similar to the way JF does with his guitar. I played John's keyboard!!! --Richegreen 00:32, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

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