Shows/2007-09-17

13 wikians attended: Beatle Vette Bowser724 Chaddmaythis Klherrmann LouRocco Mmnatas Patteroast Reynoldbot Richter50512 Roogba TheSpoonyBard Totesawesome X-modem

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Setlist:

• Minneapolis
• Birdhouse In Your Soul
• Take Out The Trash
• Upside Down Frown
• New York City
• I'm Impressed
• Why Does The Sun Shine?
• Spider
• The Guitar
• Withered Hope
• Alphabet Of Nations
• Phone Calls From The Dead (Luciano Pavarotti)
• We're The Replacements
• Older
• Meet James Ensor
• It's Not My Birthday
• Contrecoup
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
• Memo To Human Resources
• The Cap'm
• Twisting
• The Mesopotamians
• With The Dark

Encore:

• Particle Man
• Maybe I Know
• Doctor Worm
• Minneapolis (reprise)
• Damn Good Times

They Might Be Giants
— with Oppenheimer opening —
First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN
September 17, 2007 at 9:00 PM

Fan Recaps and Comments:

bowser724:

What a terrific show. They Might Be Giants are true showmen. This is the first full TMBG show I've ever been to (I only made it to half of the free one in Detroit) and I am thoroughly satisfied with Their performance. It was amazing standing in the front row right in front of Linnell and his keyboard. He seemed to always come back to meet my eyes and smile. I have to disagree with Reynoldbot about the setlist. There were considerably less songs from The Else than at previous shows, and They made good use of the time that was given. My only gripe is that Fingertips wasn't played, and nothing from Lincoln was played. Still, the set was anything but bland.

Reynoldbot:

This was my fourth TMBG show, and I gotta say, it was kind of disappointing. Sure, there were some highlights: Hearing the Minneapolis venue song performed live, We're the Replacements, It's Not My Birthday, The Cap'm, Older, and a couple others were fun. The lights were really great and the sound wasn't bad. But otherwise, it wasn't a great show.

For one thing, besides the above-mentioned songs, the set was pretty bland. It's discouraging because the set lists for the past shows have been pretty interesting. I'm not too fond of the new album or the Spine, and they played almost the entire new album. Seriously, take a look at some of their shows from the past month or two. The sets were much more interesting.

Almost all the banter involved talk about The Else being released as an LP. Yawn. Also, they didn't really do any of the cool crowd participation stuff they used to. Phone Calls From The Dead is okay, but since when are TMBG limited to only one gimmick? Where are the Spin The Dials, the Dial-A-Drum-Solos, the Car Crashes, the Planet of The Apes Competitions etc?

I dunno, maybe I was expecting too much. But TMBG are famed for being a great, energetic, quirky and experimental live band. A certain degree of fun should be expected. I saw them play in Austin only a few years ago and it was magical! This show was bland. It wasn't bad, it was just bland. But y'know, I think that's about the worst thing you can say about a TMBG show. They shouldn't be bland. They should be great.