Shows/2009-11-17
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Setlist:
- Meet The Elements
- Subliminal
- New York City
- Cowtown
- Birdhouse in Your Soul
- Clap Your Hands
- Particle Man
- The Famous Polka
- Damn Good Times
Avatars of They:
They Might Be Giants (cont'd):
- We Live In A Dump
- The Mesopotamians
- Take Out The Trash
- Ana Ng
- Whistling In The Dark
- Hearing Aid
- Why Does The Sun Shine?
- James K. Polk
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
- Where Your Eyes Don't Go
- They Might Be Giants
First Encore:
Second Encore:
They Might Be Giants
— with The Guggenheim Grotto opening —
Belly Up in Solana Beach, CA
November 17, 2009 at 8:00 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
- Pretty good show, the last of the West Coast leg. The boys seemed in fine fettle.
- Two Encores, nice version of Dolly Parton's Here You Come Again (in the middle of Particle Man) by John L. and his accordion.
An overall great show. The guys seemed rested, since they didn't play the day before the show. It wasn't a Flood show, which in hindsight is a good thing. I sometimes like being surprised by what comes next and the concept of an album show is somewhat trite, now that everybody is doing it. They did a good job of blending the Big Three songs with fan favorites and some recent tracks. It's been more than two years since they were out here, so it was good to see some things that weren't played last time. The Belly Up is a great venue and hopefully they come back sometime in 2010.
The opening band came on just a few minutes after 8. It wasn't so great; their songs do have some kind of beauty to them that certainly fits into pretentious indie films, but not much appeal beyond that.
TMBG came on a few minutes after 9 p.m. Meet the Elements is pretty catchy, and even though it's a "kid's song," I could see it becoming a staple. Hopefully it will replace The Alphabet of Nations as the token "kid's song" they play at adult shows, because the AoN is wearing thin.
Ralph Carney was awesome on various wind instruments, including a homemade slide clarinet which he used on James K. Polk, classic clarinet on Cowtown and Istanbul and saxophone on a number of songs. At one point (I think during Damn Good Times or Mesopotamians) it looked like he was air-drumming with a banana.
They sure like to play "New York City" when they're in Southern California. Typical New York liberal elitism... well, guess what? Our governor can beat up your governor! Then again, so can the 9-year-olds at the elementary school down the street... because your governor is blind. Suck on that, New York City.
The Avatars of They segment's not so great; I was entertained the use of "Free Ride" as a segue and can see how it appeals to the Johns being able to sit down for a few minutes and perform songs that don't require much energy.
Prior to playing "James K. Polk," John & John made sure that everybody knew that they did not like the person whom the song was about, which is odd because I doubt they've ever met. As mentioned above, Linnell worked in a few lines from "Here You Come Again" before the last verse of "Particle Man." It was a bit confusing and not as humorous as skeleton arms reaching up from the grave, but it looked like he had fun doing it.
Cowtown and Where Your Eyes Don't Go live were epic wins, and they came with banter about the band still trying to hock their second album, 'available at your local record store in 1989.'
Dead seems like an unusual way to bring a rock show to its climax, but I won't complain. It's one of my favorite songs from Flood and I got to see it live.
On the way out, Danny Weinkauf was hanging around the opening band's CD table. I was able to thank him for putting on a great show, and he in turn complimented me on my 'All Your Base Are Belong To Us' shirt (perhaps sarcastically, but I still found it cool).
