Shows/2010-10-02

From This Might Be A Wiki


Fan Recaps and Comments:

Nightpotato:

A damn good free show. The Avatars of They are growing on me

veggieman:

Amazing. My favorite was surely Canajoharie, a purely amazing song.

christob:

So. Much. Confetti. When they pulled out the confetti bazooka, after the normal confetti guns, well, it was a happy land. The acoustic guitar intro to Istanbul was spectacular!

All banter transcribed by Zondry:

(songs with (*) next to them indicate that Curt Ramm played on the songs)
  • Sammy Intro, She's An Angel*
F: Ladies and gentlemen. Everybody in the back! We are They Might Be Giants from Brooklyn, New York. How are you doing back there? It's very exciting to be here, ladies and gentlemen, here at the beautiful Kennedy Center. Ladies and gentlemen, this is They Might Be Giants' national anthem! Featuring on the drums, the undisputed king of the drums, he's come to hear you scream! Mr. Marty Beller!
  • Clap Your Hands*, The Guitar*
F: Ladies And Gentlemen, we are assembled here at the Kennedy Center to praise new music. Ladies And Gentlemen, new wave music will never die! The spirit of the mid-late 70's music will never die! Ladies And Gentlemen, as evidenced by the beautiful hallowed halls of Kennedy Center. Ladies And Gentlemen, people in the back, can you hear the words "I'm saying"? Is there anybody out there? Are the people in the very, very back prepared to hear new wave music? They seem to be ambivalent! Like so many people in the 70's were. We're here to turn that around, ladies and gentlemen. Through the miracle of the electronic drums under the beautiful stewardship of Mr. Marty Beller who's gonna turn his back on the audience for a dangerous 2 minutes. Here we go, this song is called "Nonagon".
  • Nonagon, Birdhouse In Your Soul*, Fingertips (confetti cannon goes off at the end)
F: Ladies and Gentlemen, we're so excited to be here. This is a fantastic place. We wanna thank all the people for being so nice to us all day, and putting on the show. I hope everybody is comfortable out there. Perhaps, the narrowest, longest performance space in the history of live performances...
L: ...since CBGB closed.
F: Yeah, it is so exciting to know that were not missing any part of rush hour now. Ladies and gentlemen, you know when you read the magazines. People, musicians talk about how hard they worked on the album or how hard it is being on the road. That stuff’s not true, ladies and gentlemen. Nobody worked that hard on the album and being on the road isn’t really that hard. This next song is a special long-distance dedication to all our good friends, all the musicians, all the little liars. This song is called, “Never Go To Work” featuring Mr. Curt Ramm. Curt Ramm, step right up here, ladies and gentlemen. Curt Ramm on the trumpet. Ladies and Gentlemen. Here we go…
  • I Never Go To Work*
F: Ladies And Gentlemen, guess it’s time for that institutional beat. We need everybody to clap on the backbeat, ladies and gentlemen, DC, go-go style! I’m gonna turn the microphone now to amplify your clapping.
  • Particle Man*, Your Racist Friend*
F: So Ladies And Gentlemen, we’ve been working real hard on the brand new album.
L: That’s right.
F: It’s been really rough sledding for us. So, this is one of the songs that’s gonna be on, it’s new. And it’s called “Canajoharie”.
  • Canajoharie
F: Ladies And Gentlemen, we have one question for you. Are you ready to rock?!? (The audience screams)
Danny: Alright, look at this excellent crowd. Alright, how many people out there love dinosaurs? (The audience screams)
F: Danny Weinkaulf loves dinosaurs!!
Danny: That’s right. And we know DC loves dinosaurs. Then you’ll love the next song. It’s your favorite song.
F: Danny, danny is a paleontologist!!
Danny: I Am A Paleontologist!!
  • I Am A Paleontologist
Danny: Thank you!
F: The crazy sound is coming from inside the band. So, ladies and gentlemen, this next song is about 3 things: It’s about Pirates, arrgh!! It’s about girls, arrgh!! And unexpectedly, it’s about the accordion, arrgh!! Ladies And gentlemen, I’m gonna sing this next song in a pirate voice. My friend, John Linnell will probably not sing in a pirate voice. The song is called “Pirate Girls Nine”.
  • Pirate Girls Nine*
F: Ladies and Gentlemen, what better place to perform this next song that’s right here at the Kennedy Center. A song about one of the worst presidents ever, Mr. James K. Polk.
  • James K. Polk, Older (confetti cannon goes off after Linnell sings "And time...")
F: Let’s have a round of applause for David, our confetti technician. Perhaps, the highest paid confetti technician in rock music today, ladies and gentlemen. How does he do it? He’s been sharpening that confetti all day. Ladies And Gentlemen, this next song is called “Doctor Worm”.
  • Doctor Worm* (Only the first 12 seconds are played)
F: AND, we would like to thank you.
L: You’re not gonna see that weird sound in my ear. I was hearing on the drive down here. So it might not be something on stage.
F: We have a word for that in the band, ladies and gentlemen. The word is “Celebration”!
L: Celebration!!
F: Celebration!!
L: “Celebration” with a funny accent!!
F: We are sort of half, Irish half, Rastafarian
L: That’s right. That’s exactly what the proportion is. Yes.
F: Yes, it’s hard to keep under your wig for the entire show. So ladies and gentlemen….
L: Here we go! This song…
F: We’re going back in time to keep anticipation to an earlier, simpler time when we first started playing this song: Doctor Worm!!
  • Doctor Worm* (Take 2, Just after Linnell sings “I’m not a real doctor but they call me Doctor Worm” near end of the song, Linnell yells “Curt Ramm!” as Curt plays the solo on his trumpet.)
F: Ladies and gentlemen, this song is called “Dang Good Times”.
  • “Dang” Good Times
  • Band Intros*:
F: Ladies And Gentlemen. People, it’s time introduce the band. Directly to my left, perhaps the finest electric guitarist in They Might Be Giants, give up for Mr. Dan Miller one more time! People in the back, put up one hand for Mr. Danny Weinkaulf on the bass! Ladies And Gentlemen, all the way from Connecticut, on the trumpet, Mr. Curt Ramm!! But Ladies And Gentlemen, the only man sitting on a throne, the undisputed king of the drums, and 2012’s American Idol. Ladies!! He’s come to hear you scream!! Mr. Marty Beller!! We’re They Might Be Giants from Brooklyn, New York. We wanna thank you all for coming to the show. We wanna thank the parents for coming to the show. We wanna thank the people for coming to the show. But ladies and gentlemen, we wanna thank, we’d like to thank the children for coming to the show let’s hear it for the kids! Yes! We are gonna be organizing chicken fights right after the show. Don’t miss out! We just got one more song for you. Thanks again, for coming.
  • The Mesopotamians
(encore)
  • Alphabet of Nations Free Ride
F: We need see a sea of hands, people. A sea of hands! Dan Miller, get outta the way! Dan! Let’s see the people! WAHHHHH!!! Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for The Avatars of They!
L: YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!
F: Somebody packed me wrong. I gotta get my face on.
L: How’s it goin’? Thanks for comin’
F: We are The Avatars of They everybody. I am The Blue Avatar.
L: And I am “The Other Blue” Avatar.
F: Do not try to adjust your set. Hey, Green Avatar...
L: Yeah?
F: Knock-knock!
L: Who’s there?
F: Let’s get back to the music, shall we?
L: Yeah, we wanna thank They Might Be Giants for opening up the set for us! We wall warmed up.
F: Yeah, this next song is off our Science album because they won’t let us do our own songs. IT’S CENSORSHIP!! I wanna do my knock-knock song but they whispered in my—well actually I don’t have the ears. The song is called “What Is A Shooting Star?”.
  • What Is A Shooting Star?
L: YEAAAAAAAAH!!! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH.
F: How about that bit- Hey, it’s a sea of hands everybody for 4000 people!!
  • Free Ride
F: Hey, we wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show! We wanna thank the person with the foam hand all the way at the other end in the venue, ladies and gentlemen. This show is dedicated to you
L: That’s his real hand.
F: He’s got an enormous orange hand. It’s a special show for him. You know, there’s a stage all the way at the other side of this venue. And we were talking about trying to figure out how to incorporate that into our show. But of course there were time restrictions, which reminds me of this very next song, ladies and gentlemen. Because it’s the last song in our show, we like to rock you all night long. But that is not something that is available to us at the current time. We like to remind you that we are on Friendster. You can find us there. Seriously, it’s the most popular social networking site in North Korea, ladies and gentlemen. We’re making an incredible number of North Korean friends. Join us now, won’t you? Just pick up your walkman and type in the words, “Friendster/Aww, forget it”. So, ladies and gentlemen, once again, Mr. Dan Miller on the acoustic guitar..
  • Miller Time, Istanbul (Not Constantinople)* (confetti cannon goes off at the end)
(end of show)