Shows/2011-11-09b
You must be logged in to mark yourself for being at this show.
Links:
Setlist:
- Subliminal
- Can't Keep Johnny Down
- Celebration
- Why Does The Sun Shine?
- Snail Shell
- Fingertips
- Old Pine Box
- Birdhouse In Your Soul
- Damn Good Times
- Ana Ng
- Battle For The Planet Of The Apes
- Judy Is Your Viet Nam
- Withered Hope
- Marty Beller Mask
- We Live In A Dump
- You Probably Get That A Lot
- Crazy Train
- Spoiler Alert performed by The Avatars Of They
- Free Ride
- Cloisonné
- Alphabet Of Nations
- Particle Man
- The Famous Polka
- Careful What You Pack
- Band intros
- The Mesopotamians
Encore 1:
Encore 2:
They Might Be Giants
— with Jonathan Coulton opening —
Showbox SoDo in Seattle, WA
November 9, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
- it was a p. great show; I really just wanted to comment documenting the guy who brought a broom with a nametag that said 'Not Yours'. when I saw it, I giggled a bit. but, that was basically the limit of its entertainment value: "some guy made a reference to a thing I know about." some girls asked him what it meant and he just told them "it's kinda obscure."
- but then, he kept pushing forward through the crowd to get to the front and wave the broom in the air above everyone's head. Danny gestured at him to put it down, and he did for a while. later, during Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, he started waving it again and Danny just came over and grabbed the thing out of his hands. I couldn't stop laughing. it's probably the best thing that could've happened.
This was my first TMBG concert and boy, oh boy was it a fun one. I stood squarely in front of Linnell's keyboard up until The Famous Polka at which point there was a mad dash to get near Flansburgh's guitar so from then on I was slightly off-center to the left of the keyboard. Someone at the beginning of the show was handing out Marty Beller masks to the crowd in front of the drum set, and when the band played the song everyone put theirs on. After the song was over, Marty looked out at the crowd and looked confused.
My favorite song of the evening was probably Ana Ng because the light show was just killer. I was one of a group of four people who jumped up and down throughout the show, and our group grew and shrank depending on the song. For that song, I think the group numbered maybe thirty, probably more.
After the show, Marty stayed and took a picture with those of us with Marty masks (and posted it on Twitter). He also signed the back of most of them. I told him about how I share his name and he signed mine by saying "Marty! Excellent Name!" then his usual signature.
Review by Selfcallednowhere:
Very excited by the lack of "Istanbul." I don't think I've ever been to a show where that has happened, except for instores. It made me really happy--I could sooooooooo do with never seeing that song ever again.
After the fabulous opening of "Subliminal," Flans did the comforting and familiar "Good evening everybody we're They Might Be Giants from Brooklyn New York!" and then he said it was "a stone-cold gas to be at the SoDo...S-word...place...'I'm Rick Perry and I'm running for president!' " (The name of the club is the "Showbox SoDo.") He said "stone-cold gas" something like 6 times over the course of the show--I know he likes to say it but I think that is some kind of record even for him. He even said it while doing the "the sun is hot" part of WDTSS.
After they did WDTSS this happened. (I should note that this club is in a really, really sketchy part of town):
JF: So how are you, John? What did you do today?
JL: I don't remember. Being here has shattered my memory. It's like electroshock therapy.
JF: We're glad you're all here, because all day it was just us and a bunch of guys on meth, and it was pretty scary. It's good to have some normal people around.
JL: We're assuming you're not on meth. Because you like us.
JF: Meth is great. We love meth.
JL: That is, if you do.
JF: We're not here to judge.
After "Fingertips," Flans talked about being in Vancouver the night before--he described it as "very Canadian." Then he said that by the venue there had been a music store called "London Drugs," which he thought was a "persuasive" name. "I'm surprised there hasn't been a novelty song called 'London Drugs'--you could use it as a cover--'No, it's not about drugs, it's a music store!' "
Seeing "Ana Ng" again was motherfucking FANTASTIC, of course. The intro they did for it was not as weird this time and drew a lot more heavily on the riff, which I drummed out on my hip. Got chills again from what a beautiful, heartbreaking, perfect song it is and how overwhelmed I am with love for a man who could write a song like that.
Then they did "Battle for the Planet of the Apes." Flans introduced it as "Ape Club," which I know he has been doing sometimes but I don't know why. I again ended up on The Johns' side, the apes, but it wasn't a tie this time--the people won.
JF: Night after night, the people win.
JL: It's like Stockholm Syndrome, losing every night. Punish me some more.
JF: We love you, you damn dirty apes.
Then Flans said that it was sad for the people to always win because "the apes are so awesome," which prompted some more chanting from my side. Then he said the people should "take your Haliburton briefcase and your big prize money and go...buy a Coke or whatever the fuck."
While introducing MBM Flans said the thing again about Join Us being lonely and John said "Join Us was staying in one end of its cage and not really running around much." Then Flans said that they know that "the ratio of rock musicians to civilians in Seattle is roughly two-to-one" so he knows that everyone knows that rock managers hate album titles like Album Raises New and Troubling Questions, "not just because it's ponderously long and doesn't sound like a title, but because it's just...a bad idea."
I think it's pretty funny how during the Avatars bit it's mostly just Flans's ad-libbing about something and John's is not doing anything besides looking over at him and back and saying "Yeh" occasionally. This time Flans was saying something about how they were going to start an "Occupy the Experience Music Project" protest--"it's what Jimi would have wanted." (That's a music museum here in Seattle that has a ton of Hendrix stuff.) Then he said that Mitch Mitchell was a great knitter and they always had a number of sock puppets backstage.
He was introducing "Spoiler Alert" and saying the thing again about how TMBG had stolen it from them. Green Avatar: "They think puppets don't have lawyers." Blue Avatar: "We don't have lawyers." Green Avatar: "They were right. We don't have lawyers." Then the Blue Avatar said that puppets can have soul patches, and showed off a strip of black duct tape on his chin.
After that a bunch of people were yelling requests--someone apparently yelled "Chess Piece Face" of all things and Flans said that normally they'd be happy to play that if they "wanted to dust like 90% of the audience," but promised they would do it at a barely attended instore soon, after everyone had left. Then people were yelling more things and John said "We're entering a request K-hole" which is apparently weird out-of-body experiences and hallucinations you'll have if you take too much of the drug ketamine, which seems like a weird thing for John Linnell to know the term for.
Before the end of the regular set Flans was thanking the audience and did this thing he's been doing sometimes where he said that they had made up nicknames for everyone--"Guy with the beer, you're Bonk." JL: "Hello, Bonk. These guys over here are Tango and Cash." JF: "Tango and Cash, meet Bonk. Maybe you can hang out after the show. Or start a Google+ group together. You have a lot in common now."
The encores were the same as Spokane with that notable exception of substituting "The Guitar" for "Istanbul." I have seen "The Guitar" a million times but it is definitely one of the absolute all-time top TMBG live songs so it was very cool to get to see it for the first time in years for me. SO DAMN ROCKIN'. And they closed with "Dead" (again) and it was amazing (again).
