Shows/2013-03-13

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7 wikians attended: Arachnid flame Areyoumyana Jeppster Overjoy Paradoxicles Selfcallednowhere SubliminalJK

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Links:


Setlist:

Encore 1:

Encore 2:

They Might Be Giants
— with Moon Hooch opening —
Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, OK
March 13, 2013 at 7:30 PM


Fan Recaps and Comments:

Selfcallednowhere:

First of all, IMPORTANT JOHN LINNELL ADORABLENESS NOTE: when he first came out his hair was all messy and I'm pretty sure he had just woken up from a nap and IT WAS THE CUTEST THING AHHHHHHHH. I know he often naps before shows but I'd never seen actual evidence of it before.
After the first couple of songs:
JF: How is everybody doing? *crowd cheers* I don't think John Linnell can hear you with his long-term hearing loss! *crowd cheers again*
JL: I can hear, but I can't understand the meaning. When everybody goes "AHHHHHHHHH!" that could mean either way. That's the part I can't understand.
JF: MY EYE!
Then Flans said they'd checked on how the show had gone the last time (I was all "YES WIKI REPRESENT") and when they saw how good it was they knew they couldn't live up to it, so they'd "dismantled the more alluring parts of the show" and replaced them with things that are less interesting.
JF: We have a new album out, and it's already causing a sensation in countries where they don't control their culture.
JL: This next song is not from that new album. But we have learned new songs.
Disappointingly, Flans did the actual elements for the "the heat and light of the sun are caused by the nuclear reaction between" part--I've never seen him do that before.
Flans was being silly with the robotic effect for "Nanobots" again. He asked if the crowd was psyched and then said as a robot he feels no emotions so he was having a hard time getting motivated to sing the song. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear what he was saying after that, because this HUGE ASSHOLE kept yelling stuff, but there was something about "white smoke coming from the bus," and John said, "We have a new robot--Robot Robot the First."
After "Nanobots," the aforementioned asshole (who was also constantly shoving everyone around him, and entirely kept my friend's husband, who was right next to him, from enjoying the show--REALLY wish The Johns or security had intervened) kept yelling for "Santa's Beard" (I tried yelling at him to shut up, but to no avail). JL: "'Sadness Bear'? I'm trying to remember that song, but I can't."
Flans said he'd lived in Atlanta briefly (???) and that there was a hat in the gas station across from his sketchy apartment that he always wanted to buy that said "If you don't like country music you can kiss my ass" and that there was something appealing about "wearing a hat that would provoke a fight." John said, "It might as well have said 'Fuck you'" and Flans said later they'd probably replaced it with one that did just say "Fuck you."
When John was getting his bass clarinet Flans said he wasn't sure if the venue could handle it. "The tradition is so strong at Cain's, but the building is fragile. Will it still be standing after the low notes of the bass clarinet have shook the mortar from the bricks?"
Cain's is famous for being the home of Bob Wills, and Flans said his ghost (whom Shannon told me is really supposed to inhabit the place) was showing up. "Ahhh! I'm interrupting what's going on!" JL: "He says 'Ahhh!' to interrupt what's going on and then that's what's going on." Then Flans said he thinks Bob Wills "experienced more joy" than any other person ever, and that the next song was "a special long-distance dedication to Mr. Bob Wills."
They did the combo of "Turn Around" and "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" again and, like with "They'll Need a Crane," nothing will ever be as special as the very first time seeing my very favourite songs, but seeing them again was still really amazing. I mean, I've seen "Birdhouse in Your Soul" every damn show I've ever been to, pretty much, but I still flip out about it.
After "Damn Good Times":
JF: I just realized we're not even at the halfway point of the show.
JL: We have, however, played all the good songs.
Then Flans asked John if he'd done anything that day, and John said he'd been walking from the hotel to the venue and saw a transformer box (JF: "A transformer? Like that British sci-fi thing from the 70's I don't know?") that someone had spray-painted the face of Lionel Richie and "Hello" onto. Then he sang "Hello, is it me you're looking for?" and it was SO GREAT. Flans said he had just stayed in his room "fighting the wifi all day" and John said, "You've gotta get out more. It's crazy." Banter is almost always just Flans going on about something and John providing occasional responses to it, so whenever John actually tells a story himself I get SO FUCKING EXCITED.
Then John said how Nanobots has barely been out a week. "At the shows we were doing in other parts of the country we were off the hook, because we could screw songs totally up and no one would know. But now we don't have that luxury." (He is, of course, not taking into account ridiculous people like me who had the album mostly memorized before the day it even came out.)
The Supreme Court came out with the Avatars again. Blue Avatar: "And help our gay friends out, ok you weirdos?" Later Flans said they give a hard time to the Supreme Court but that everything's actually fine. "That Scalia winds me up."
They busted out "S-E-X-X-Y" of all things, so that was definitely the big surprise of the night. I'm not very into that song, but it was fun to see just cos it's so rare.
A couple songs later was "DON'T LET'S START" HELL FUCKING YES. I've only seen it twice before and, while "A Self Called Nowhere" is technically my favourite TMBG song, I think "Don't Let's Start" is the best TMBG song, and it's my most-played on Last.FM by several thousand. So seeing it is A REALLY BIG DEAL. I actually was jumping around some as soon as they did the opening notes cos I simply could not contain my excitement (I generally stay reasonably stationary during shows). I did the thing where I don't let myself take any pictures cos I just want to have the experience of being there in the moment, watching my dear wonderful John sing his perfect song that means so, so much to me.
For nicknames, John did "Frosted Mini Wheat" for the girl directly in front of me. Some girl at the t-shirt stand after asked me "Do you feel very privileged?" cos she thought it was me, and I was like "???" cos I didn't know what she was talking about. Seems like a weird thing to be bitchy about, cos it's not like the people who get picked have any control over it. Oh also, when John was having a hard time coming up with it I heard someone say "Make something up!" and I was like "...what else would they be doing?"
Then Flans said someone was "Omomatopatrick" (JL: "How do you spell that?" JF: "It's a symbol, actually") and John said someone was "Blacula." They talked about Marilu Henner again--John said, "I have this theory that Marilu Henner is faking her psychic powers. But ours are real. At the end, Flans said, "If you need to know your nickname, come up to us in the parking lot a few hours after the show, where there will be chicken fights, and people on fire, and we'll be flipping cars over."
During the encore, they were thanking everybody on the crew.
JL: Vernet. Still on the lam.
JF: Why won't he tell us his real name. No one's named "Vernet." Not even in France.
Flans managed to only screw up "Circular Karate Chop" a tiny bit this time. I was proud of him.
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