Notable Shows Gone Wrong

Over They Might Be Giants' long touring history, innumerable shows have been temporarily interrupted by mix-ups, mistakes, or technical snags... but a few unusual incidents stand out.

Shows on this list were disrupted seriously enough to be mentioned by the band themselves in interviews, reported on in the news, or immortalized in song.

• 1987-04-06 - The Electric Banana, as referenced in the song Pittsburgh. The club's gun-carrying owner, "Johnny Banana", is mentioned in the Venue Songs DVD introduction and many interviews.
• 1987-04-17 - They Might Be Giants were pulled from KCTV mid-song for playing Kiss Me, Son Of God on Good Friday.
• 1992-07-23 - Shut down by the Fire Marshall mid-show because the venue had been overbooked.
• 1992-10-05 - The Famous Polka Modjeska Theater stage collapse, as discussed in Gigantic.
• 1992-12-31 - John Flansburgh accidentally hit bassist Tony Maimone in the face with a guitar hard enough to leave a scar.
• 1993-08-01 - A festival appearance where a precipitous drop in temperature, missing sound check, complete lack of stage lighting, and rented equipment combined in what John Flansburgh has repeatedly referred to as one of their worst performances.
• 1995-05-27 - Chris Ballew of the opening band The President of the United States of America was physically removed from the stage by Flansburgh for disrupting an encore. (Linnell later said the rest of the band didn't consider Ballew disruptive.)
• 1996-09-19 - John Linnell was sick and lost his voice before the show. John Flansburgh, Mike Viola, and Frank Black covered his vocal parts.
• 1996-10-05 - John Linnell succumbed to heatstroke four songs in, forcing the band to cancel the remainder of their performance. According to John Flansburgh, this was the first time they were ever booed.
• 1996-12-06 - The travel required to get to and from this out-of-the-way show resulted in the theft of their gear, several show postponements, and what Linnell described as "pretty much the worst week of our career".
• 1996-12-29 - John Flansburgh was hit in the face by a ball of Gak thrown by an audience member, leading to the decision to cut seven songs from the setlist.
• 1997-04-02 - A crowd surfer crashed into John Flansburgh's microphone during Dig My Grave, chipping Flans' tooth.
• 1998-10-15 - John Flansburgh became too sick to stand late in the show. Linnell finished the show (and performed Everybody Conga) on his own.
• 2001-04-28 - John Linnell was sick and was unable to sing. John Flansburgh and Dan Miller covered most of his vocal parts.
• 2001-09-01 - The show so plagued by technical issues that the song Disappointing Show was improvised to memorialize it.
• 2011-11-25 - Performed on rented equipment after their gear trailer caught fire and then broke down en route. The show opened with Everything Is Catching On Fire in memoriam.
• 2013-10-19 - While the show went well, the Nerdapalooza festival was unable to pay TMBG for their headlining appearance due to poor financial planning and subsequently declared bankruptcy.
• 2019-03-13 - This JoCo Cruise show was delayed and relocated half a mile due to inclement weather, then cut short to avoid a $10,000 fine when John Linnell and Mark Pender's guest passes expired at midnight.
• 2022-06-08 - The first show played after the COVID-19 postponements. John Flansburgh was seriously injured in a traffic collision on the way home afterwards, immediately forcing yet another round of postponements.

Honorable Mentions

• Sorry I Fucked Up The Show
• Show Not Going So Well - an audience (non)participation segment filmed by the band at some shows, including 2024-05-11 in Pittsburgh, 2011-11-13a in San Francisco, 2011-09-13 in Ithaca, and 2011-09-10 in Concord NH. See a behind-the-scenes here.
• A number of They Might Be Giants shows have suffered minor disruptions due to audience members throwing objects at the stage. This has included papers^[1], water bottles^[2], beer bottles,^[3][4] shoes,^[5] t-shirts,^[6][7] bras,^{[8][9][10][11]} frisbees,^[12] foam fingers,^[13] and pipe cleaner sculptures.^[14] The band has made it clear that even when these objects are intended as gifts, "anything thrown is unwelcome."^[15]