Shows/1987-12-31a
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Links:
- Full concert audio
- New York Times listing; Dec. 25, 1987
Setlist:
- In the Mood (The Andrews Sisters) Intro
- Kiss Me, Son Of God
- Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes
- For Science
- Cage & Aquarium
- It's Not My Birthday
- The World's Address
- Auld Lang Syne
- Piece Of Dirt
- Alienation's For The Rich
- Why Does The Sun Shine?
- My Funny Valentine
- Lie Still, Little Bottle
- I've Got A Match
- I Could Write A Book
- Don't Let's Start
- 32 Footsteps
They Might Be Giants
— with Lee Nashville & Felicity opening —
1987-01-09 in Maxwell's
December 31, 1987 at 10:00 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
The first of two sets that the band played at Gusto House on New Year's Eve 1987. A listing for the show appeared in the December 25, 1987 edition of the New York Times:
Giants at Gusto House
They Might Be Giants, Gusto House, 197 East Fourth Street (information: Dial-a-Song). The prolific duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, also known as They Might Be Giants, write frantic, funny, tuneful pop songs, overstuffed with images and information and titles like "Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes" and "Alienation's for the Rich." Their latest works are dispensed via Dial-a-Song (718-367-6962), one of New York's most original answering-machine messages. While in concert, They Might Be Giants perform with taped backup, live accordion and guitar, homemade props and enough manic energy to make a listener forget they're using tapes. Sets at 10 P.M. and 12:30 A.M.; admission $10 all evening.
This show included the debut performance of "Piece Of Dirt". John Flansburgh introduced the song: "This next song we've never done before in public, so we don't really know how it's gonna come out. [...] It's kind of a hip-hop Roy Orbison kind of a song."
--Bootleg Review by Tenniru--
Yes, I am reviewing a show despite the fact that I was neither at it or ALIVE during it. The thing is, nobody else reviewed it and a lovely soundboard-recorded source recently fell into my hand. So, the experience of a blind man who showed up twenty years late is all you get.
After opening with an accordion-ballad "Son Of God" and a perfect "Clothes", the band launches into a version of For Science. Now, this lacks things. Like the female vocalist on the finished version. Flansburgh sings all of this in a normal voice with minimal support from Linnell. The set is done calmly and with grand tape/band cooperation. An accordion version of Auld Lang Syne (no vocals) is performed for all of thirty seconds, and "Alienation"'s lyric about the TV now complains that it's "talkin' Spanish", not "in Esperanto". A slow, no-tape verion of "Why Does The Sun Shine" is then played, along with a rocking My Funny Valentine (complete with taped brass and xylophone). A short "Lie Still" (which stops halfway through to let Flansburgh cough, and then continues) and it's over.
Overall, a nice show; although I hope this wasn't all, as it's very short.
