Shows/1988-04-23
From This Might Be A Wiki
Links:
- Photos by Stevie Rocco
- Photos on a contact sheet by Bill Krauss
Setlist: (incomplete and possibly out of order)
They Might Be Giants
Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA
April 23, 1988 at 7:30 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:[edit]
This performance was part of Movin' On, an annual free student-run music festival held on Pennsylvania State University's HUB Lawn. The all-day event ran from 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., with They Might Be Giants headlining at 7:30 p.m. In 2010, Movin' On assistant director Stevie Rocco shared a set of photos from the performance and recalled:
When I was in college, I was assistant director of Movin' On, the all-day concert held on the HUB lawn (in those days) during Blue/White weekend. The year of my 21st birthday, in fact, the DAY of my 21st birthday, my then-dream came true: They Might Be Giants played Movin' On. They even slept in my dorm suite, as there were no hotels available in town that day.
Gracious musicians and all-around great guys, they ended up hanging with us after the concert. They even offered me one of the giant heads to take home with me. Sadly, I only had a compact car at the time, and had to refuse (which ended up being a good thing, as they continued to use them on their next album).
John Flansburgh spoke about this show in an October 1988 interview:
The last time we played here [in Rochester], we drove almost all night and all day to get here, and then left the show and drove all night long to do a show in Pennsylvania somewhere. An outdoor show, in the rain, in the middle of the day. And we basically just never really slept between the show we did here and there. But actually, that rain show turned out to be one of the best shows we've ever done. It's hard to predict how it's gonna turn out. The rain stopped the second we hit the stage, which was really weirdly gratifying. I was sort of threatening not to go on, because I don't want to die with an electric guitar surging through my veins. Y'know... I just didn't wanna die. It was very dramatic.
Preview from Pennsylvania State University's Daily Collegian, April 22, 1988:
- A crowd of 10,000 is expected to visit the HUB lawn tomorrow to hear the live bands performing at Movin' On, the annual free concert sponsored by the Association of Residence Hall Students in cooperation with WWZU-FM. Calling the event "an all-around musical day," publicity chairman Stevie Rocco said the movie Dirty Dancing will be shown following the last band's performance around 10:30 p.m. The eight bands scheduled to play are:
- Earthtones — 11:30 a.m.
- Split Decision — 12:45 p.m.
- 11th Hour — 2:15 p.m.
- Affordable Floors — 3:15 p.m.
- Night Shift — 4:15 p.m.
- Tom Larsen Band — 5:30 p.m.
- They Might Be Giants — 7:30 p.m.
- Bricklin — 8:15 p.m.
- T-shirts will be sold for $5 today at a table in the HUB basement and on Saturday during the concert, Rocco said. Buttons will also be sold for 50 cents. Marshalls will be on duty to police the area, check for alcohol and pick up trash at the concert. [...]
- Headlining this year's Movin' On will be the zany They Might Be Giants, who play a unique blend of pop, polka, country and confusion. Their past hits include "Don't Let's Start", "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" and "Youth Culture Killed My Dog". The two man band is wacky and unpredictable. They perform with guitar and accordion, using a backup tape to fill the rest. Their concerts feature such props as the big hats featured in their videos and a stick with a microphone attached to it. TMBG will be releasing a new album soon. Their first, self-titled LP is still a best-seller locally, even though it was released over a year ago.