Shows/1988-09-07
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Links:
- Villager listing; Sept. 1, 1988
- New York Magazine listing; Sept. 5, 1988
- New Yorker listing; Sept. 5, 1988
Setlist: (Incomplete!)
They Might Be Giants
Knitting Factory in New York, NY
September 7, 1988 at 10:00 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:[edit]
This was the first show of the band's month-long weekly residency at the Knitting Factory. The band performed every Wednesday night in September, for a total of four shows. The residency was heavily advertised on Dial-A-Song.
This show appears to have been John Gernand's first as the soundman and backing tape operator for They Might Be Giants, taking over from Bill Krauss.
Excerpted show review and interview by Mark Coleman, from the September 18, 1988, issue of Newsday:
- At the Knitting Factory, a club in lower Manhattan, one can sip imported beer or herbal tea and listen to live performances by jazz and rock musicians of the avant-garde persuasion. Normally, the music bill of fare there features conceptualized eardrum-assault. Each Wednesday in September, however, a local ensemble known as They Might Be Giants will be making the Knitting Factory's exposed-brick walls shake with an unfamiliar sound — laughter.
- One recent Wednesday at the club at 47 E. Houston, for example, the Brooklyn-based duo appeared as their own opening act. Armed with acoustic guitar and accordion respectively, John Flansburgh and John Linnell introduce themselves as "Count Drinkalot" and then proceed to croak and stumble through drunken-sailor versions of Giants standards such as "Hope I Get Old Before I Die" and "Kiss Me, Son Of God." The crowd howls in delight.
- With their self-deprecating humor and deadpan presence, these two modern-day folk satirists could be the nerdy-cool Smothers Brothers of the '90s. Yet They Might Be Giants is something more than a comedy act; they might be the most original — and genuinely popular — rock group to emerge from New York in this decade. "Although the Smothers Brothers' in-between song patter sounded spontaneous, it was all written out in advance," says John Linnell. "When people come to our show, they actually get to see us trying to figure out what we're doing. We've had a lot of practice at not sounding practiced." [...]
- Both Flansburgh and Linnell are gifted musicians on several different instruments and prolific writers, and through the miracle of tape recording they're usually able to recreate the mad-scientist aesthetic of their records in concert. "I feel naked without our tapes," admits Flansburgh. "Playing that 'Drinkalot' show unaccompanied is totally terrifying. But that's the great thing about doing a series at a place like the Knitting Factory. We can stretch out and not worry about Delivering The Rock Goods. Now if we would have done that 'opening act' at Columbia University the other night, there would have been a lot of people scratching their heads."
- "And threatening to scratch our heads," adds Linnell.