Shows/1990-05-16
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Links:
Setlist:
- Intro
- Lie Still, Little Bottle
- Particle Man
- Your Racist Friend
- Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
- Kiss Me, Son Of God
- Lucky Ball & Chain
- Ana Ng
- Hearing Aid
- Whistling In The Dark
- Purple Toupee
- The Famous Polka
- Chess Piece Face
- She's An Angel
- Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
- (She Was A) Hotel Detective
- Where Your Eyes Don't Go
- Birdhouse In Your Soul
- Cowtown
- 32 Footsteps
- Road Movie To Berlin
- Twisting
- Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes
- Shoehorn With Teeth
- Don't Let's Start
- Hide Away Folk Family
They Might Be Giants
— with The Jack Rubies opening —
Beacon Theatre in New York, NY
May 16, 1990 at 8:00 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
Tickets were $20.
From The Variety, May. 30, 1990:
Giants John Flansburgh and John Linnell arrived onstage with a boisterous following of youthful fans in tow, racing through a set of tunes primarily off their current "Flood" LP, with a theatrical lighting effects and a backdrop of huge postage stamps.
Unfortunately, the Beacon proved to be as oversized as the stamps, and a misguided attempt to fill the void with deafening sound levels merely made their tongue-in-cheek lyrics and self-parodying melodies all the more unimpressive.
Performing in a deadpan style befitting their nerdy intellectualism, Flansburgh and Linnell are capable musicians and amusing composers whose strongest turns — including the country put-on "Lucky Ball And Chain" — blend knowing verses with referential tunes reminiscent of Elvis Costello. On the other hand, their frequently droning delivery and singsong lyric style can result in childish pranks like "Particle Man."
In sharp contrast, the curtain-raising Jack Rubies lashed out with a pounding 45-minute set that would have had any club crowd on its feet. Hard-edged renditions of "Mona Lisa" and "Book Of Live" were a world apart from the stylized affectations of the Giants. — Vern.
While a mostly college-age crowd cheered, the band's attitudinizing only highlighted the fact that, while they might be giants on the club scene, Giants lack the spark and originality needed to command wider attention.
