Shows/1990-10-29
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Setlist: (incomplete and possibly out of order)
They Might Be Giants
— with Carmaig de Forest opening —
Newport Music Hall in Columbus, OH
October 29, 1990 at 10:05 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
Tickets were $12 in advance and $13.50 at the door. The doors opened at 7pm.
"Giants' show late, but fun" by Jim Criswell
The Lantern, Oct. 31, 1990:
They didn't fool anyone — but then again, they didn't really try — and they were giants.
The Brooklyn, N.Y. duo They Might Be Giants, and their recorded back-up band, shook the Newport Music Hall throughout an energetic, albeit late-starting show Monday night. They Might Be Giants didn't take the stage until 10:05 and gave a disappointingly short, 1-hour 15 minute performance. Aside from those minor faults, the show rang true to what They Might Be Giants' music stands for: Fun (with a capital "f"). At the beginning of the show, John Flansburgh (the duo's guitarist) ran out on the stage and shouted "Greetings from Brooklyn!" and the audience dutifully responded by standing up and jumping in place throughout almost the entire performance.
From the second level, the bobbing audience looked like kernels of popcorn popping on the dance floor. As for the recorded back-up tape, it had its good and bad points. It properly focused attention on the vocals of John Linnell (the accordionist) and Flansburgh instead of their back-up instrumentation. But it improperly gave the performance a feeling that the constraints of the recording had to be followed. Those constraints were obvious in "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair," when Linnell sang ahead of the first few beats of the chorus.
Their performance of "Your Racist Friend" was fresh, despite the recorded back-up, offering an accordion solo not appearing on the Flood LP recording. The catchy, sing-along song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" suffered without the characteristic violin presence that set the turkish mood for the silly remake. Surprisingly, the duo presented a show laced with tunes from their first two albums, including "Ana Ng," before the single-oriented 1990 Elektra release Flood.
Flansburgh stole the show with his spastic romping around the stage and witty between-song comments. "How many of you saw our last show in Columbus?" he asked the audience. As a few hands were raised, he responded: "There are 14 pathological liars in the audience tonight. You were in Cleveland, not Columbus — it's different," Flansburgh joked.
Despite the fun of They Might Be Giants' performance, the opening act was a whiny, irritating singer whose style is reminiscent of fingernails screeching on a chalkboard. His name is Carmaig de Forest. And his performance was tortuous.
