Shows/1992-07-08
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Setlist: (incomplete)
- Everything Right Is Wrong Again
- Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head
- Number Three
- Don't Let's Start
- Hide Away Folk Family
- 32 Footsteps
- Toddler Hiway
- Rabid Child
- Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes
- (She Was A) Hotel Detective
- She's An Angel
- Youth Culture Killed My Dog
- Boat Of Car
- Absolutely Bill's Mood
- Chess Piece Face
- I Hope That I Get Old Before I Die
- Alienation's For The Rich
- The Day
- Rhythm Section Want Ad
- Purple Toupee
- Birdhouse In Your Soul
- Your Racist Friend
- Sixteen Tons
- Stump The Band
Encore 2:
They Might Be Giants
Ventura Theatre in Ventura, CA
July 8, 1992
Fan Recaps and Comments:
Review by Rick Lynch:
- The first half of show was the first album played in order, then came stuff from Lincoln, Flood, and Apollo 18. It was their first tour with a live band. They covered "Sixteen Tons" and "Frankenstein" by Edgar Winter. My friend got kicked in the nuts by someone who was slamming during "She's an Angel." My girlfriend's brother was dancing flamenco in the lobby (I think we were at the Ventura theatre). He was wearing a Member's Only type of jacket, a moustache, and pegged pants. He was exactly ten years behind the times. He was also drinking a bunch of white russians as we were dancing. He had been in a car accident and was a little touched in the head as a result of the head injury he received. Flansburgh doodled on my friend's shirt before the show. We thought that he had drawn a bong, but later realized that it was an acoustic guitar. That's all I can remember for right now. Thanks. Enjoy.
"Giants perform with quirky style for Ventura fans" by Jeff Claassen
Ventura County Star, Jul. 11, 1992:
We're in the Nauseous Nineties, the vice president is unintentionally funnier than anyone except late-night punster David Letterman - and They Might Be Giants has arrived just in time.
In a recent message, Flans-burgh whines in his adolescent voice: "We're on the road, shaking the ground with funny-car power. Call back anytime and there'll probably be a song."
Led by two New York City wisenheimers, the band fed a small turnout of 450 sweaty fans at the Ventura Theater on Wednesday with eclectic musings on night lights ("Birdhouse in Your Soul"), conspiracy theories ("Purple Toupee") and the vagaries of love ("Don't Let's Start").
Like creatures of their turbulent times, band leaders John Flansburgh and John Linnel[sic] take nothing seriously, especially the entertainment business. Prancing around the stage with accordions, guitars and a wide assortment of horns, the pair turned out such chestnuts as "She's an Angel":
I met someone at the dog show
She was holding my left arm
But everyone was acting normal so I tried to act nonchalant
We both said 'I really love you'
The Shriners loaned us cars
We raced up and down the sidewalk 20 thousand million times
This duo may sound at first like novelty-song lightweights, but actually turn out humor with teeth. Such songs as "Your Racist Friend," "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head" and "Alienation's for the Rich" match Letterman or any other sardonic comic, barb-for-barb.
Some bits push the edge of New York existentialism, which Johns Flansburgh and Linnel[sic] explored during five years as an opening band in offbeat venues in the city before gaining national attention with their first album in 1986.
In their first tours, the pair reeled out tape machines to play their intricately-timed backing music. But on this tour, for the first time, they signed on musicians to pound out a backing beat with drums, bass guitar and synthesizer. They Might Be Giants' usual gimmicky, song-a-minute style stretched a bit to fit a thumping rock beat. Their brief ditties were punctuated with guitar and accordion solos - yes, accordion solos - and at one point featured Flansburgh puffing through two horns at once.
Another first was a noticeably unrehearsed fielding of song requests from the band's adoring audience. In previous shows, the Giants have ripped out versions of "Disco Inferno," "YMCA," "Stairway to Heaven" and other pop standards.
Appropriately for Ventura, which is about to experience a visit by Jerry Garcia, a leader of the Grateful Dead, the Giants took on the venerable "Truckin'," with Flansburgh purposefully mum-bling his way through the lyrics.
In another touch of 1970s schlock, the band capped its second encore - which followed a 90-minute show - with a polka-influenced version of the Edgar Winters Groups' widely known instrumental piece, "Frankenstein."
And, like any self-respecting wise guys, these nerdy band leaders couldn't pass up a chance to poke fun at Ventura.
"It's great to be back in the place with all the fancy junk shops," quipped Flansburgh.
Named for an obscure comedy movie released in the early 1970s, They Might Be Giants started when the two Johns pieced together songs in their Brooklyn apartments in 1981. The first album, "They Might be Giants," was followed by "Lincoln" in 1988, "Flood" in 1990 and this year's "Apollo 18."
The band has now hit the big time- sort of. They appeared on Jay Leno's Tonight Show earlier this week and have sold hundreds of thousands of albums. But they still cook up songs in Flansburgh's Brooklyn apartment and offer a dial-a-song service (at 718-387-6962).
