Shows/1992-10-02
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They Might Be Giants
Mississippi Nights in St. Louis, MO
October 2, 1992 at 9:00 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
All-ages show. Tickets were $15-$17.
Review by ScaryWhiteGirl
This was my first TMBG show, of which, unfortunately, I remember very little. I'm sure there was an opening band, but I couldn't tell you who it was. About the only thing I remember from the show was that they had a full horn section with them, or, at the very least, a trombone player.
"‘They Might Be Giants’ — But They Aren’t" by John Burnes
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 4, 1992:
If I had heard They Might Be Giants live instead of just listening to their releases in preparing for the duo’s performance Friday night at Mississippi Nights, I would have saved a lot of effort.
The conclusion I came to after hearing them perform for an hour (shortened because of deadline) was the same one I discovered after a few weeks connected to the stereo: They Might Be Giants’ music isn’t about anything at all. That doesn’t make it bad, necessarily, but it does make it vapid and essentially pointless. They Might Be Giants - John Linnell and John Flansburgh - doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it is, purveyors of party music. The two Johns, at least on stage, never lead anyone astray by acting as if the songs are somehow prophetic. They kept the mostly under-21 crowd waiting for the next pop-rock beat to start so it could dance and therefore find some purpose for being there.
Perhaps I’m being way too analytical. Other bands like the B-52s and Deee-Lite can hardly be analyzed either, so what’s the point? The point is that this isn’t the best music to listen to without partying (whatever that means), so if you’re into just listening, this isn’t the band.
Not every song was particularly danceable, but people who want to dance will find a way, and that’s mostly what happened Friday. The songs moved by at an astonishing clip, with some of them hardly lasting more than two minutes. It’s as if the duo frenetically threw out pop-rock beats and semi-melodies to mask the fact that the few of the songs were developed even the slightest bit.
A concert setting did make it possible for them to cull their better attempts from record and disregard the rest, which was fortunate. Even at that, they faced dead space while they “scrambled for songs,” as they announced about halfway through the concert. You know a band has a shallow well when, despite the fact it has four albums out, it still can’t find a song it wants to play in concert.
