Shows/1992-12-04
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Setlist: (incomplete and possibly out of order)
Encore:
They Might Be Giants
Club Quattro in Nagoya, Japan
December 4, 1992
Fan Recaps and Comments:
"Giants rock and reel in the goofy years" by Bill Ellis
The Japan Times, Dec. 12, 1992:
NAGOYA — What happens when two goofy guys decide to make eccentric pop music on accordion and guitar?
Usually, they stay in their parents' basement. But in the case of They Might Be Giants, their basement has grown into a major-label signing, MTV exposure, and one of the hippest alternative acts to be seen and heard.
Imagine if John Zorn fronted a frat-rock band which took writing cues from Captain Beefheart and Mel Torme and that gave the guitar solos to the accordion, and you start to have They Might Be Giants. For their Dec. 4 Club Quattro appearance, the band brought absurdity and sincerity together in an hour-and-a-half mixed marriage that had the audience feeling all of five years old.
Guitarist John Flansburgh crooned in ersatz jazz fashion to such TMBG's standards as the tender "Piece of Dirt" and mostly jumped up and down in spastic motion like a kid taking air-guitar lessons. Accordionist John Linnell played his instrument with as little ethnic association as possible, using an Evian bottle at one point to strike the keys. (John claims not to have listened to such luminaries as Piazzolla, although Lawrence Welk did come up in conversation.)
Together, the Johns sang harmonies like the Everly Brothers sitting in with Alvin and the Chipmunks. All of this was wonderfully silly, yet none of it would have mattered if the duo were not capable of writing some of the catchiest songs of the last few years. Songs like "Birdhouse in Your Soul," "Don't Let's Start" and "Purple Toupee" have been quirky yet irresistible pop gems and, in the process, have redefined rock song arranging.
In the past, TMBG have toured just as a twosome augmented by drum and bass sampling. The pre-recorded bits, however, were incorporated skillfully and blatantly into the performance — no one could accuse TMBG of a Milli Vanilli ruse. For 1990's Flood shows, a towering metronome sat center-stage ticking off beats, the perfect image to enhance the kitsch of their songs.
On their latest tour, drum machines and tape have been replaced by a live ensemble. Adding bass, drums, and keyboards has given the Johns a newly found freedom that was lacking in the old fettered-to-the-tape structure of past concerts. Arrangements changed nightly and spontaneity was king. Unconventional hits such as "Ana Ng" rocked harder than previously, benefiting from the new band, especially in the driving bass of Tony Maimone.
Oddly enough, working with a real band proved a mixed blessing, at least at Quattro. Many of the Johns' tunes set in a traditional band format sounded just that — traditional old-hat new-wave. Strip the eccentricies and cabaret away and TMBG are not so avant-pop as they may at first seem. As John Flansburgh said before the show, tongue not so firmly in cheek, "We'll be there for the new-wave revival."
For those who would eulogize rock, TMBG's send up of its conventions might hardly seem funny. Still, a journey into the foolish and camp can be a refreshing reminder of rock's eternal juvenile heart. "This is the portion of the show where we do popular songs that we never learned how to play — we did 'Hotel California' last night," said Flansburgh in what could have been a booking agent's worst nightmare.
Instead, the Johns used the moment to join the audience and recapture for themselves that sense of discovery and joy in rock which makes one play air-guitar in the first place. After fielding many requests ("Stairway to Heaven" and "Freebird" were contenders), John and John settled on Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." It was an appropriate number for the evening, rendered with a gorgeously sloppy aplomb. A Tibetan monk/banshee version of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" highlighted an encore set that ended with a trashed-up version of Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein." "We're giving them an authentic, confusing American experience," said John to John onstage. That may be true, but in the case of They Might Be Giants, it is a good thing indeed.
