Shows/1995-03-08

5 wikians attended: AmyJ BobpalindromeBob Curiosity Gistheman22 Green.Jello

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Setlist: (Incomplete!)

• O, Do Not Forsake Me

They Might Be Giants
— with Soul Coughing opening —
Newport Music Hall in Columbus, OH
March 8, 1995 at 8:00 PM

Fan Recaps and Comments:

Tickets were $12.50 in advance, $14 day of show.

Review by Bill Eichenberger, Columbus Dispatch (Mar. 9, 1995):

They Might Be Giants were a cheesy lounge act last night in the Newport Music Hall. They were a hard rock band fond of distortion. They were a dance party band. They were an avant garde jazz band. They were a heavy metal band. They were a conga band. They were a pop band. They were a surf-spy band.

In short, They Might Be Giants were any dang kind of band they wanted to be.

But then, what would you expect from a couple of guys - leaders John Flansburgh and John Linell - who have their own dial-a-song phone number where fans can check in daily for a new tune? (They sent out a flyer once that said of dial-a-song: "It's free when you call from work!")

In recent years ultranerds Flansburgh and Linell have added an honest-to-goodness backing band - they used to tour with a tape machine - featuring this time around former Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone, drummer Brian Doherty and a crack horn section.

The band united in the madness that is a They Might Be Giants concert.

Flansburgh kicked off the hour and 45-minute show with an a cappella song about a 1,000-year-old man featuring the refrain, "1,000 years old, yes, I'd say that's old!"

Later, Flansburgh asked the audience to form a conga line, advising the 1,250 fans: "Grab the hips of the consenting adult in front of you" and, "If it's coming at you, get out of the way or join the conga line - speed kills."

The group easily moved from one musical style to another, from one continent to another, from Earth to outer space, whirling through its set on a gleeful mission to administer cool sounds to its disciples.

They even marched their drummer front and center to play glockenspiel on one number. (TMBG may be the only band touring these days with a drummer whose "first" instrument is glockenspiel!)

Believe it or not, as good as the band sounded, there is a group of former TMBG fans on the Internet dedicated to "dumping the band."

So TMBG isn't as quirky with a band as they were touring as a geeky duo with tape machine. Theirs is still one of the weirdest (and wildest) bands on the block.