Shows/1995-03-16

2 wikians attended: Krueger Unmutual

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Setlist:

• O, Do Not Forsake Me
• AKA Driver
• Ana Ng
• Why Does The Sun Shine?
• The Statue Got Me High
• Sleeping In The Flowers
• Shoehorn With Teeth
• Don't Let's Start
• Band Introductions
• No One Knows My Plan
• The Guitar
• Particle Man
• Your Racist Friend
• Meet James Ensor
• I Palindrome I
• She's An Angel
• Birdhouse In Your Soul
• Dig My Grave
• The End Of The Tour
• Twisting
• The Famous Polka
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
• Frankenstein

They Might Be Giants
— with Eugene Chadbourne opening —
University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA
March 16, 1995 at 9:30 PM

Fan Recaps and Comments:

gB:

No One Knows My Plan had a giant conga line. Flans stopped the show during Meet James Ensor on account of some guy shoved my friend Jan to the floor and stepped over her in order to be up front. Flans said, and I quote, "Dude! This show can end, like, so fuckin' fast. So quit being a dick." Linnell shuffled uncomfortably and said "So... keep going or... next song?" Flans huffed "Next song!"

Also, the crowd was generally unpleasant and threw bottle caps at Eugene during most of his set. He covered the Dead Kennedys' Nazi Punks Fuck Off.

Review by Dan Weddle, Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Gazette (Mar. 18, 1995):

Few musical groups can be labeled truly "alternative" in today's homogeneous pop market. They Might Be Giants , however, is the epitome of an alternative band.

The six-piece troupe from New York performed Thursday night to a near-capacity audience in the University of Iowa's Main Lounge. The recently re-formed Giants offered a smorgasbord of sound during their 90-minute set, utilizing keyboards, accordion, trumpet, trombone and the standard guitar-bass-drums rock combination.

The group's sound borrows from rock 'n' roll, country, grunge, funk and jazz to create a rich musical palette. The six members often sounded like 16 musicians as the band ripped through nearly 30 tunes, each featuring alternative rock instrumentation.

Many of the group's early songs, such as their opener, "Ana Ng," benefited from the addition of big drums and brass, although it lost the charm of the original '80s-techno arrangement. Although the band has newfound power as a six-piece group, the musicians were fully capable of reproducing their trademark "comedian as rock star" routines such as "Shoehorn With Teeth," which featured accordionist/writer John Linnell, guitarist/writer John Flansburgh and an inflated Gumby doll.

The Giants again demonstrated their sense of humor and dedication to crowd enjoyment when Linnell informed the crowd they were "required" to form Conga lines. Seconds later, dozens of bouncing human trains were twisting across the floor to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," or, "The Guitar," as the Giants renamed it.

Toward the middle of the show, Linnell directed the two horn players in a dueling duet, pointing to one then the other for solos. He had the band and crowd join in with cheers at his command to complement the horns on the off beat. This experimental section kept the crowd actively in the show and led into a sing-along of their single "Particle Man."

Unfortunately, if you didn't know the Giants' eclectic and often obscure lyrics before you came, you couldn't figure them out during the show. The Iowa Memorial Union's sound system shortchanged the Giants' towering sound, most notably by distorting the vocals and drowning out the keyboard and accordion. The sound mix favored the guitar, drums and bass, yet was not balanced well enough to effectively reproduce the low end of the register.

The band provided something of a "greatest hits" show, culling songs from their four albums, including their latest release, "John Henry." The Giants' bare-bones musical presentation may be a thing of the past - but with the new lineup, they will be able to expand their live sound and perhaps discover new alternatives to their music in the studio.