Shows/1996-11-20

4 wikians attended: Artmonkeygirl Cheshire monkey MisterBlame Tisher

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Setlist:

• S-E-X-X-Y
• Birdhouse In Your Soul
• Sleeping In The Flowers
• Your Own Worst Enemy
• New York City
• Subliminal
• Counterfeit Faker
• Particle Man
• How Can I Sing Like A Girl?
• Older
• Ana Ng
• Pet Name
• Spy (Flansburgh conducting)
• Maybe I Know
• Metal Detector
• XTC Vs. Adam Ant
• Exquisite Dead Guy
• Why Does The Sun Shine?
• Don't Let's Start
• Snail Shell
• Twisting
• Till My Head Falls Off

Encore:

• Spider
• The Guitar
• James K. Polk
• Dig My Grave

Encore 2:

• They Got Lost
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

They Might Be Giants
— with cub opening —
The Warfield in San Francisco, CA
November 20, 1996

Fan Recaps and Comments:

Tisher:

I'm trying to add my thoughts about this show on April 9, 2005 so I hope they aren't too clouded by innaccuracy. It was the first rock show I attended so I remember aspects of it pretty vividly.

I was very excited that Cub was opening even though the audience was not especially receptive to them. The drummer had some pretty amazing manic energy, flailing around and grinning. They explained to some hecklers that They Might Be Giants had requested that they not play New York City.

As I remember, Maybe I Know was the only song of the set performed duo-style (no tape, just accordion and Flansburgh on vocals). They claimed that more of Leslie Gore's music could be found on a compilation entitled "TOTAL GORE!"

Exquisite Dead Guy was performed with spotlights on ventriloquist dummy heads that had been placed on super long booms, as they apparently did all throughout this tour. John and John moved their mouths and swept them over the crowd. Creepy fun.

I believe that the performance of the rockin' Why Does The Sun Shine? was dedicated to that guy who wrote the People Magazine article about them way back when. (As mentioned in Gigantic.) The gentleman was apparently in attendance that evening.

Banter was exchanged at some point that went something like this:

Flansburgh: You know Cub does this great thing where they interact with the audience and stuff but, uh, I'm wearing earplugs.

(audience laughs)

Linnell: Just think of us as your grandpa who plays cool songs for you. (Mimicking child's voice) "Wow grandpa that was great... I wish you could could have heard that thing you just played... Well, I better get to bed..."

Flansburgh: Your time on earth is over, grandpa.

Flansburgh also explained that the previous evening in Petaluma Eric Schermerhorn's fingers had fallen off during the solo in XTC Vs. Adam Ant, and that the emergency room at the hospital in Petaluma was very creepy.