Shows/1998-04-16

From This Might Be A Wiki


Fan Recaps and Comments:

Review by: VinylBoy:
This was my first TMBG concert. I wrote all the songs down on my notepad and made notations later to them so this is as close to exact as you're going to get when talking about this concert.

There was the opening band called Lincoln who were moderately entertaining, I wouldnt buy the cd though. TMBG consisted tonight of: John Flansburgh, John Linnell, Hal Cragin, Dan Hickey.

At Toad's Place they have a net set up like a wall to divide the place where people 21 and under can't go from the rest of the place. Flansburgh made the remark, "We're trying this at all our shows. We need you to tell us if you like the net idea. It's so we can just cater to the drinkers and the servers. Before How Can I Sing Like A Girl? Flansburgh said he got the idea for it in a conversation with the voice in his head. Before James K. Polk They couldn't find "the thing" at first, but they fired a Confetti Cannon was kind of hidden off the left of the stage. It ended up only reaching the first few rows of people. Linnell made sure to tell everyone "if you end up near the cannon when it fires it will be the end of you" and he said "The shredded up paper is actually money! There it is! Get it!" During She's Actual Size Flansburgh crawled around on stage while singing and hid behind the speakers. He gradually slipped his hand over it a few time, kinda scary-like, and then came back. In Battle For The Planet of the Apes the audience was asked to shake our left hand in the air and chant "People!" for when Hickey and Cragin played and our right hand and chant "Apes" for when Flans and Linnell played. The People won. Spy ended with the 5 minute ad-libbed orchestra-like conducted jam at the end. Flans had an 8-foot stick that he slammed in tune to Lie Still Little Bottle, and he kept it out for the next thing. "This is For The Girls We've Loved" is this intro kind of thing i've never heard of. Flans sang through the giant stick and Linnell plugged his mic into a voice synthesizer so he sounded like a robot. You had to be there to fully understand. The possible highlight of the evening was Exquisitie Dead Guy. John and John didn't sing, it was a tape singing with the live music, but they had two dolls heads on long sticks that acted as their singing puppets. VERY EERIE. During Birdhouse In Your Soul the audience went nuts and I'm sure someone must've gotten injured somehow. Another highlight was Why Does The Sun Shine? In the speaking parts Linnell said, "If the sun were hollow a million Earths could fit inside, but it's not like that 'cause it would be too fucked up!" He did get the elements part right. For Shoehorn With Teeth, Hickey played the glockenspiel and every time he played the note right, which is only 3 times in the song, everyone went nuts. Then they did the Fast-Forward version. There weren't any real words, just mumbling, and then, Ding! For Spider Flans hung the bottom of his mic stand on one of the rafters and sang. After the Guitar the show ended... But they came back. Pet Name was played in the complete dark. No One Knows My Plan with marimba dancing music at the start. People started really dancing like idiots during that one. The show ended again, a good 30 people left, then the band came back. After Dig My Grave the show ends for the 3rd and final time. Altogether, it was maybe 2 hours long so even if there was a bootleg being made there, they'd lucky if they taped the whole show. There were all different kinds of people there. The majority was college nerds. Toad's Place is right next to Yale University. There were your typical college freak crackheads. There were maybe 5 kids there around 10 years old, and there were a few middle-ages couples. TMBG loves all the people. I brought a picture of One-Eyed Pete, or .-) , that me and my friend Drew waved in the air.