Shows/1998-10-14
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Setlist:
- Severe Tire Damage Theme
- Doctor Worm
- Twisting
- Till My Head Falls Off
- Battle For The Planet Of The Apes
- She's An Angel
- Subliminal
- The Famous Polka
- How Can I Sing Like A Girl?
- Birdhouse In Your Soul
- The Guitar
- James K. Polk
- She's Actual Size
- Mammal
- Particle Man
- Kumbaya
- S-E-X-X-Y
- They Got Lost
- Older
- Spy
- Whistling In The Dark
- I Am Not Your Broom
- Songs, Songs
- Spiraling Shape
- Shoehorn With Teeth
- Somebody Took My Eyeball
- Ana Ng
- New York City
- Show Announcements & Band Intros
- Why Does The Sun Shine?
Encore:
They Might Be Giants
— with Michael Shelley opening —
Avalon Ballroom in Boston, MA
October 14, 1998 at 9:00 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
Review by Daniel:
I recently attended the 10/14/98 show at the Avalon ballroom in Boston
Ma. This was my first concert......ever, and was totally kickass!!!
The show opener was MICHAEL SHELLEY, formerly of the band "Cheeky Monkey". Shelley and his backup band fit the epitome of the term, "power trio", and put on a more than decent set.
Then, after about 40 minutes of Tito Puente playing through the P.A., the band finally came out. They opened with their new single; the enigmatic and witty "Dr.Worm". This song (and the majority of the set) sounded different than most of their studio cuts, largely due to their lack of a horn section for this tour. Likewise, Linnell's ever creative synth.work more than made up for this discrepancy.
Their new lineup for this tour (Severe Tire Damage), consists of: drummer Dan Hickey; who played on alot of the cuts for the new album, bassist Dan Weiskopf, and lead guitarist Dan Miller. Gee....don't we see a pattern forming!
During the show, Flans was the more animated of the two; coming on stage with a brand new Gibson Les Paul goldtop, with the pricetag still attatched. He was often seen switching guitars in the middle of songs, with the aid of his offstage guitar tech. Sadly though, the frankenstein guitar didn't make its way into the show, even as I saw it sitting on a stand backstage (from my vantage point). There were many notable highlights in their set. One in particular was the intro to "Ana Ng", in which Linnell spoke the words, "somebody took my eye", using a mic through his synthesizer; giving a sort of "Peter Frampton"-esque effect. Another was his rendition of "Kumbaya" in A minor, which he inserted into the middle of "Particle Man". Also there was the ressurection of their classic, "Shoehorn with Teeth", complete with glockenspiel solo. They also played "Mammal", a song which "hadn't been played live in a few years", so said a fellow concert-goer. But those just mentioned were only a fraction of the overall set.
Their last song of the regular set was "Why Does the Sun Shine", a song which will never truly get old (in my opinion). After about four minutes of down time, they came back out for their first encore, "Exquisite Dead Guy", sung by the "puppet heads on boom-stands", controlled by the John's. Their second and final encore was "Istanbul...", during which Flans could be seen putting an imaginary gut to his head. Maybe he's finally sick of playing the song; stuff happens!
It was a great show, that left me wanting more when it was all over. They Might Be Giants made my first concert a memorable one.
.......Wait a sec!!!! How could I have forgotten to mention their performance of "Battle For The Planet Of the Apes", or the, "Johns VS. Dans song", as they called it. (Now I'm sure there's no more highlights that I didn't mention.)
