Shows/1998-10-16b

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Setlist:

Encore:

They Might Be Giants
— with The Gravel Pit opening —
Bowery Ballroom in New York, NY
October 16, 1998


Fan Recaps and Comments:

This show's setlist appears in Volume 1 of Rock/Rinse/Repeat labeled as "1998-10-16".

Review by Jordan:

Well directly after attending the Tower Records instore, me and my friends made our way to the Bowery Ballroom, eagerly awaiting the 2n'd show in the grand Trilogy. Gravel Pit opened for TMBG...They weren't that good...I was right under the keyboard so I needed earplugs. Soon TMBG came on, and performed a great show. Here are some highlights.. This isn't much, but it was cool when Flans said "It was on the BOWERY when it was time to go" during NYC...The crowd went wild. During They Got Lost Flans screamed "TAKE YOUR SOLO SLASH!" Before Ana Ng, Linnell did another little song on the vocoder. The lyrics were--- "Oh my god...Oh god...I feel weird...I dont feel so good...What the hell was in that coffee...I cant feel my arm....I...I CANT FEEL MY ARM.... AUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHAUUUGHH...AUGH....AAAAAAAHH....uuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhh...." then directly into Ana Ng. Flans then claimed that Gravel Pit are secret agents of the goverment trying to infiltrate the youth culture, which turned out to be the intro to Working Undercover for the Man! This was my first time hearing it live, and it was really great. After performing The Famous Polka twice for some reason, Linnell introduced Mammal--- "So uh...I smell smoke! Here's a song we do...it's about...Mammals. It tells you all the stuff you need to know to fill up your brain pointlessly so you'll forget the important parts that you need to know later...and that's what this song is all about" After Mammal, they did a mini-song which consisted of Flans singing-- "SORRY I FUCKED UP THE SHOW, SORRY I FUCKED UP THE SHOW" During She's Actual Size, Flans introduced Dan Hickey-- "Some men are born kicking and screaming...other men have screaming thrust upon them...DAN HICKEY IS ONE OF THOSE MEN. HE'S COME ALL THE WAY FROM NYC TO HEAR YOU SCREAM!" "Here's a song about my head" -Linnell, Till My Head Falls Off Before James K. Polk, I experienced some of the funniest on stage banter between the Johns. Here it is!--- "People...I just gotta say this thing...which is we've been on tour for a while and we were just down in the South recently and I tried to say some [extemperaneous [?]] thing aout the cannon that we bring to each show and we play...And so for some reason I was thinking 'say something about you know, we're Northerners, we're in the South, and the Civil War...and I just realized before I even opened my mouth that it was a completely unfunny and innapropriate thing to say and I just stood there staring at the audience for a long time and then we went into the next song"-Linnell
"Thats when I said something about Crackers"-Flans
"That's when we were killed...remember that John?"--Linnell
"Yeah it was great...we were killed..."--Flans
"As soon as we come back to that club we're going to say "Oh this is the place where we were killed by the angry southerners." So here's a song, coincidently about an angry guy from the south...from Nashville Tennessee"--Linnell
"Thats sophisticated."--Flans
"I keep wanting to make jokes that are wrong, and I cant stop it!"--Linnell
"Well you dont have Tourret's"--Flans
"FUCK NO...Heres a song about James K Polk--Linnell
After the song, the hilarity continued... "Thank y'all! Here's a song off of the Factory Showroom record there..and its about...you tell them what it's about John"-Linnell
"It's about 3 minutes long John"- Flans
"Its about the funkiest little song this side of the Mason-Something thingy! Mason Maurice Line...the...HERE WE GO"-Linnell, leading into Spiralling Shape. During Why Does the Sun Shine, Linnell enthusiastically shouted-- "Ohhhh the sun is SO hot...that everything on it is a gas" "If the sun were hollow a million earths would fit inside...the hollowed out sun" "Ohhhh scientists have found that the sun is a huge...HUGE atom smashing maching machine...the heat and light of the sun are caused by the nuclear reactioooons betweeeen HYDROGEN NITROGEN CARBON AND HELIUM"
Flans sang another song "Sorry I fucked up the show" song, followed by an intro to S-E-X-X-Y "sorry i fucked up the show...so this next song...Im not gonna play guitar on this next song cause Im standing next to Dan Miller...I'm gonna do the Art Garfunkle one thumb in the pants side thing...real low key like Art Garfunkle...this is our tribute to Simon and Garfunkle, and it's called S-E-X- X-Y" During the improv to Spy, They give a great performance of Bob Dylan's Mr.Tambourine Man, with Flans singing whole second verse alone a capella. Before going into Particle Man, Linnell then sang a little song about...songs.---- "Songs songs songs, lots of songs, uninterupted chain of They Might Be Giants material, run out of things to say about them...Song song songs" While the famous Rick brought out the glockenspiel, Flans had this to sing-- "Born in a graveyard...raised in a garage..hes a thirsty cyborg with a taste for Human skin...his name is Rick Rivera and hes come from stage right to plug in the glockenspiel. Born on long island raised by his parents, he's a thirsty cyborg with a taste for human skin...hes our drummer Dan Hickey and hes come from NYC to hear you scream." Linnell then screamed "HEY!" into glockenspiel for no reason. After Shoehorn with Teeth, Flans sang--- "Bye bye Dan...back to your drums...back in the back of the stage...Your in a prisoner in the world of your own creation..trapped behind your drums...trapped behind your really expensive drums!" During this, Dan pretended that his drum set was a prison and tried to get out, shaking the cymbal stands, etc. Before going into The Guitar, John and John began talking about what song to play next, with many audience requests. This lead to this bit of banter-- "Hey hey hey we're having a private conversation here please"- Flans
"No no, I care what the crowd thinks too...If they think I belong here behind the keyboard thats where Im gonna stay...god fucking dammit...Yes...the people have spoken."--Linnell
"Tell em about the civil war John"--Flans
"It wasn't as bad as people say"-Linnell
After, Linnell sang--- "Sorry I fucked up the show...it was going so well..." And right away said-- "Here's a song we do...it's in the same key as the last song...ALRIGHT!!!" leading to Turn Around. After Birdhouse, they went away for a few minutes, and came back with the puppet heads for Exquisite Dead Guy. After EDG, Linnell told us... "Those flash photos are not gonna look very good...Just to let you know" He was right! They ended the show with Dr.Worm-- "Here's a song about a worm...a very special worm...a worm who thinks he's a doctor"
All in all a great show...Flans had a new energy about him, after being sick that morning and the previous night. We all looked forward to the show the following night, with Mono Puff opening!
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