Shows/1999-04-16

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Setlist:

Encore:

They Might Be Giants
— with Michael Shelley opening —
Thomas Field House in Lock Haven, PA
April 16, 1999


Fan Recaps and Comments:

Review by Tom:

We pulled into Lock Haven University at 6:00 and found the Thomas Field House where the concert was to be held. We parked about 20 feet from They Might be Giants' bus. First we took a walk around campus looking for restrooms. On our way back to the vehicle, we helped the university take down one of their TMBG concert posters that was on a building.
When we returned, a nice black Ford car was pulled up next to TMBG's bus. According to my brother, who stayed in our vehicle, three or four people exited the car wearing bright hats and dark sunglasses got out and entered the bus. A police officer drove up stopped by the bus and looked at the car and the bus. When a crew man came out of the bus, the police officer gave him a hard time and told him that they needed to turn the bus off. The crew man replied, saying something about a generator. The police officer said something else and the crew man shrugged and walked back into the bus. Dan Hickey came out of the bus and to his car (the black Ford). The police officer talked to him. Dan got in his car and moved it. Soon after that, it was almost 7:00 so we got out of our car and lined up with the small group of people at the doors waiting to be let into the concert. The line slowly got longer and soon we were let in. We gave our tickets to the man at the door. I bought the "bugs" TMBG shirt before the show. The Field House was slowly filling up. I went to down and joined the crowd in front of the stage. Michael Shelly (and his bass guitarist and drummer) opened for TMBG. They were ok, but I and most everyone else were ready for the Giants. They played around five songs. Then set up began for TMBG. Setting up and testing instruments, and testing mics. The whole set up was quite impressive. Rows of silver lights, spotlights on stage, spotlights in the back, etc. When they were done setting up, the lights went out and the shadows of They Might Be Giants moved onto the stage and to their positions. The stage lights clicked on. There stood Linnell at his keyboard, Flansburgh with his guitar, Dan at the drums, and Graham with his bass. They kicked off with They Got Lost. Then John Flansburgh told us about a man who's stage name was Dr. Cyclops. They changed the name to Dr. Worm and made a song about him. Then they played it. Next they played Why Does the Sun Shine? I could see that John Linnell was having trouble with the talking parts, but it went well. After they were done playing, John F. and L. told us that they had had four cups of coffe each, before they show. Both Johns were quite energetic. Next the sang the unreleased song, Older.(click that link to download the MP3 of Older.) After they finished with that, John L. said "We brought our own artillery with us tonight." and introduced the confetti cannon to us. Next they played James K. Polk. At the begining of it they launched the confetti cannon at us.
Next they played She's Actual Size. Birdhouse In Your soul was next (Which was awesome). Then the crew came out to set up the glockenspeil. John F. sang a song about their crew and about setting up the glockenspeil. Then a song called Graham is Coming to Play the Glockenspeil. (which were probably both spontaneously created songs.) Then Graham played the glockenspeil for their next song, ShoeHorn With Teeth. He only had to play it three times in the song. (He would get all ready, raising the hammer, and then hit one little note.) Next was She's and Angel. The Tuba part at the beggining (before they start to sing) was done by John L. singing "daa, daa, daaa..." Then they sang a cool song that is going to be on their next album, (which they said the name of, but I didn't catch) called It's so Loud in Here. John Linnell sang through a voice changing microphone. I'm not sure if it's an unreleased song, or a spontaneously created one, but he was singing something like "my eye...somebody took my eye...it was a very nice eye...it was my only eye..." etc. The eye song changed into Ana Ng. John Linnell changed the part "I saw this painted on a bridge..." to "I saw this painted on my eye..." Next they played Spy. It was great. At the end, John Linnell gave John F. cues (by pointing at him, raising and lowering his arm) to play some "noises" on his guitar. Then he pointed to the audience down front to yell and clap, then to the band. Then John F. started to give the cues; audience, ladies, people on the bleachers, and band. They continued that for a while. Then John Flansburgh and Linnell told us a story. Based on memmory, this is what was said. Flansburgh: "We were in a Mc Donald's or Burger King or something on the way here..." he looked at John L. Linnell: "It was a Mickey D's." Flansburgh: "Mickey D's...And this janitor walked up to us, like he knew us, and said Have you seen the new Star Wars movie? I told him I'd seen the first one, which I havn't, and we talked about The Matrix. I havn't seen that either." Linnell:"I wasn't sure if you were serious or not..." Flansburgh: "I was completly bullsh*ting, John." ... Linnell or Flansburgh (I forget) : "I guess the Matrix is one of those movies for people who like movies like...The Matrix." Flansburgh: "Well, we did a song for the new Austin Powers movie." Linnell: "It's called Dr. Evil. When it starts out the first thing you hear is this song." Flansburgh: "And this is not that song.." Linnell: "And this is not how it goes." Then they played Particle Man. Half way through it, John Linnell sang "Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, etc..." instead offor the middle verse. Next John Flansburgh sang Sorry, I F***ed up the Show. It went something like this: "Sorry I f-ed up the show, Sorry I f-ed up the show, Sorry I f-ed up the show, It was all going so smooth untill I tried to express myself...Sorry I f-ed up the show, sorry I f-ed up...Dan, on the drums! F*** it up!!" Next the did a couple songs from Apollo 18. First they played Spider. Then an awesome version of The Guitar. John Flansburgh: "This next song wasn't written by us. It's bout where were from." They played New York City. It got everyone really wound up. They Might be Giants waved, and left the stage. It remained dark in the Field House. A crew man's shadow moved across the stage carying a long pole with a round object on top of it. He set it down, standing it up, and then brought one more out. TMBG ran back on to the stage. The lights came on (very) dimly. John and John both had a 15-20 foot pole with a ventriloquist doll head on the top of it. John Linnell's dummy head had combed hair on its head. John Flansburgh's had tall, spiked up hair. There were strings set up on some kind of pulley system to the dummies mouths. There were spotlights on the dummies heads. They made the dummy heads sing Exquisite Dead Guy, moving the dummies mouths to the words. It was great. Next, Flansburgh started out with a guitar solo turning it into Istanbul not Constantinople. Their last song was their own version of Takin Care of Business. (which was pretty similar to the original) John Linnell yelled something like "bye!" and Flansburgh said "thanks for coming" and the lights clicked off as They Might Be Giants ran off the stage.
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