Shows/1999-10-23
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Links:
Setlist:
- Drinkin'
- They Got Lost
- Rat Patrol
- She Thinks She's Edith Head
- Operators Are Standing By
- Certain People I Could Name
- Radio They Might Be Giants 1
- Cyclops Rock
- Why Does The Sun Shine?
- Man, It's So Loud In Here
- Reprehensible
- Working Undercover For The Man
- Letterbox
- Thunderbird
- Older
- On The Drag
- Dr. Evil
- Doctor Worm
- Finished With Lies
- James K. Polk
- Birdhouse In Your Soul
- The Guitar
Encore #1
Encore #2
- Maybe I Know
- Masshole (Includes Hot For Teacher)
- New York City
On the setlist but not played:
They Might Be Giants
— with Michael Shelley opening —
Bowery Ballroom in New York, NY
October 23, 1999 at 8:00 PM
Fan Recaps and Comments:
Review by Karen J. Riley:
Michael Shelley opened. Okay, so he's not my cup of tea, but he was okay. I
thought his music sounded kind've homogenized..maybe the kind of music one
would listen to if spending a lazy day at the beach? His lyrics are a bit of
a downer, I thought. He threw about 4-5 hot apples pies from McDonald's out
to the audience, which I thought was nice of him. I've heard Mr. Shelley is a
very nice guy to talk to.
TMBG:
Drinking They Got Lost (slow version) Rat Patrol (first time I've heard this one in concert, Linnell did a tiny bit of that cool high-pitched voice that echos at the end of the song..) She Thinks She's Edith Head Operators Are Standing By (Flans wanted to make sure he was in the right key before he started singing...he really seemed determined not to "fuck up the show" -- again, first time I've heard this in concert) Certain People I Could Name (another new concert song for me...this was like a go-go version of it...Lin forgot the words to the ending, and Flans teased him, calling it one of their "incomplete songs" for the evening) Radio They Might Be Giants (full song) Cyclops Rock (this song is becoming very popular with concertgoers, I can see that now) Why Does The Sun Shine?, with extra tacked on ending (last line of music somewhat repeated)..."copper wire, silver wire, jewelry-making tools..all a gas" and "Estrogen, Estrogen, Estrogen, and more Estrogen (this line is becoming quite popular, too) It's So Loud In Here (what a great rockin' concert number this is!) Flans talks of knowing someone who lives across the street from him with Alzheimer's...he said there's a difference between relatives who have Alzheimer's and strangers who have it...the difference being that you don't care when strangers have it (I have written that story down the way I remember it...if it's inaccurate in any way, please correct me), which he said leads him to his next song: Reprehensible (Hooray!...and with John Linnell on clarinet! Flans on just vocals, not guitar, with the Dans Band...it sounded damned good, I thought--this is my fave TMBG song) Next, Flans talked about rifling through Michael Shelley's stuff in their trailer while on tour with them, and finding things which proved that Michael Shelley and his band are not a real band, but are secretly working for the FBI...so this led into: Working Undercover for the Man (again, never heard this in concert before, interesting sort-of-slow version with Dan Miller on acoustic guitar) Letterbox (he said, "since we just learned to play this now, and tonight is the *Now* show, we'll include this one tonight"..Lin commended those of us who could lip sync along on this number, saying he gives us "a hearty salute") Thunderbird (this song is just exquisite...this is the second time I've heard it performed in concert, and it's just the greatest -- 'nuff said) Older (During the beginning part of the song, Flans gradually lowered the volume down on his guitar, till it was a barely audible whisper, Danny Weinkauf and Dan Miller doing their freeze-frame poses during the song's pauses) On The Drag (awesome! what a powerful part of the evening) Mr. Linnell picked up his accordion at this point. Dr. Evil (Robin came out, and said "The Yankees are winning, 4-1," and we all let up a big cheer for her :-) After her flawless performance tonight, Lin said "and that's why the Yankees do so well.") Linnell said that "a lot of folks do songs about evil doctors, but we thought it would be nice to do a song about a worm, who thinks he's a doctor," which led into -->>> Dr. Worm (again, great concert number! -- always brings down the house, he threw some of The Banana Splits' "I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)" in there, too..you might have changed the word cucumber to coconut, and boy to girl, but I figured out what song you were playing there, John :-) Finished with Lies (absolutely touching and beautiful, as always) Mr. Linnell back on keyboards. James K. Polk...Lin wanted to do something different with the song tonight, so the confetti cannon went off after the second stanza line "and annex the land the Mexicans command," instead of the first stanza line "Lewis Cass, a general and expansionist" (I'll bet a lot of folks were quite confused when that cannon didn't go off at the usual moment..some of the confetti blew back up into a small cloud off the floor, and then started falling back down right before they were about to play the next song -- Flans had to note "that's some high-quality confetti, there") Birdhouse In Your Soul (lots of pogo bouncing tonight) The Guitar (still more pogo bouncing, there was a musical jam by the band at one point, some strobes thrown in for good measure, some improv, a bass solo by Mr. Weinkauf -- who was then joined by Dan Miller on guitar before the song's ending.
There was a *lot* of stomping and chanting tonight before the encores...before the second encore, Everyone was chanting "They Might Be Giants" the same way you hear it on the song, "They Might Be Giants." This made for quite a nice change from the usual chant for Istanbul, and may have been a factor in the band's coming back out again. Encore One: Counterfeit Faker (in the dark, with the dummy heads...Linnell put his puppet in front of Dan Miller and his guitar again..Flans' puppet still has a mustache..I just love this song!) Istanbul, with Dan Miller's acoustic guitar intro (Latin version of the song)
Encore Two: Maybe I Know (flawless!) Improv with musical introductions of the band members...Dan Hickey drum solo... Flans and Dans Band play a piece of Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher," with Flans singing a portion of the lyrics. New York City (people were really going wild for this one tonight..song ending with the band extending their hands up to say "goodbye," with the audience doing the same back to them)
Review by John J. Ryan
This was the "NOW" show. All new stuff except for the last 7 or so songs. Ironically, the largest crowd showed up to hear mostly stuff they don't know. The crowd only got going during Cyclops Rock, which has become the fan favorite of the new stuff. TMBG was very rusty tonight with the new stuff, which was to be expected as they've hadn't played most of the stuff before. Of the new stuff, there was the slow version of They Got Lost, a faster version of Certain People I Could Name, and Rat Patrol featuring Linnell's vocal stylings at the end.
John Linnell brings out the clarinet for his solo in Reprehensible. He looks up just like I do during horn solos. The crowd went nuts for this solo, even though he squeaked. He rarely takes out a clarinet for live shows, let alone the bari sax. After the new stuff was finished, they played all of their "must plays" for the last seven songs. With a long wave, they were gone, and said goodbye to a wonderful week.
