Shows/2004-07-02

From This Might Be A Wiki


Fan Recaps and Comments:

Dan Miller:

First show of the tour full of nervous energy and a great crowd. We were battling against the fireworks being fired off throughout the show. If you listen carefully you can hear the banging in the background, especially between songs. Lots of good solid versions of older songs and some spirited versions of the new ones. I'm really looking forward to hearing the new songs get better as the tour goes on. We kind of screwed up "the Spine" the first time through, so Flans had us play it again.
This is the first show we recorded, so Brian (FOH) was giving me hand signal updates throughout the show to let me know the tape was working.
DM

Banter:

  • Clap Your Hands ("They Might Be Giants' national anthem") - bonus "oh, shit!" and "damn!"
  • Experimental Film ("one we just learned this morning")
  • Spine ("that's just a preview of the kind of intense frustration you'll experience listening to our next album") - 2x
  • The Guitar - "Is it Dan? / I don't know / Is it Dan? / I don't think so"; discussion of the future of sound
  • Bastard Wants To Hit Me ("purely adult content ... we don't like to resort to that sort of language but certain bastards put us up to it")
    • Anecdote about the car with TMBG vanity license plate.
      JF: "I totally scared the living shit out of these people. ... I felt really, really bad."
  • Memo To Human Resources (JF: "This next song is about the guy who you work with at your job who doesn't like you at all.")
  • Wearing A Raincoat ("another new song that you don't know so you can't tell that we don't know")
  • Robot Parade - "give us an R!"
  • Why Does The Sun Shine? - "estrogen, estrogen, estrogen, and more estrogen"
    • JF: Ladies and gentleman, this next song features the acoustic guitar stylings of Mr. Dan Miller and the accordion guitar stylings of Mr. John "Miller" Linnell.
      JL: Steve Miller.
  • Miller Time - "That's some nice pickin', Dan!" ("like a 8 to 12 minute guitar jam")
  • James K. Polk ("Here's a song about a, uh, president. I don't know what this has to do with July 4th--it seems appropriate.")
  • Fingertips
    • JF: We know that you guys have got a limited attention span so we've crammed fourteen songs--eighteen songs--no wait
      JL: No songs at all.
      JF: No complete songs at all. Ladies and gentleman, this next portion of the show is almost like seeing a Prince show.

BobpalindromeBob:

My brother crowd surfed at the outdoor show in Columbus, Ohio 7/2/2004 preceding fireworks during "Don't Let's Start." Flans briefly stopped the song and said, "Put that man down! He’s done nothing wrong!" Then Linnell replied, "If he makes it to the stage we will tear him limb from limb." That was the last time anyone I was with did it at a TMBG show.[1]