Shows/2004-07-04

19 wikians attended: Aliste Amyloo Disgruntledninja Duende Einarfour Jdcooldude Jonasd KBear27 Kellifersue MongooseDog Mrme27 Planetfour Ppoi307 Rabidchild1 Radjose RandomWhim SpiffSupreme Wbrimley Zander

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Setlist:

• Still A Young Intro
• Clap Your Hands
• Experimental Film
• Twisting
• James K. Polk
• The Guitar
  • The Future Of Sound
• Birdhouse In Your Soul
• New York City
• The End Of The Tour
• Drink!
• Spine
• Bastard Wants To Hit Me
• Ana Ng
• Robot Parade
• Spin The Dial
• Older
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
• Stalk Of Wheat
• John Lee Supertaster
• Doctor Worm

Encore:

• Violin
• Prevenge
• Why Does The Sun Shine?

Counting Crows
— with They Might Be Giants, Old 97s opening —
Grant Park in Chicago, IL
July 4, 2004

Fan Recaps and Comments:

amyloo:

The Johns did a funny bit at the July 4 Taste of Chicago gig in Grant Park. I suspect it became a staple of the tour, coming on the heels of the recent government handover to the Iraqi citizens. They announce that the band has been turned over to the audience but that the band will remain on stage as a security measure and a peacekeeping force.

Good show. Being there did exactly what a tour is supposed to do: get me interested all over again and buy the new record. As a festival appearance, though (TMBG was in the middle of the 3-band lineup for that day on that stage), not everybody was a fan, which isn't as fun.

Spin the dial was only marginally successful, but that's going to happen. Kudos to Flans for even being willing to risk doing it. An old Chicago song came up, which is likely to happen in Chicago, even though 25 or 6 to 4 is, what -- a 35-year-old song? Also Elvis (Burnin' Love). -- amyloo

wittytirade:

The exact quotes:

Linnell: They Might Be Giants, in accordance with our June 30th deadline, have already turned over control of the band to the audience here. You are now the titular head of They Might Be Giants. They Might Be Giants, the guys on stage, will remain here as a security measure, and as a peacekeeping gesture, and our role will be undefined for an indefinite period.

Flansburgh: We're not sure who is going to lead the audience leading They Might Be Giants. For the moment, we have put that power in the guy in the tie-dyed t-shirt holding the "Bastard Wants To Hit Me" sign. We're not sure how long he will have to lead the audience leading They Might Be Giants. - wittytirade

Dan Miller wrote:

Holy Cripes, it seemed like a sea of people out there - Estimates ranged from 30 - 40 thousand. The number of people there for the sound check were enough for a great show, which made me think of recording the sound checks to see if any interesting comes of it.

Flans and Linnell were in rare form, really digging the crowd and getting into the whole thing. The show has some wind noise from the audience mics, but overall the performance and recording are good solid rock. The version of Experimental Film and Bastard really stand out to me as fine performances - the new ones are coming together well.

Rabidchild1:

i was a "person behind the fence" according to Mr.Linnell, all of us (behind the fence) were given the nickname

XanthusUnpatriot writes:

Wound up getting in line at 8:05 in the morning. They didn't go on till sometime after 3:00pm. Managed to get inside the fence for being first in line and wound up front row left. Sadly in the email Flans wrote about the show to recap he said that all the real fans were behind the fence. I am sure that there were tons of them. But front rows left and right were hardcore fans who managed to get in and not just people who got the special tickets as kick backs from the city.

Oh and the Counting Crows fans were quite rude.

SpiffSupreme:

The exact quote for Rabidchild1's comment:

Flansburgh: Ladies and gentlemen, we know in 2004 people enjoy making nicknames out of things. We're going to call the people behind the fenced area back there "the people ... the people behind the fence." That's our little cute nickname for the people behind the fence. How's it going back there? (Crowd cheers.) It's the underrepresented 85,000 of you.

Ppoi307:

My cousin was behind the scenes so I was able to go in back and see them close up.

JonasD:

It was HOT. Really hot. We were in front of the fence - barely, which felt like a mile away, but it was still a fine time nonetheless. TMBG was far superior to the rest of the bands, and even though I kind of like Counting Crows, they weren't so good.

Zander:

I'm not usually one to brave the Taste and the crowds, but I did it just for Giants, and managed to get pretty good seats (along with JonasD) right by the fence. I didn't get to see Counting Crows, but TMBG definitely blew the Old 97s out of the water. And yeah, it was a freaking scorcher.