Shows/2004-08-22

1 wikians attended: The Bear

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Setlist:

• Clap Your Hands
• Experimental Film
• Twisting
• James K. Polk
• John Lee Supertaster
• Bastard Wants To Hit Me
• Stalk Of Wheat
• Doctor Worm
• Drink!
• Violin
• Birdhouse In Your Soul
• The Guitar
• Fingertips
• Older
• Damn Good Times
• Why Does The Sun Shine?
• New York City

Encore:

• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

They Might Be Giants
University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA
August 22, 2004

Fan Recaps and Comments:

Dan Miller wrote:

This was a private show for USC students - so we could not advertise it on the site. We played the bill with Andrew W.K. - that dude is crazy. His three guitar attack combined with classical piano created a huge megathilic sound not soon forgotten. The end of his show featured around 150 people jumping up on the stage and lifting him to their shoulders. All of us in the TMBG camp were nervous about our gear which was just inches away from the frenzied, guitar/accordion crushing crowd. No damage done, quick set change, and we were on our way. The tape is a lot of board mix as outdoor shows tend to wind whip the audience mikes. Pretty good quality with an extra dose of Linnell's Keyboard thrown in for good measure.

This was a shortened set so we've dropped a few bucks off the top to accommodate. One of the highlights was Andrew and his friend "Big Daddy" coming out to sing (or growl) fingertips. The band had no idea he was going to do it and everyone had a jolly laugh. As this was the last show of the west coast tour, I get to take a much needed break and start splicing together that Venue CD I've been putting off - look for it sometime in September.

The band is heading over to the UK in a bit and we're going to try and tape those shows for download - good luck to us all!!

The Bear:

I was at this show, still being a student at the time. It was one of the best shows that the USC Program Board put together during my time at USC. Dan Miller's description above is pretty much how it went down, and the bit about Andrew W.K. coming back onstage to growl "Fingertips" happened just as he said. It was especially funny because the show's banter included talk about how Andrew W.K. was a big fan of They Might Be Giants - so when he and Big Daddy actually showed up onstage to help out during "Fingertips" the audience went wild. Andrew W.K. was added to the bill on pretty short notice (I think he asked USC if he could play) and I wondered if his show would mesh with They Might be Giants. It worked. I know USC often has a "party school" reputation and W.K. certainly fits with that, but the audience received They Might Be Giants quite well too. One of my favorite moments was during "Violin" when J. Linnell drew out the "Oooooooh!" for an extra long time without taking a breath. Wish I had that kind of stamina! All in all this concert helped kick off the 2004-2005 academic year with a bang.