Shows/2007-07-21

From This Might Be A Wiki


Fan Recaps and Comments:

"TMBG just rocked power out of existence!"

Goatee'd dude in a red t-shirt

Dan Miller:

POWER FAILURE SPECIAL:
Those that were at the show know we suffered a power failure after the first song. After much scrambling and burning of fossil fuels we made it back up and a good rocking time was had.
Thanks to everyone for your patience and support - these things can get ugly and you all made it kind of fun and exciting. In the interim the band played a few songs al fresco for the crowd. As great as these acoustic versions were the recording gear requires energy juice to work, so these versions are lost to the universe. Another casualty of the night was that the version of I'm Impressed got mangled - somewhere the digital bits are still there, but damn if I can find them. We've replaced the digital noise symphony that was I'm Impressed with a great version from Toronto.
Rest assured that all the Johns Raps are in place and sound great.
-DM

ehsteve14:

Well, this was my first ever TMBG show, and it was quite possibly the best experience of my life. I got in line outside the Beachland at about 7:20-ish, and stood around for a good long while before finally being let in. Once in, I proceeded to the front of the stage as much as I could. After waiting around for more than an hour, Corn Mo finally came on around 9:40 and proceeded to make me laugh a lot. I very nearly bought his CD after the show, but the person in front of me snagged the last copy.
Anyway, here's where things get interesting. Around 10:45, They Might Be Giants entered the stage, and played I'm Impressed. They played it so impressively, in fact, that the fuse that powered the stage broke. It happened right at the very end with about 3 seconds to go in the song, and I'll never forget the band all running off stage simultaneously right after they finished playing. So, the crowd grew a bit restless for 15 or so minutes, when who should walk out but John & John with guitar and accordion in hand and tell us that the only other time a fuse broke during a show was also in Ohio, and that they would play a short acoustic set while the roadies and stage crew scrambled to get a new fuse. So they played Maybe I Know and Particle Man, which they said were the songs they played the last time the fuse broke. 10 minutes after that set was over, the stage was powered up and Take Out the Trash burst through the speakers.
It was smooth sailing from there, albiet with some lighting problems. Alphabet was amazing live, what with the added countries and stuff. Damn Good Times was how it should have been. Stone Pony and Experimental Film were both exquisite, as well, and it made me happy when John mentioned that the video for Experimental Film was directed by none other than Strong Sad. I stood and cheered in my Coach Z t-shirt, because H*R is a pretty great website. Anyway, they surprisingly played Minimum Wage and They Got Lost, but they were nice to hear. Then came Particle Mo, with Corn Mo and his dueling accordion. John made sure to mention that triangle man and person man had a fight. Birdhouse was exactly how it should have been, which is to say, perfection. The Shadow Government was a good live track, but a definate highlight came in the form of Phone Calls from the Dead. Eleanor Roosevelt called to tell John that she had some spare fuses that she could have given him 50 years ago. It was a lot of fun. Replacements was cool, Upside Down Frown much the same. And then came The Guitar. John Linnell playing "the future" was the funniest/coolest thing I've ever seen/heard. Then everybody conga'd. Well, not that many, actually, but my friend and I started one that snaked around the front half of the crowd a little bit, and we sorta snuck back to our original spot during Older. New York City was a jumper, Withered Hope worked like one as well. Drink was in the style of an intervention, as it has been for a little while now, and the Mesopotamians was super awesome.
The first encore was fairly standard fare. With the Dark was played with a South American instrument I can't remember the name of, and it was only the beginning part. Band intros were paired with an instrumental performance of Put Your Hand on the Computer, and then they played It's Not My Birthday, one of my TMBG favorites. Second encore consisted of Dr. Worm only, with the confetti canon finally being used.
After they left the stage for good, my friends and I went up to see what was left, and I got a setlist and my friend got John Flansburgh's unopened Red Bull, so we made off pretty well, I'd say. Overall, it was most certainly the best show I've been to, and I'll never forget that night that I was literally 4 yards away from John and John, about 6 yards away from Dan and Dan, and probably 7 yards away from Marty.


theelse07fan:

Well, ehsteve14 gave a pretty good description of the show, so I'll just add a few things. First of all, when the fuse blew at the very end of the first song and all of the lights went off, the band immediately came to the front of the stage, bowed, said "thank you" and then walked off. This gave me and a lot of people there the impression that this was just part of the show (play one song, leave the stage, make the crowd cheer for an encore before coming back for the rest of the show). However, the crowd kept cheering for an encore and nothing happened... then roadies started running back and forth across the stage with flashlights, and a man told everybody what happened. They ran some extension cords to power the lights on the front of the stage, and about five minutes later, the Johns came out and played the two acoustic songs.
The version of Particle Man they played was basically Particle Mo but without Corn Mo. (When they got to Corn Mo's solo, Linnell said something like, "uhh, he's not here.") So when they brought out Corn Mo to play the song in their regular set, Linnell said something to the effect of "we've already played this one tonight, but we're going to bring out our friend Corn Mo and we're going to play it like you've never heard it played before... except that you already did."
When they came back out for the second encore, the Johns said something like "As it goes into the second encore..." in unison. Then they commented about how it was way past their bedtime, and, seeing as how the show started very late (even before the blown fuse), it was already past 1 AM.
Very, very great show.
I was fortunately able to capture the acoustic performance at the beginning with my digital camera and I will be posting them to YouTube, so check it out.