Shows/2007-10-02

5 wikians attended: Kayakcup MikeHollywood Partsguy Perspixx RLJohYouDid

You must be logged in to mark yourself for being at this show.

Links:

• Kayakcup's LJ recap/ Photos

Setlist:

• The Cap'm
• New York City
• Ana Ng
• Upside Down Frown
• Take Out The Trash
• She's An Angel
• It's Not My Birthday
• Meet James Ensor
• Memo To Human Resources
• I'm Impressed
• Damn Good Times
• Phone Calls From The Dead (Vincent Price)
• Older
• James K. Polk
• Birdhouse In Your Soul
• The Guitar
• Mammal

With Velcro Horns:

• Mr. Me
• With The Dark
• Withered Hope
• Museum of Idiots
• Ant
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Encore:

• Maybe I Know (John & John only)
• Fingertips
• The Mesopotamians

Second Encore:

• Mr. Tambourine Man
• Doctor Worm

They Might Be Giants
— with Oppenheimer opening —
Ventura Theatre in Ventura, CA
October 2, 2007 at 8:30 PM

Fan Recaps and Comments:

perspixx:

Some listings had the show starting at 7:30, others said 8:00. They were all wrong. Doors opened at 7, and 7:30 came and went. 7:45 passed, then 8:00. A hand stuck out through the curtain, then vanished. 8:15 came and went, then 8:30. And then finally, Oppenheimer appeared. They played until 9, and then it was another half-hour of waiting. I thought the point of an opening band was to get the crowd warmed up for the featured group... but if the two are separated by 30 minutes of crowd-killing oldies, does it really work?

This was TMBG's first show in Ventura since 1992, before some of the crowd was even born. Even so, there wasn't much of a crowd. I wasn't planning on going, but then I got bored this afternoon, so I bought a ticket and went. Beers were $7; sodas were $3.

The Johns were on a general Vincent Price kick, not just in Phone Calls From The Dead. Earlier in the show, they had been joking around and doing their Vincent Price impersonations, inspired by what they said was "creepy under-lighting". This included Linnell and Flansburgh walking like zombies and attempting to duplicate Price's evil laugh and voice. Unfortunately, Flansburgh ended up sounding more like Mr. Magoo (by his own admission). Later, they claimed that James K. Polk is a song about Price, and Mammal was a song originally by Price. All of the Vincent Price references went over the head of most of the crowd, which included a lot of high school aged fans.

As soon as the second encore ended, the curtains closed and the security guards were very aggressive in herding the crowd out of the facility. There was no chance to get a setlist or one of the half-empty water bottles. Apparently, the show was being video recorded and I guess they don't want it to look like people weren't leaving at the end.

Took five videos during the final portion of the show. You can find them on my youtube.

Didn't take a lot of photos, but the ones I did take are on photobucket