Shows/2013-05-09

3 wikians attended: Eskaywye JohnBrooks RWS

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Links:

• Rip It Up review (archived)
• Photos from AK Photography

Poster • Setlist

Setlist:

• Sammy Intro
• When Will You Die
• Don't Let's Start
• Memo To Human Resources
• Letterbox
• Call You Mom
• Circular Karate Chop
• Birdhouse In Your Soul
• Battle For The Planet Of The Apes
• The Guitar
• Doctor Worm
• The Famous Polka
• Cloisonné
• Nanobots
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
• Theme From Rocky
• He's Loco performed by The Avatars Of They
• Cowtown
• Lost My Mind
• Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head
• New York City
• Ana Ng
• Tesla
• You're On Fire
• Damn Good Times

Encore 1:

• Drink!
• 123 Band Intro
• Why Does The Sun Shine?

Encore 2:

• Dead
• Fingertips

They Might Be Giants
— with The Dark Fair opening —
The Gov in Adelaide, Australia
May 9, 2013 at 8:00 PM

Fan Recaps and Comments:

Eskaywye:

dad and i arrived at the gov after doors opened but nobody was really at the stage, so we went right to the front, where i remained through the entire show. the opening band was the dark fair, i enjoyed them a lot. their set was cut a little bit short because their amp broke, though.

when tmbg got to the stage, they launched right into when will you die, followed by don’t let’s start. after playing memo to human resources, they stopped to greet us/thank us for coming.

i was really tired out after pogoing during birdhouse and hoped they’d do something low-key while i “recovered”, but flans picked up the spotlight thing and split the crowd into people and apes for the battle of the planet of the apes. i was an ape. the people won, which by all reports is the usual.

cloisonne was pretty soon after that. flans: “this is a different kind of bass clarinet; it has a little pokey-stick on the end. don’t go near linnell, he’ll poke you.” linnell was really close to the front of the stage and a girl next to me tried to reach out and touch it but he quickly swung it out of her reach.

before nanobots, they were discussing the new album. linnell: “there are two reasons we’re here in australia. one, to promote our new album called… well, i pronounce it “nah-no-bots” but many like to say “na-no-bots”… it’s controversial. two, there’s a solar eclipse happening tomorrow. you’ll go blind if you look at that.” flans: “yeah. you can get up at six AM tomorrow, look at the sun, go blind, and go back to sleep.” linnell: “that’s an option that’s available to you.” flans [holding up three fingers]: “and there’s a third reason. trust me. DON’T QUESTION IT.”

they played some other songs, then john and john walked off stage to do “he’s loco” with the avatars of they and dan, danny and marty started playing an instrumental of eye of the tiger which was UNEXPECTED. they replaced “(fanfiction for) two and a half men” with “home and away”.

as they walked back on stage, this guy in the audience kept shouting “COWTOWN! COWTOWN!” and the johns discussed it for a minute and then played it, which was really exciting.

linnell: “people keep asking me how australian crowds are different from any other crowd, but i haven't found a reason yet. but tonight i’ve found a reason! …you guys do this thing where you dance with your hands.” also, the nuclear reactants in WDTSS were hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and adelaide.

for their first encore, linnell said we should look out for a common theme. the songs they played were tesla and dead. “death. the common theme is death.” they walked offstage again but then came back one last time to play fingertips!! it was so good. i couldn't have asked for a better first tmbg show.