Shows/2015-11-06

11 wikians attended: Ajon BlueCanary DenialTwister Kayakcup Langer8191 Leppaman Mrpulley Poutinstereo RWS Samvall Sanglorian

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

• Listing

Setlist:

Set 1:

• Can't Keep Johnny Down
• Music Jail, Pt. 1 & 2
• The Mesopotamians
• Particle Man
  • Here You Come Again
• Damn Good Times
• When Will You Die
• We Live In A Dump
• Bills, Bills, Bills
• Authenticity Trip
• Answer
• Man, It's So Loud In Here
• Erase
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
• Older
• Rhythm Section Want Ad

Set 2:

• New York City
• Don't Let's Start
• Let Me Tell You About My Operation
• Where Your Eyes Don't Go
• Number Three
• Careful What You Pack
• The Statue Got Me High
• Withered Hope
• Black Ops
• I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar
• James K. Polk
• Twisting
• Fingertips
• Robot Parade

Encore:

• Birdhouse In Your Soul
• Doctor Worm

They Might Be Giants
— with Smaal Cats opening —
Enmore Theatre in Sydney, Australia
November 6, 2015 at 8:00 PM

Fan Recaps and Comments:

• The Show was performed at The Enmore Theatre, Sydney Australia. Smaal Cats played from 8:00pm till 8:45pm and TMBG played from 8:45pm till about 11:00pm with a 20 minute interval. Flansburgh pitched this format to the crowd saying something like:
  "Tonight we're actually going to play TWO SETS for you, ladies and gentlemen! This is a very special show we've got planned for you this evening." With Linnell clarifying that:
  "This is just John's way of saying that we've got one show with a break in the middle."
  "Yes, but it sounds like more as TWO sets!"
  "That's right! 'They Might Be Giants: repackaging less to give you more, since 1983!'"

• Other funny banter included semi-faux laments over the travel time involved in a U.S. band's tour of Australia.
  "We haven't slept for four days! After this tour we're taking a 36 hour flight back. 'Why?', you may ask, 'there are shorter flights'. We know. We saved $18 per person with these tickets."

• 'Particle Man' included an interlude of Dolly Parton's 'Here You Come Again'.

• The preamble for 'Bills, Bills, Bills' was Linnell claiming that earlier this year they'd secretly become a Destiny's Child cover band, but that they'd only learned one song and the best name they'd come up with was "Destiny's Child's Child".

• 'Istanbul' was performed as a duo - accordion and guitar (with delicious tremolo). For the final verse ("So take me back to ..."), they spoke really slowly, going back and forth ad-libbing requests/denials to go back to Constantinople; something to the effect of:
  Flans [high voice]: "Soooooooo taaaaaaaaake meeeee baaaaaaaack..."
  Linnell [low voice]: "Nooooooo"
  "Pleeeeaaasse caaaan IIIIIII gooooo baaaaaack"
  "Noooooooooooo"
  "You dooooon't haaaaaaaave to beeeeeeeeee a diiiiick abooooooouuuut iiiiiiit."
  "...
  ...
  Okaaaaaaaaaaaaayy"
  {audience cracks up laughing}
  L: "wait, no! You caaaaan't goooooo baaaack."
  then the song resumed &c. ~ very funny :D

• Linnell played the bass clarinet for 'Black Ops (Alt. Version)' and 'I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar' the latter of which was performed as a trio with Marty (drummer), an electric drum pad extending his kit.

• Before covering Jonathan Richman's 'I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar', Flansburgh reflected on his visit to an apartment block that Richman lived in, where in Richman's distinctive writing the message "Please do not slam the door. - Mister Richman" (or something like that) was written. Linnell also did a brief impression of Richman which Flansburgh misheard ('cause of the crowd noise) but thought sounded pretty good. When he asked him to do it again he refused saying, "No, no, that was a one-time thing. We'll just leave it there..." (something like that).

• For 'Doctor Worm', Dan Miller (lead guitarist) played the horn parts on Linnell's keyboard while Linnell played accordion. Flansburg used an octave pedal to achieve the detuned guitar sound from the record.