Shows/2023-07-16
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Setlist:
Sparks
— with They Might Be Giants opening —
The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA
July 16, 2023
Fan Recaps and Comments:
"Weird Al" Yankovic was in attendance, as he is a major fan of both TMBG and Sparks.
SpaceHydra: This was my first TMBG show! I went with my mom, and it was her first concert in over 30 years. She was a huge fan of the sit-down venue. The band came out to a dramatic orchestral tune (I don't remember the song exactly but I found the dichotomy of the song choice to their casual ambling onto the stage to be funny).
The fact that they were opening means that there wasn't a ton of time for banter on stage. It doesn't help that they seemed awfully intimidated by the size of the audience (a fact that JF has since spoken on: apparently being able to see the size of the audience freaked them out... :( )
The apparent late-game stage jitters sure didn't stop the audience and I from having a blast. At one point, JF demanded that the audience rise for the TMBG National Anthem (not a direct quote... it's been a few years...) and the band proceeded to play "Birdhouse" after the several thousand people in attendance all stood for the song. The horns looked to be having a blast, and did a seemingly choreographed tour around the stage and above the stageside audience on a protruding section of the stage.
The rousing rendition of "Spy" which engaged the whole audience was so fun to be apart of! At the end of their relatively short set, they seemed shocked by the thunderous applause they received.
All in all, I had SO MUCH fun! The dichotomy of the music between the Sparks and They Might Be Giants seemed pretty significant, but I ended up enjoying the Sparks set a LOT despite only knowing one of their songs. My mother and I found the fact that both bands were full of older people with a pretty active stage presence to be delightful, and we still talk about this show!!
