Shows/2024-05-09

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Fan Recaps and Comments:

This surprise Apollo 18 themed show (which was unannounced until the show began) included the first ever live performances of "Drown The Clown", "Last Wave" and "The Glamour Of Rock", as well as the return of "Unrelated Thing", which had not been performed since 1996. The Stick also returned for the band's first performance of "Lie Still, Little Bottle" in over six years.

Pittsburghmuggle:

My sixth concert was excellent, as expected. My last had been in 2015. My wife came along - she had only been aware of TMBG from Tiny Toons and Malcolm in the Middle's theme. She said after that she was very surprised that the Johns were so down-to-earth in person on the stage, compared to their songs. She really enjoyed the Stillub bit when they played the video they had taken in reverse at the beginning of the second set.
When I saw them in 2001, The Stick broke the only time I had ever seen it used - it had stopped halfway through the song. At this concert, Flansy brought the stick out and we all cheered. He put something down to pound the stick on - I'm assuming a sensor to make a noise when he pounded so they didn't have to put anything on the stick itself. The Stick worked fine through the whole performance - Flansy's microphone went out halfway through. Linnel swang his mike over for him. Maybe I'm bad luck for the Stick. :)
Flans talked about Mike Love's strange rant at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1988, that he insulted the Mick Jagger with the Rolling Stones sitting in the audience. Linnel said that was unwise, the Rolling Stones seemed "pretty scrappy".
Linnell missed the start of a verse in Ana Ng, and joked that maybe he should "show up for rehearsal". He also got a little close to their new, rotating lights and said "I'm digging our new lights, but I almost got beaned by one when I was walking over there."
Hey, older fans worried about keeping hearing in old age - I wore earplugs to the concert for the first time (I hit 50 last month) and could hear everything fine through them. Seemed painfully loud when I took them out during the encore.

Elliott Bruno:

When I first saw the tour list and noticed that They Might Be Giants were going to be in my city on my birthday, I knew I had to get tickets. I told all my friends about it, assuming they would say, "Oh my god! So excited for you!" Instead they asked if they could come with. So I thought, why not?
For all those waiting outside the venue before the doors opened, yes. We were in fact the four teenage losers under the awning near the stairs. I don't apologize for my behavior. We're just too skibidi for you /lh
Thank you to the nice person who gave us breadsticks, by the way. I have a photo of my friend gnawing on them.
They opened with Synopsis For Latecomers because they said they wanted a baseline for these random setlist shows.
Birdhouse was awesome, as usual. My friend (the one who has been my newest convert to the TMBG religion) and I screamed in joy at multiple times during the concert, one of which was when they played When Will You Die
When Moonbeam Rays started playing my friend commented that he hadn't listened to BOOK all the way and didn't know the song :[
When they announced that it was going to be a show chocked full of Apollo 18 tracks I kind of rolled my eyes, considering I think it's overrated, but they were all pretty good. Dig My Grave especially came out of the BLUE and went absolutely insane! One of the highlights of the concert for me.
Based Stillub. Forgot Marty did the countoff at the end with his drumsticks and it made me laugh. (Now is a good time to mention: to whoever the woman with the Marty Beller mask on was; you were extremely disruptive for the entire length of the concert and I hope that you aren't as obtrusive for your next TMBG outing. My friend recalls his ear hurting from your high-pitched squeals every 10 seconds. You also misgendered my sibling's friend multiple times so I have no remorse for you. Have a nice day.)
WAS NOT EXPECTING A NEW SONG WHAAAAAAAT
When Subliminal started playing I thought we were going to go into a John Henry set but unfortunately the only other JH song was Unrelated Thing (for the first time since 1996?????) so I was a bit disappointed (I swear to god if they play a John Henry set on May 10 when I went to the Apollo 18 set the night before I might go insane.)
they didn't play mr smalls venue songs. 0/10 concert
My friend and I both said, "Honk mimimmimmimimimi" audibly during The Darlings Of Lumberland. We both don't really like that song. Still cool to see Dan play keyboard again. As soon as I saw him up there, I knew what song they were going to play and kind of groaned.
Wicked Little Critta goes so fucking hard omg.
My social studies teacher from last year was there. My mom got a picture with him.
When they were introducing The Mesopotamians and they said, "We're going back now to ancient times..." one of my other friends shouted out, "Mink Car!" (We did that multiple times throughout the concert, along with occasionally shouting Wendell Willkie)
They didn't play Istanbul???? I was flabbergasted. They closed with The Guitar which was awesome
Overall an amazing concert, an amazing time with friends, and happy 17th birthday to me.