Shows/2026-06-06

From This Might Be A Wiki


• Setlist

Setlist:

Set 1:

Set 2:

Encore:

Second encore:

They Might Be Giants
House of Blues in Boston, MA
June 6, 2026 at 8:00 PM


Fan Recaps and Comments:[edit]

WithoutABoxInside:

Delightful show, as ever. And with a delightful and generous setlist: I love Apollo 18 and there were fun surprises in the second half. The Boston House of Blues is not my favorite venue, but TMBG is my favorite band so it all evens out! Time for another overly-detailed recap…
The crowd was in a pretty good mood, especially later in the night. It's always nice to see the big age range of people who like this band, there were teenagers and 60-somethings near us who were equally into the show.
The first handful of songs were a bit shaky, probably marred by a disruptive mixup where the monitors were being sent to the wrong band members. (While they were fixing it, JL recalled a show in the past where the two Johns accidentally had their earpieces swapped, and they reacted by jumping up and down in simultaneous bewilderment... JF: "That was a dream, John.") But by the time of the keyboard solo on "Narrow Your Eyes", the energy and the vocals were working, and they kept getting better for the rest of the show.
"See The Constellation" was really groovy and natural, I would never have guessed they just introduced it last week after 8 years away. "Dinner Bell" and "Fingertips" were both technical marvels and everyone was clearly having fun. ("H-E-A-R-T, girl.")
But the real highlight of the Apollo 18 set, and maybe the show as a whole, was "She's Actual Size", with Flans stalking around the stage charismatically, doing fun things with his voice, and setting tempo changes that the rest of the band were all perfectly attuned with. Lovely to witness.
"Spider" directly into "The Guitar" finished the Apollo 18 set with high energy. Then it was time "to test the patience of the people who've been dragged here by their friends". The Johns started to explain "stelluB", but then asked how many people didn't understand what they were talking about. Counting only a couple hands, they launched right into it, and it was a really tight rendition that sounded great on the reversal before the second set.
"No lawsuits yet", said JF before "Wu-Tang", which sounds amazing live. (A couple W hand signs in the air, and afterward, I think someone behind me was quoting the Ghostface rant about how your soul is going through the 36 chambers of death, kid.)
Then "Whistling In The Dark" and "Particle Man" ended the set in a solid and fun way, with some nice vocal flourishes from Linnell including a passionate rendition of "Here You Come Again".
In the banter throughout the first set, they reminisced about bands they had seen in Boston back in the day, and how these bands would do things like play their hit at the beginning of the show and again at the end. (JF: "Panderers! We would never do that." JL: "We're stingy.") But they promised that tonight, their second set would consist of exactly the same songs as the first. (JL: "That includes us talking about the second set, while the second set is happening… infinite regress.") For better or for worse, that's not what happened.
The banter during the second set had to do with birthdays, as there were several birthdays happening, including their stage manager and JL's mother (she would be 100). Whenever a new birthday was mentioned, Danny Weinkauf would start playing the riff from the Beatles' "Birthday", and the rest of the backing band eventually joined in too before petering out awkwardly when the Johns failed to notice them, which I thought was funny. There were also some near-birthdays, and the Johns concluded that you can always celebrate your birthday no matter what day it is.
The second set started with Flans saying that there would be 3 audience participation bits. The first was singing along with the sha la las in "Working Undercover For The Man", which we all did swayingly. Then (after a solid "When Will You Die" and "The Glamour of Rock"), I think the 2nd bit was identifying when Marty Beller played his three notes on the bell in "Shoehorn With Teeth", which he did with poses of great dignity.
I was happy for an energetic rendition of "Man It's So Loud In Here". Then I was delighted to hear a driving "Meet James Ensor" live, and then more delighted still when it segued very naturally into "The Famous Polka", with some excellent accordion and other instrument playing throughout.
"Eyeball" was also nice to hear live. I like "Moonbeam Rays", but in my opinion it suffered from a heavier arrangement than I'd heard before. "Drink!" was the next audience participation song, with the balcony instructed to echo the title word on beat 2 and the floor on beat 3, which was fun, if confusing for many. "Cloisonné" was tight and groovy tonight - that song has really grown on me. "No One Knows My Plan" was also groovy, and everyone greeted the Stick with appropriate reverence for "Lie Still".
"Get Down" is a really good new song and it's great live. (It was slightly messy last week, but really tight tonight, and Linnell's voice was nicely authoritative.) The horns sounded great on that song and on "Withered Hope", one of my personal favorites. And of course the energy stayed high leading into "Birdhouse" to finish the show, with another lovely vocal flourish from Linnell and an extended drone on the last note.
For the encores, you can't go wrong with "Ana Ng", and I loved to hear "Twisting" in its extended form with the increasingly harmonically chaotic outro (Dan Miller really got to shine here). After they came out for the second encore, JL said that they were about to go on their summer vacation but they were happy to be here now closing this section of their tour, and JF wished everyone a happy Pride and a happy birthday. They finished with a "Doctor Worm" that felt nicely emotional and sentimental. It was a good energy to close a good show by a good band.

Frisco17:

My second TMBG concert, and boy, was it fantastic. This was the first time I had seen them live in an SRO environment (as I was on the floor, near the front), and it allowed the experience to be that much more intimate, invigorating, and memorable.
"See the Constellation", "Fingertips", "No One Knows My Plan", and "Twisting" are my joint picks for the Holy Smokes I Never Realized How Much I Needed Seeing This Song Live In My Life In Order To Feel Complete Award. "Twisting" might have to top the list, though; by the end of the show, I was bone-tired, sopping from the 6 pounds of sweat I had done away with throughout, and planning on leaning on the front bar as a precautionary measure for the two inevitable encores. That's until "Twisting" began, shooting me up as if the opening lick were my sleeper agent trigger phrase, and giving me such a second wind you'd think I was playing back-up saxophone. The many chordal and key variations suffixed on didn't stop the train, either. Just phenomenal.
There was a conspicuous orange cone near the front of the stage for the duration of the show, with which a majority of the band did at least a little prop work. Even The Stick gave it a little rough-housing after "Lie Still". Somebody get on the fanfic! Posthaste!
Regardless of whether or not they're reading this, thank you so much to all of the cool people who had handed out various accoutrements in the audience! I made out with an Erase zine, a snail sticker, and an orange, glow-in-the-dark TMBG kandi bracelet. More than made up for the $7 spent on one water, or the $5 spent on Sharpies at CVS before the show that were ultimately confiscated at the door.
As Buford Van Stomm once said, "I'm not crying. I'm just sweating through my eyes." That was how I felt by the end of the show. I'm not a cryer, though sometimes I wish I could be, but to the untrained eye, you might have thought I was. Especially seeing as I was surrounded by 6 or so friends who all were, themselves.

Redheadedsnippet:

So I'd like to preface this recap with a shout-out to the staff at House of Blues. This was the first show my wife and I had attended since she became disabled and we had no idea what to expect, but my wife in her Rollator along with my bestie and I (both able-bodied) were very kindly ushered up through an elevator to an accessible section in the upper right balcony. It set us up for an evening we could all enjoy, and I loved being able to see all the energy from fellow fans from a new angle.
The first recap above mentions that birthdays became a running theme at the show – funnily enough, it was my birthday, too, and the riff from the Beatles' "Birthday" felt like a little gift. At least one other fan in the crowd kept yelling it was also THEIR birthday. Birthdays all around!
Before the show we'd all made guesses about which album would be featured tonight, and I'd have been happy with anything because it's TMBG, but I hoped for Apollo 18, and I couldn't believe my luck when I heard the first few notes of Statue, not to mention getting to hear the rarely played, beautifully rendered Narrow Your Eyes and See the Constellation.
As noted in the first recap above, Danny Weinkauf had some initial technical difficulties with his mic pack and seemed frustrated (or disoriented). Linnell chatted a little about how the packs work to fill time. As I recall, he described the incident where he and Flansburgh accidentally swapped theirs as "We both jumped like two cats that had just been struck by lightning."
JF: That was a DREAM.
JL: You don't remember that?
JF: I block out all the bad stuff. I only remember the shows that went well.
At some point Flansburgh asked the crowd how late the T ran these days, and that kicked off some reminiscing about the Johns' days attending shows in Boston. Linnell claimed he'd attended a show where he could only stay for the first two songs before he had to catch the last train home.
My notes are a little scattered and disjointed nowadays because I'd rather be in the moment with the show than take notes as it's happening, but I recall Flansburgh describing the end of one song as being their take on Ghostbusters. Maybe the end of She's Actual Size?
JF, staccato, to the beat of the outro: I-ain't-a-fraid-of-no-ghosts, no-ghosts.
JL: Or more of a Sammy Davis Jr. 'I ain't afraid of no ghosts, Jack!'
JF: Yes, it's our take on Ray Parker Jr. and Sammy Davis Jr.
JL: The two juniors.
When the Johns explained stelluB as testing the patience of people who were dragged here by their friends, I looked directly at my wife, who would never have attended a TMBG show without my prompting, but what the Johns do not know is that my wife loves stelluB (this was her third time seeing it) and continues to be entertained by the level of effort put into the backwards lyrics and choreography. I did turn to her after they played Spider and asked "Was that completely incomprehensible to you?" (My wife: Yes. What just happened?)
The horn section exited and re-entered the stage a few times; at each exit, we were assured the horns loved us.
JL: If you knew how much the horns loved you, you would actually be creeped out by it.
Every show with the horns is always that much better for it, but my bestie and I agreed they were just on fire that night and really feeling it. I think they brought their very best before taking their break for the summer. I remember seeing Danny Weinkauf and Dan Levine standing back to back in the middle of a song, jamming on their respective instruments and both of them looking like they were having the time of their lives.
At one point Flans tried to introduce a song as "one designed to induce a vasovagal response, like that thing where she's at the Eiffel Tower and you hold up a model of the Eiffel Tower and she'll faint... John, do you know what I'm talking about?"
JL: No, not really.
JF: The vasovagal response...
JL: Oh, vasovagal! I thought you said "everything bagel."
There was also some talk about whether the Johns were engaging in too much banter.
JF: Some people are thinking, "Play the motherfucking music!" *slips into a singsongy British accent* Bo-ring! Bo-ring! Get to the music! Oi! Oi! Oi!
Then, turning to the audience: You don't get to pick who listens to your music, so thank you for not being the 'Oi! Oi! Oi!' types. (To paraphrase the banter from another show I've attended, some people pay to see the yip-yap.)
As Flansburgh introduced the new album, pulling out a pristine copy of the vinyl, he stopped to read a sign in the front row.
JF: "I came all the way from Australia and all I got was this lousy show. Can I have the vinyl?" Well, as it happens...
And the Australian fan with the sign did indeed get the vinyl, lovingly advertised as having no spelling errors on the back, before they launched into Wu Tang.
I sha-la-laed with the best of them when Working Undercover for the Man opened the second set. I don't think I've heard them play that one since my very first full concert at the 9:30 Club all the way back in 2003 – with my bestie! — so that was a trip for both of us. We were glad to see such a mixed-ages crowd and that there always seems to be a fresh crop of enthralled 16-year-olds like the ones we once were.
I was also at the perfect vantage point to see the crowd go WILD when Meet James Ensor segued right into The Famous Polka. Nothing like knowing you're about to see John Linnell SHRED on the accordion.
Drink! was another one I hadn't heard live in about 20 years (what!?), and the audience participation segment was a fun addition. Those of us on the sides of the stage were instructed to join in on whichever repeat of "Drink" we wanted. The second "Drink" in each line of the chorus was always trickier than the first, but I could see a bigger smile on Flansburgh's face with each repeat, so we must have done all right.
My wife was bemused at the emergence of The Stick, but I promised her we were all in for a treat. She loved the concept of Lie Still, Little Bottle going in and out of rotation depending on the band's ability to find a suitable stick.
A cluster of fans who had clearly gone straight from Pride to the show were waving miniature pride flags (I believe something other than the all-purpose rainbow flag, but the colorful venue lights made them difficult to identify from a distance. I thought I saw a logo in the center). At one point Linnell asked to confirm that those were pride flags, and then wished them a happy Pride.
Things wound down beautifully with Birdhouse followed by an encore of a rocking Ana Ng and a face-melting rendition of Twistin'. We clapped until our hands hurt for a second encore and when I saw Dan Miller assume a position at the keyboard I was able to promise my wife that they WERE going to play Dr. Worm after all. (My wife says Dr. Worm has "the perfect amount of lore" and "tells you everything you need to know, answers all your questions and doesn't overexplain." I love my wife.)
As mentioned in the recap above, Flansburgh closed the show by wishing us all a happy birthday and happy Pride, and they couldn't have known, but it felt like a personal message. Thanks, John and John and Dan and Danny and Marty and Dan and Stan and Mark. I did have a happy birthday and a happy Pride and had a damn good time. Thanks for a damn good show.


Halurox:

This was my first time seeing TMBG live (and my first concert!) and man, it was a blast! My mother insisted in coming along, and despite not being a fan still had a lot of fun. It was amazing to see the age range, from me (17) to some people that were as old as the Johns! Wu Tang was my favorite song of the show ( I think it sounded better live than on the record!) and $35 for signed vinyl (except for John Henry, for some reason; it was $40). I found the between song commentary was funny. I also liked how some fans shouted "Rabid Child!" and "Purple Toupee!" later in the show. When TMBG returns to Boston (hopefully in the near future!) I will buy a ticket ASAP. I'm glad that my first concert had no headaches or annoyances, other than my legs feeling like they were on fire! Overall, the playlist was great, the croud was great, and the venue was great! The line out front was long, but was moving quickly. A big thanks to The House of Blues and TMBG!
Retrieved from "https://tmbw.net/wiki/index.php?title=Shows/2026-06-06&oldid=372307"