Shows/Mono Puff/1998-06-16

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Links:

• Photos

Setlist:

• Night Security
• It's Fun To Steal
• Unsupervised, I Hit My Head
• Mr. Hughes Says
• Backstabbing Liar

Mono Puff
HMV in New York, NY
June 16, 1998 at 7:30 PM

Steve Calhoon and Dan Miller. Photo by Jordan Cooper.

Fan Recaps and Comments:

This was a free in-store performance and signing, held at the HMV record store on the corner of 86th Street and Lexington Avenue. The band was promoting the recently released It's Fun To Steal, as well as their show at Acme Underground the following night.

The performance featured the unique trio lineup of John Flansburgh (guitar, vocals), Steve Calhoon (drums) and Dan Miller (guitar, keyboard). This was Miller's first gig with Mono Puff, and his first live performance in any They Might Be Giants-related project. He made his live debut with TMBG a few months later, on September 4, 1998.

Review by Liz, posted to the alt.music.tmbg newsgroup:

Well, i had a nice little time today when john flansburgh's monopuff played free for a crowd of about 20 at HMV. aftwer waking up a shade before 1 in the afternoon and hanging around for a couple hours with the lights turned off my friend and i decided we absolutely HAD to get outside. so about $25 and some crappy music later we ended up both flat broke sitting on a stoop at St. Marks chatting with random drunks. still, we had a few more hours to kill til the show and i decided to be on time for once in my life (various folks reading this can attest to how rare an occurence that is.) So we went and walked around Central Park for awhile eventually wandered HMV-wards where we saw mr flansburgh walk out in jeans and a tshirt (that may not sound immortant but it comes back later.) didnt really say anything. we sat outside for a bit killing time and i finished my lemonaid that tasted suspiciously like lemon-fresh dishwasher detergent.

so then we ended up downstairs flipping thru records we couldnt afford. but no need to tell the HMV staff that. this HMV has a really cool sorta built-in stage thing on the lower level that worked out really great. gradually the Usual Suspects wandered in and we all sat around the stage making jokes at the expense of the big kenny g head. it was like a little floor party. they also had a cool long chinese dragon thing hanging from the ceiling and a disco ball. so i think Fun to Steal was making its third round on the PA when mr. Flansburgh walked in. I gasped. ladies, let me just say i hope all the flans fans were there cuz he looked REALLY good! i mean, we're talking ice cream white seer-sucker suit and a power tie! apparently he'd bought them at Todays Man across the street. and his hair's getting longish. steves hair is back too! naturally monopuff didnt' bring out the full syndicate for a free show... just steve drumming and dan from Lincoln on guitar and keyboard. not even hal craigin.

so first they did Night Security falsetto style. flans looked scary just standing there in his swank-ass suit singing with his hands in his pockets. scary in an Establishment kinda way. YOU know what i mean. next i think they did Fun to Steal which sounds different with just guitar, keyboard and drums. steve really carried the show with the drums. then Mr. Hugh's Says with the cribsheet. then Unsupervised. Dan plays a bass part on the top guitar strings. flans gets tangled in the dragon-mobile. flans plugs album and show tomorrow. then says something like "lets wrap it up and do the signing thing" and they do Backstabbing Liar "headboping pop style." I keep watching these two little kids dancing around nearly flipping onto the stage. flans smiled at 'em. very very sweet!

so then he asks where theyre gonna do the signing thing and ends up just sitting on the stage steps giving out free autographed postcards. i tell him he looks good and some other stuff. sadly, i doubt anyone actually bought the album. oh well, he gets lots of points for trying! seth tells someone carrying a matchbox 20 Cd that monopuff are "a wacky band who sound like matchbox 20 only better!" i think thats awesome. helped steve carry out the box of doom and i took a cue from the new album title and ripped down a shrine style cardboard billboard for the show. s'got a cool photo stuck in the middle. thats about it- a good way to spend an hour but nothing all that special. flans didnt seem in a hurry but he didnt seem terribly thrilled to be there either (not saying he SHOULD seem thrilled.)