Shows/1987-11-28

John Linnell playing accordion at the venue

Fan Recaps and Comments:

(Translated from German)
A review of the show from Detlef Diederichsen
Musikexpress magazine, Feb. 1988:

This is something that only happens to us in New York - performances where a lot of things go wrong. We've been trying to make our set really slick for five years now. On the other hand, these disastrous performances are always the best received," said John Linnell, the accordion-playing half of the New York duo, commenting on the evening.

The audience was invited into the foyer of the market hall - the only 200 or so paying spectators would have gotten pretty lost in the actual hall. But there in the anteroom it was really cozy, and when John Linnell's accordion strap broke after a few bars in the first song, his partner John Flansburgh had the opportunity to bridge the forced break with a few quick jokes. The audience reacted enthusiastically and the mood rose even more when Linnell stopped halfway through one of his songs because he realized that he had forgotten to plug the accordion into the amplifier. Vocals, guitar and accordion were played live, the rest was played from tape by roadie, mixer, technical advisor, fatherly friend and girl for everything Bill Krauss. Nevertheless, this peculiar mixture of sixties pop, country and hypermodern sample sounds seemed more exciting, more lively and less static than the usual live rock music.

Anyone who still hadn't had enough after the various encores was referred to "Dial-a-song", the telephone service of Thev Might Be Giants: By calling the US telephone number 718-387-6962, you can hear a different TMBG song every day, "for free if you call from your parents or your workplace", as John Flansburgh then suggested.