Shows/1998-10-08

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7 wikians attended: Alucas526 CoasterFanatic Deanna FrankEinstein Pittsburghmuggle Trainman Zaph

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Setlist:

Encore:

Encore 2:

They Might Be Giants
Metropol in Pittsburgh, PA
October 8, 1998 at 7:30 PM


Fan Recaps and Comments:

A note by Pittsburghmuggle

We arrived by car, my girlfriend was driving. As we passed Metropol looking for a parking spot I remember seeing John Linnell standing at the stage door to get in - he looked tired (Probably was - I imagine touring isn't easy.) I must have been staring as my brain tripped over itself realizing with shock who it was. He did see me in the car staring, then went in when the door opened.

Review by Jish:

AFOHAF This is so amazing. Let me preface this by saying if ANYBODY taped the Pittsburgh show tonight I am willing to give a kidney for it. OR if you don't want a kidney I will give CD copies of Dr. Spock's or Live in NYC or any TMBG Single...or any of my 100 tapes etc...CONTACT ME!

OK! Well here is the deal...I got to Metropol at 3:30pm as per my obsessive nature. One reason I was there so early was to hopefully get a Linnell autograph since he snubbed me in DC in August. So I am sitting there reading my Psych book for a while when I see John Flansburgh walking up with Michael's Shelley's band and a bunch of roadies

Now I knew Flans was really cool about autographs and I had my STD with me so I asked him if I could get a quick autograph. He said sure and was really happy and seemed in a great mood. He asked me my name and was going to personalize it and I mentioned that this was my 18th show and he goes "No! Really? Wow!" and I said "Yea...I was going to go last night but I had too much work" and he said "well, thank you for coming out!" and he wrote on my CD cover "Happy 18 John F Thanks to Josh!". As he was finishing I asked "Are you by any chance planning on playing that Working Undercover for the Man Song tonight? I haven't heard it yet" and John said "Yea! Yes we are!" and I said "I am looking forward to hearing it!" and he said "Thanks!" and went on the bus. (btw, Flans was holding the Harvey Danger CD)

So I was sitting on the ground bubbling with excitement looking at my STD cover for like 5 min. just totally hyper and then I hear a voice shout "Hey Josh!" and I turned and John had gotten off the bus and was holding an autographed STD flat autographed by both Johns. They had been handing them out the night before. He threw it over to me and I was in total awe, I think I managed to say "Thank you so much!" and he said "No problem!". On an interesting side note there was a post-it stuck to the flat that Flans told me to take off. It was their instructions on what to do, it basically said we need 5 flats to hand out and that they should embellish if they feel like it. And it is hilarious cause across the top of the flat they wrote "Thanks to you!" which is what I guess Flans considers embellishment and Linnell signed it "John Sid Linnell" instead of John Sid, which I guess is what he considers embellishment.

So I take the flat out to my car and I am dying...I can hardly handle all this. When I get back I see that John Linnell is on the pay phone. I stand there politely and wait...he was on the phone for like 20 min, I am guessing with his wife. And when he gets off I ask him for a quick autograph and he didn't shy away at all. He said "Sure! Hi." and I said "hi" and handed him the STD cover and while he was signing I explained what John had written, I told him it was my 18th show and he was like "oh really?" and I said "yes" and he said "When was your first show?" and I said "oh...it was just august of 1996" and he said "oh...so you have seen us a lot...recently..." and I said "yea..." and he said "You haven't gotten bored of the show yet?" and I was a little taken aback...I was like "uh...uhm...no! You guys manage to keep mixing things up." and he said "We try" and he smiled and handed me the cover. I said "thank you so much!" and he said "Nice meeting you!". An interesting side note to that. Isn't that SO CLASSIC Linnell and Flans. Flans the rock star is all excited meeting a big fan and gives me stuff. Linnell is more "why would you want to see us so much?". hehehe it was really cool!

So I take my STD cover back to my car and I sit there just in shock. People come and I talked to some friends and then they opened doors. I went up front, this time on flans side for a change...mostly cause I am IN LOVE WITH HIM now and because I maybe wanted to play the guitar if he let us. Unfortunately, the stupid security guards moved the barrier back after we got in. It was funny tho cause JOhn and John complained that we were too far away so it made the guards look stupid.

So the show begins (I will type out the setlist in a bit) and I am really into it. They are playing all the songs I hadn't heard them play like Racist Friend etc...Flans said he wanted to let us play guitar on Famous Polka but we were too far away :( So anyway, it is about halfway through the show and Flans goes "Ok, this next song is new. It isn't on any album!" and I was psyched cause I knew it was Working... and then he goes "I would like to make a long distance dedication to a guy named Josh. He is at his 18th show of ours!" (mild cheers from the crowd) "We've only DONE 20, ladies and gentlemen!" (big cheer). And then he continued to intro it as a song about Michael Shelley and how they had found an envelope with some other name on it in the back of the bus and figured out Michael Shelley was an agent for the CIA. But at that point I was in another world...They started the song which is just amazing...and I was just asdfoihaf... I ifodsaha I can't describe it...the song was amazing...the moment was amazing...

Well..the rest of the show was great but I was already on a high and when it finished I *had* to get a setlist and stretched myself way more than I should have to grab the first one they handed out. I then went and bought the last copy of WDTSS on vinyl they had and the TNAC CD and tape. I will type the setlist out as it is on the actual paper with notes about cool stuff...

SEVERED (STD theme)

ANGEL

DR. CANNON! (Dr. Worm with confetti cannon)

NYC

BATTLE

POLK ("This song is about a man who some people thought was an ape. He was the 11th president of the united apes" - John L)

RACIST/POLKA

TIL

ACTUAL (such a cool performance! Flans was laying on the floor with his face like 6 inches from us and he was soooooo into it)

FUNKY BASS->VOCORDER->DRUMS+GTR->FLANSY "YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME" (weird thing they apparantly just made up...but very cool)

LOST/OLDER ("this song is not about us. It is about another band called They Might Be Giants...they are NOTHING like us." -John L "They don't have their shit together!" - John F)

WORKING (see above :) )

SPY/LIE (Spy was awesome they did Mr. Tambourine Man during it which is such an amazing cover...and then Linnell did this really freaky thing where he said "Pierre Salinger stole my hairstyle. I want my hairstyle back")

PARTICLE

SEXXY

GRAVEYARD/SHOE (They actually put some music to the born in a graveyard intro for Dan Hickey...it was really cool)

SPIDER/BIRD (amazing Spider performance)

GUITAR

DON'T (didn't play)

–––––– BYE!

SUN

––––––

EXQ

BROOM/TWIST

––––––

ISTAN

DR. WORM ("We like to play this song as much as possible!" - John F)

Miscellaneous notes: They played No One Know My Plan...probably replacing Don't Let's Start. They soundchecked Subliminal and Absolutely Bill's Mood which was awesome to hear. Linnell had so much energy. He was screaming into the mic at the beginning. It was like they said "How are you all doing?" and we all screamed and then Linnell was like "Well we are *SCREAM* too!". He also was dancing around a lot especially during Battle. He intro'd particle man as "here is a song that goes blabalfdsibaf" cause somebody in the audience had shouted nonsense right before. He also sang Kumbaya during Particle Man.

Well that is all.. I still have to recover. It was so great...only thing I could want is to have played the guitar but I have to have a reason to keep going :)

I would like to repeat if ANYBODY taped it, PLEASE contact me!!!

Jishy

#1 fan of John Flansburgh :)

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