Shows/2001-02-02

8 wikians attended: Andersonic1970 Apeiken DistopioSmashedtobits Eviltikimonkey Fitch MikeHollywood Mrhorrible78 Trainman

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Ticket

Setlist:

• Fingertips
• Boss Of Me
• I've Got A Fang
• Why Does The Sun Shine?
• She's Actual Size
• Cyclops Rock
• Don't Let's Start
• Hypnotist Of Ladies
• Particle Man
• Cowtown
• Maybe I Know
• Pet Name
• Spy
• Older
• We Want A Rock
• It's Not My Birthday
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
• Twisting
• James K. Polk
• The Guitar
• Doctor Worm

Encore:

• Robot Parade
• Drink!
• Birdhouse In Your Soul

Encore 2:

• Hotel Detective
• Ana Ng
• New York City

They Might Be Giants
— with OK Go opening —
House of Blues in Los Angeles, CA
February 2, 2001 at 9:00 PM

Fan Recaps and Comments:

Review by Dan Tappan:
Hope everyone is having a good weekend, I went to the show last night and I've got to say, I thought it was Amazing. IMO, a GREAT SET list, (which I wrote down and will give you) and a damn good opener as well. I was at the VERY front left of the stage, so I got to be about five feet away from John Flansburgh for the whole show. They played 27 songs, including two encores of three songs each. Also, Flans said that TMBG will be on Leno on Monday the 5th, but he never mentioned Kilborn.

The opener took the stage just after 9:00. the band was "OkGo" (pronounced as two words) from Chicago. I got the impression that everybody liked them, they had a pretty fresh style, and they closed with "Hold the Line" by Toto. I bought their three track demo CD for three dollars.. All three of the songs on the CD were played during the show. It's good, but they were better live (duh.)

TMBG took the stage shortly after 10PM, though it seemed like the curtains had been closed for HOURS, and the house of blues kept tormenting us by fading songs out early so that we thought the band was going to start. But finally they started, and this is what they played:

1. "Fingertips" all the way through, after which Flans stpped to the mic and said "THank you for coming tonight! We'll never open with that song again!..I guess its really more of an after the show song when people are just hanging out in the club." Then the Johns talked about how hard it is to explain to you family that you're in a rock band, because they never understand, so Flans thanked this song, because now all Their families believe them:

2. "Boss of Me" went well. Everyone liked it, I'm glad they played it, and it sounded good. Flans' main guitar is a red, lefty Gibson ES335 with black binding (At least that's what it looked like to me. Its a nice gibson f-hole archtop)

3. "I've got a Fang", a new song which I had never heard until last night. It was ok... I couldn't really hear the words. At the beginning of the song, Linnell fucked up during the intro of the song (He stopped the song and said "Wait, I fucked up") because he had begun to play the intro to a different song. This one went led straight into:

4. "The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas", which was outstanding, and let straight into:

5. "She's Actual Size", which included a really dope drum solo, and the Johns played Bongo Survivor: The Drummer (does anyone know his name, he's REALLY good) played a drum riff on the high bongo, and then one on the low bongo, and let the audience pick the better. Los Angeles is a Low Bongo town. During the last verse and chorus flans got on his knees and started crawling around at the very front of the stage, putting on a little show for the lucky folks up front and center.

6. "Cyclops Rock" Went over well, but didn't have quite as many audience members singing along with it, which makes sense I guess. I like this song :)

7. "Don't Lets Start", Another one of my personal Favorites.

8. "Hypnotist of Ladies", after which Linnell stepped up and looked around and said, "Ok, now no more Chit Chat..." and they went into:

9. "Particle Man", Which EVERYBODY knew, as one would hope. Leading into:

10. "Cowtown", another Lincoln favorite.

11. I don't know the name of this song... they said it was a cover of a song written by Ellie Grange and performed by Leslie Gordon. The chorus was

"Maybe I know that she's been cheating,

Maybe I know that she's been untrue,

But what Can I do"

I assume it's called "What Can I Do?" or something like that, but does anyone Know?

12. "Pet Name", the first Factory Showroom song of the night. Loved it.

13. "Spyglass" Good John Henry song, but not one of my favorites. Sounded good though.

14. I don't know the name of this one either, the chorus was along the lines of "Now you're Older, time is marching on" Anyone Know? After this one, Linnell started talking about how they recently had to re-learn Flood, and that now it was fresh in their minds they didn't want it to go to waste, so they played:

15. "We Want a Rock"!! I love this song! I think everyone does. I'm so glad I heard it live :) Flans played a 12-string Acoustic on this one.

16. "It's not my Birthday"!! I love this song too! the Concert Just got better from here.

17. "Istanbul" Wow. Wow. The song was great, but the intro was UNSPEAKABLE. it was Dan Mill (I think I got his name right) on an acoustic, just ripping it up for about a minute and a half. Fast, Syncopated against a very quiet rhythm on a sus cymbal. I WISH I had a recording of this. One of the best parts of the night.

18. "Twisting" and the Flood continues!

19. "James K. Polk" I love the historical songs, AND Factory Showroom, so this one's a plus with me.

20. "The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)" You Know, I like this song.. but I've never loved it, but it was GREAT last night. And then, Flans picked up the accordion and brought the house down with:

21. "Doctor Worm"!! One of my absolute favorites. That Rocked. Everyone went crazy, and after they left the stage for five minutes to the sound of a deafening roar of fans, and came back for Encore, the first.

ENCORE #1

22. "Robot Parade" Surprising.. Didn't think I'd Hear it. This one was just the John's. The Dan's were out having a cigarette.

23. "Drink", A new song that I'd never heard, but I really liked it.

24. "Birdhouse in My Soul", I was hoping they'd pull this one out, but I wasn't sure if I would hear it. I'm glad they played it, it was huge.

ENCORE #2

25. "Hotel Detective" was fantastic! I never thought they would play this but they did, and Flans on the slide guitar was great! When it ended, the J's told a story of the previous night at In San Francisco at the Filmore when they tried to play the next song from a cold start (like with no counting to sync the players, and it failed..so they were going to try it again, and It sounded good to me:

26. "Ana Ng" Another crowd favorite, especially with the Crowd filling in the "I Don't Want the World, I just want Your Half" vocals. That was great and it made Linnell smile.

27. "New York City", Good one to end with... very energetic, And it topped off a great show.

what a GREAT show. It really was everything I wanted. If you read this far into the e-mail, you deserve a bonus story: We were waiting for the valet to bring my car (Along with five hundred other people, so it was a long wait) when a roar went up from the crowd and everyone started pointing at a building across the street. About seven stories up (i think) there was this couple having sex up against the big wall size glass window facing the house of blues (It reminded me of the shower scene from "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble" from "Kentucky Fried Movie"..if you've seen it, you know which I'm speaking of). Eventually (after about five or six minutes) they realized that a crowd of hundreds was watching (and applauding) their performance, and they backed off the window and closed the curtains. THAT was funny. Hollywood is a wacky place.