Shows/2001-05-05

Fan Recaps and Comments:

Review by John:
This was my first ever TMBG concert, and it was all I could have imagined. First, I have to give credit to the openers: SR-71 and Muckafurgason. SR-71 was solid and entertaining. At one point, the drummer played a simple rock beat, and the lead singer/guitarist played several different classic rock songs (Judas Priest, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc). Muckafurgason was absolutely hilarious, opening their segment with "You Ain't A Man (Until You've Had A Man)", and thanking SR-71 for "opening the show for them." After a long wait, TMBG finally came out on stage, and everyone went crazy.

After the first three songs were finished, Flans commented that they hadn't even noticed while making the setlist that those songs all had a Dan Miller guitar solo in the middle. Flans and Linnell joked about how you can't think about that beforehand, only find out afterwards and feel badly. Before playing Particle Man, Linnell introduced it by saying "This song has had accordion solos, guitar solos, drum solos... I guess if you don't like any of those, you'll hate this song." (The crowd loved it.) Flans got the crowd moving with the conga line intro ("Shy people conga... high people conga..."), and then everyone kept dancing wildly for No One Knows My Plan. Spy was great; during the freeform solo at the end, Flans stopped the band, everyone became dead silent, and he started singing Kumbaya to huge laughter. Dan Hickey came forward (after a cool version of Mr. Tambourine Man) to play the glockenspiel in Shoehorn With Teeth; Hickey received the usual cheers after each note. Someone in the crowd requested Purple Toupee, and Linnell said they couldn't do songs by request because of the computerized nature of the electric lights. Flans added that it would throw off all the jokes and skits they had planned, and that it would ruin the costume system. After all this, they went on and played... Purple Toupee.

Once Older was finished, the rest of the show was just classic after classic. Dan Miller switched from guitar to keyboard to play the melody line in the chorus of Doctor Worm while Linnell played accordion. In WDTSS?, Linnell and Flans went on for a few minutes about different kinds of "equipment" that is a gas on the sun. ("Sewing equipment, construction equipment... spools, spindles..." "What about those things that make yarn?" "That's a spindle." "Oh... right." "And ALL of this is a gas on the sun.") The crowd screamed for TMBG to return after NYC was finished; they did, and played Istanbul. Dan Miller played electric guitar for his solo, and would cut out at the end of a musical phrase for Flans to hit something on the drumset. Istanbul was a great encore.

After the show, Flans went over to the T-Shirt stand. He signed my newly-bought TMBG Lincoln shirt, and I got a picture with him. I was walking away from him when I saw Dan Hickey. I got a picture taken with him, and spoke with him for a while. I went over to the crowd behind the stage, and got my new TMBG hat signed by Linnell. I was waiting for a picture with him, and Dan Miller walked by, so I got a picture with him. Linnell had to leave, but I got a picture with him as well as he walked away.