Shows/2007-11-23

Fan Recaps and Comments:

Dan Miller (from theymightbegiants.com):

Rare showing of show notes Part 1 -

Howdy,

As the 2007 tour season winds down for TMBG, the 930 club finds the band fit, trim, exhausted and super psyched to play one our favorite clubs in America. The sellout crowd got the see the band and friends at their end of tour best. We were all very excited by this weekend shows and yet a little saddened that this chapter of our lives was coming to and end. DC and Philly represent the end of what has been, in my opinion, the best tour I've ever done. We've spent the last 6 months (more or less) together in cramped quarters (the bus) living off a questionable diet for those of us in the above 30 (pizza), sleeping in non-deal circumstances (a bus that refuses to acknowledge that there are temperatures between 55-75 degrees) and enjoying the weekly bout of the plague that comes from living with 13 people in 300 square feet (again, the bus), yet the tour was a grand event and this show shows us off in fine, well versed form.

The set list is varied, the raps are great and the horns come in a just the right time to save us from ourselves. Adam, our FOH friend, did an excellent job in capturing this show and I think fidelity wise it's one of the best. Highlights for me include Stan Harrison blowing my mind on Spy (editor's note - on the recording, there is a little noise coming from Stan's wireless mic. It only lasts a few seconds, but thought you should know), Marty's excellent "Praise Him!" solo and a not-rare-but-not-common playing of Purple Toupee during the encore.

The show clocks in at darn near 2 hours - who knew we could play so long?

dm

benthorot:

This was my second TMBG show in ten days, and rather than getting Giants overload, I definitely have merely worked myself into an unfixable dependency which will be impossible to sustain.

After Oppenheimer (who again, were very cool), TMBG opened with The Cap'm, then Damn Good Times, then Why Does the Sun Shine, which I believe were the same three songs they opened with in Ann Arbor when I saw them last. I wondered if the whole set was going to be the same.

Flans stopped Damn Good Times after the first verse or so to tell idiots not to mosh. The idiots complied. Later on Linnell sung of a museum for them, which I'm sure made them feel included.

A bunch of choices surprised me: Mr. Me, She's Actual Size, Spy (which they played in Ann Arbor but said that they rarely played), Purple Toupee, and Turn Around.

They did a song from every album but their first, No! and Venue Songs. They played for over two hours, at least a half-hour longer than their Ann Arbor set. They went on a lil' after 11, and didn't finish 'til well after 1! I was very grateful.

Oh and the foam fingers were again thrown from the stage by roadies just before the show. They were red instead of the yellow ones used in Ann Arbor. If the decision not to use red the week of the OSU-Michigan game was a conscious one they deserve credit for that.

During "Maybe I Know" [1]

Tenniru:

This was easily, easily the best show I've ever attended. I'd seen them at the same venue at the opening of the Beardo tour but sadly had to leave during This Damn Band to get the last train home. This time I got to see all of it, and I am so glad I am. After being blown away by Oppenheimer and getting an autographed vinyl, the band came on. Thankfully, only a few of the songs they did at my previous show appeared at this one. I'm glad that it wasn't as "best-of-oldies"-oriented this time, as well;. Forget We're The Replacements, I want Turn Around!

The setlist here was perfect; none of those boring play-'em-every-show standards, and lots of obscure goodies. I will not miss Ana Ng, Robot Parade, Fingertips, and the like.

They didn't play anything from The Pink Album, John Henry, No!, and Venue Songs, though.

The most unexpected, awesome part of the show was during Withered Hope, when out of nowhere the Triceratops Horns showed up and played through most of the show. This meant all the otherwise-rare horn-section songs showed up; Spy, She's Actual Size (sadly minus the Actual Drums), the lot. Probably the most memorable part was Spy/Improvisation/Batman Theme/Improvisation/Whistling In The Dark.

There was a lot more on-stage banter than usual, with Why Does The Sun Shine getting a lot more length while Flansy begged Linnell to play the Future Sounds (KAOSS Pad) more. Damn Good Times also stopped halfway through to deal with what looked like some fighting in the front, and Particle Man had an added verse where the Jaw of Ronald Milhouse Sagen attempted to bite the hypotenuse of Triangle Man and failed.

Istanbul featured both the massive guitar intro and several brass solos; I am fairly certain this was the longest version ever played.

In conclusion? AWESOME, and I can't wait to buy the recording from TMBG.com. (They'd BETTER have recorded it this time.)

UPDATE: They recorded it and it is just as epic as I hoped. Yes, the vocals are strangely panned over the right, but aside from that it sounds like I'm back in the nightclub. Flans doesn't sound quite as good as he did last year (then again, I only compared Damn Good Times; and last year was the loudest, most raucous version of it ever), but still great. Also, I compared Istanbul to other live shows and radio-broadcast recordings I have; this is easily the longest version of the song they've done, with both Dan's killer intro and additional brass solos. Even the tedious "screaming" version from the 1992 tour don't hold a candle to it, even if you count the song it was sometimes in a medley with. The same goes for Spy (even outrunning the "Mister Tambourine Man/To Mind To Mind To Mind" version from December 16 of last year, which is the closest runner-up I know of.)

During "Withered Hope (or Doctor Worm?)" [2]

During "Purple Toupee" [3]

Ticket [4]

Dante:

My third show of this tour, and easily the best of the three! The Tricerachops horns added another dimension to every song they played on, and the band as a whole seemed re-energized and refreshed.

Except for the pushing at the beginning of the show, everyone seemed to be having a (damn) good time. Some people did seem a bit lost during the times the band played songs off The Else, though. But that was more than made up for the insanity during Birdhouse and Particle Man (although I like those songs, I sometimes wish they'd mothball them).

Opening band Oppenheimer was in good spirits, but seemed a bit worn out, especially since they had played two non-tour shows during the mini-break (one near me, I wish I had known!). They seemed happy about the tour, and were looking forward to a week off after returning home. Best of luck to them in their future endeavors!