Shows/2008-03-05

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10 wikians attended: Breadhair Entropy Inunaota4a JoeXmaspunk Mistercpf Over and overture Recycleonly Simnacher Stillonit West Xylophone

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Setlist:

Encore #1

Encore 2

They Might Be Giants
— with Oppenheimer opening —
Stubb's in Austin, TX
March 5, 2008 at 7:00 PM


Fan Recaps and Comments:

"The following song was written by a monkey." (preceding It's Not My Birthday)

Inunaota4a:

This was my first TMBG concert and I have to say, it was really great. I am going to be as detailed as possible in describing the show. Me and my friend left San Antonio at about 5:00 (I wanted to leave earlier, but that is another story that I won't tell here.) We arrived at Stubb's at about 6:30. I was kind of angry that we had to go all the way around to the other side of the building at wait at the end of the line, but when they actually opened the doors we were somewhere in the middle. Despite this, we ended up being somewhere about three rows of people back from the front of the stage. I brought my crappy cassette recorder, and me digital camera so I could transcribe the setlist here. My friend saved my spot and I went to the merch area and bought two shirts, the Venue Songs CD/DVD, and a copy of The Else on vinyl pre-signed by Flansburgh, Linnell, and Dan Miller. I also got a giant green foam #1 finger free. I got back to where my friend was and we talked with these two hot girls until Oppenheimer went on stage.
I had never heard them before, but they were pretty awesome. The bald guy sang, played the drums, some weird green flute thing with buttons on it, and the airhorn which I thought was pretty strange. The other guy played the guitar, keyboard, and sang with a weird robotic voice. They played about 5 or 6 songs (I don't remember)
Then the main act THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS!!! They started off with the Austin song from Venue Songs, but the lyrics were different. One of them went along the lines of "I got barbeque sauce on my digits." instead of "Driving a wedge in my mind." I don't remember the rest, but if anybody has a recording that isn't crappy or remember the lyrics this could have a seperate page as an alternante version.
Then They played The Cap'm.
Then They played The Shadow Government.
(I am not going to put the speaking parts in quotations because they are not 100 percent acurate, because my cassette recorder is crappy) JF: Good evening everybody. We are They Might Be Giants. Thank you so much for coming out to the show. Not just for the free food, but for the actual show, ladies and gentlemen. We're glad to be here. Are you people enjoying this 70 degree weather that we have? It's pretty fucking awesome. We've done some outdoor shows recently that make us think, "Not a good idea", but I guess you guys have it perfected down here.
Then They played Doctor Worm, which Flansburgh claimed is their favorite song to play.
Then They played Cyclops Rock. It wasn't the album version, but rather the demo version.
Then They played Withered hope with a cool disco ball light effect.
JF: We're finally easing into the show now. JL: That is good coffee. Delicious, delicious coffee. JF: They're making it with caramel sauce now. JF: So John How was your day? JL: It was crazy. JF: Time for the vibe report. Did you ride your bike around? JL: I did ride my bike around. I noticed they're building gigantic crazy buildings where none were before. JF: Yeah, they're doing that in New York, but it's bad. JL: It's kind of a stone dumper. JF: John, not the dumper. JL: Sorry, I meant to say the toilet. So, God bless everybod is all i gotta say. God bless the developers. They all love their mothers. They're beautiful people. JF: God bless Live Nation, and that is the vibe report. JL: A carefully rehearsed skit. JF: So, I just received an e-mail and got this shocking news regarding They Might Be Giants actual perfessional career, which I do not keep very close track of, because it would just be too strange. Evidently on Amazon right now, on the kids chart, which is purely the domain of Kidz Bop and Hannah Montana. This is not a world that we invented, or ever dreamed of, but it is a real world. It's a differen kind of world, and right now on that Amazon chart, They Might Be Giants have the number one and number two spot. (screaming, something about a culture war) It doesn't have to be this way. Let's get our kids home safe, free from all the other stuff. I don't think our kids have enought protection. I don't think they have enough armaments. We need heavier cars. Heavier minivans. JL: Heavier phones. Hope is not just a city in China.
Then They played Apartment Four.
Then They played the short version of Boss Of Me, which John Linnell claimed is the shortest of all their songs.
Then They played Birdhouse in Your Soul.
Then They played Take Out The Trash. Flansburgh introduced Danny Weinkauf and his fuzz bass claiming that Danny Weinkauf practices all day for this moment.
Then They played Ana Ng.
Then They played Damn Good Times. Flansburgh claims that it was written about Austin.
JF: Ladies and gentlemen we have a brand new album out, but this song is not on it. This song is off our previous brand new album, still available if there are cd stores still in business. This song is off the fine, fine album The Spine, and it's called Memo To Human Resources.
Then They played The Mesopotamians.
Somewhere between this and New York city a very drunk man stumbled through the audience and started rubbing against people and trying to talk to them. At one point i'm sure I saw Flansburgh look at him. Hi was a fan because he couldn't get in without a ticket and he sang along to some songs, but he kind of ruined it for me. At one point I saw Their tour manager Brendan Hoffman standing over to the side looking in the direction of the drunk man. A few minutes later Brendan was gone and so was the drunk man. I like to think Brendan took care of him.
JF: Now is the enforced time for chatting. We've reached the crucial halfway point in the show. (something...) We could always go backwards (weird backwards talk with echoey effect) JL: We have a plan. JF: We should figure out a way to slow down the songs so it actually stops before we get to the end. We do have a brand new album out and by brand new i mean it came out last year, because no one told us about this whole 2008 thing till a couple of days ago. So, check it out, it is available on vinyl. (At that point I decided to hold up my copy of The Else that I bought earlier) JF: Oh, hold it up so people can see. Not only did this town vote for Obama at a rate of 200 percent, there are more record and 8 track machines still in use in Austin, than any other city in the United States. That is just a guess. JL: We don't know what the wax cylinder consumption is like. We're guessing it's off the hook. JF: It is off the chain, John. JL: Off the reservation. JF: So there are vinyl copies available, there's like 20 of them. If one person buys them, that would really work out on eBay for you guys. I can guarantee it, it is a rarity. They are signed at the t-shirt stand. Where is the t-shirt stand? The grassy knoll replication. JL: Are you guys at the same show over there? JF: Hey everybody. How's it going? The PA working for you? Is it loud enough? Have the people in the condominiums shut the show down yet? We've got mix cds and the regular stuff, but there are vinyl copies. It's actually a gatefold sleeve. It's really quite deluxe. This next song is track one on that vinyl release. Open up the gatefold so the people can see the letters. (My friend who was holding the record for me help it open and turned it toward the crowd.) The lyrics are are actually in like ten point font. It's like reading a book. It's so cool. You can see the lyrics from here. What happened? What were we thinking? JL: Can you keep holding it up for the rest of the show. JF: This Song is called I'm Impressed.
JF(With echoey voice) Dan, get to the keyboard. Then They played Alphabet Of Nations.
JF: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special friend tonight on the drums, Mr. Frank Vilardi, the international player. We are proud to report that our regular drummer Marty Beller is now the proud father of a second child. They Might Be Giants Beller is the name of the child. This next song is on our first album.
Then They played Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head.
Then They played Particle Man.
JF: I think the ratio of civilian to professional hand clappers has never been quite so high. Here's a song thst i'm not even going to say the name of it, because I'm not sure which one it is. Are you guys ready, because I am not ready. JL: We're practicing for our presidential speeches. I'm not ready and I don't know where the phone is. JF: I'm completely unprepared. Ladies and gentleman, we know you have your choice of rock bands, and we want to thank you for coming to the They Might Be Giants show.
Then They played Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal.
Then They played Older. During the time is marching on part Linnell usually pauses after the second time between the time and the still marching on. Apparently a lot of people didn't know or forgot this and sang along during the pause. Also Flansburgh came on stage with a large bass drum strapped to his shoulders. He looked like he was about to do something but didn't. He put the drum away not actually doing anything with it. It was weird.
Flansburgh then had the two spotlight guys shine the lights on each other. JF: Incinerate your retinal walls Suddenly the hair on your face bursts into flames. Can you feel it fellas. AAAAHHH!!! We have one more song and it is the ultimate spotlight. It's called Why Does The Sun Shine? During the sun is hot part Flansburgh said The heat and light from the sun come from the nuclear reaction between estrogen, estrogen, estrogen, and more estrogen. I believe he also said that the sun is 96 million miles away instead of 93 million.
The audience cheered for an encore and they came back and played How Can I Sing Like A Girl?
Then they introduced the band. Then They played Istanbul (Not Constantinople)with Dan Miller's AWESOME 3 minute acoustic guitar intro.
Of course the audience cheered for another encore. JL: Thanks so much, you guys are really great. Ladies and gentleman it has come to the point in the show where we only have songs about monkeys left to perform. Ladies and gentleman we would prefer it if we could rock you all night long, but it is not our choice. There is a curfew here. (audience boos) No, don't boo us. Vandalize the people in the nice apartments. And then they did, and the band never got to come back. I was just kidding about the vandalizing part, i just mean steal. We want to remind you that Oppenheimer is now accepting your friends credit cards, at the credit card stand. T-shirts are for sale, cds are for sale. Change the lives of two guys from Ireland. This next song features the dual keyboard attack. Then They played One Dozen Monkeys. Flansburgh changed the lyrics to include his age. JL: This is the clappingest audience we've ever had.
JF: This last song was written by a monkey. Then They played It's Not My Birthday.
After the show I was able to shake Brendan Hoffman's metal-studded, tattooed hand. I wanted to catch the Johns before they got into their giant Darth Vader tour bus, but alas, I missed them, but I did get Frank Vilardi to sign my alread signed vinyl copy of The Else, and Dan Miller signed my copy of The Spine Surfs Alone. All in all it was a great show.
I hope you enjoyed my exstensive recap of the show. If I left anything out it was because I didn't feel like puting it in or I couldn't hear it over the screaming. And to the comment above, I listened to my recording twice and they did not play Don't Let's Start.
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