They Might Be Giants In Brooklyn
They Might Be Giants In Brooklyn
They Might Be Giants performs night one of three in their hometown of Brooklyn for The Bigger Show Tour.
Alternative rock band They Might Be Giants (TMBG) is on their North American tour doing multi-night stands in each city they stop in. These shows are unique as they lack an opening act, but have 2 distinct sets performed by the headliner. Each night, the band spotlights a different album from their discography while also making sure to play their top hits and some songs off their new album as well.
They Might Be Giants was formed in 1982 by vocalist and guitarist John Flansburgh and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist John Linnell. Today, the musicians are each 66 years old and some of the funniest performers I’ve seen. Flansburgh did most of the talking and welcomed the crowd to the evening’s performance by quipping “we know you have a lot of TMBG like bands to choose from” so thank you for being at this show. Flansburgh told the audience that although the duo originates from Brooklyn, they had never been to this venue, Brooklyn Steel. After scanning the room and “checking out the beard to glasses ratio” the musician said he thinks Bohemia is slipping because he’d been expecting a 100% bearded audience tonight and, frankly, was disappointed. Flansburgh explained that “This is the part of the show where we yip yap.” The dialogue between the two Johns was hysterical, mostly because Flansburgh essentially talks at Linnell and doesn’t need much of a response before he continues. Flansburgh made sure to inform the crowd that the two had taken naps before the show and then went on to discuss Timothee Chalamet “stepping in it” recently in the press. He talked about the quality of their sleep last night, and pretty much every other non-concert related topic under the sun. It was fantastic.
Artist 2
The album spotlight of the night was the 1992 record Apollo 18. “We put so much work into Apollo 1-17 and they sank like a stone, finally with 18 it paid off.” After playing “Mammal” Flansburgh revealed “That’s one of the ones we forgot to rehearse.” Just two songs into the set, the performers decided this was the best show of their life. High praise for the die-hard NYC fans! After divulging that tomorrow night they’d be performing songs from Factory Showroom, fans began shouting songs they wanted to hear from all eras of TMBG’s catalog. “We don’t take requests” Flansburgh retorted. “When people out of New York make requests, we say we’re from New York, so we don’t take requests.”
Towards the end of the first set, the band proved that they had memorized an entire song backwards. “It’s like a prison sentence” Flansburgh mocked while recalling the process of learning the sonic feat. The eight piece band went on to play and sing “Stellub” aka “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love” entirely in reverse. There was an intermission and then the second set kicked off with a video of the “Stellub” performance we had seen minutes earlier, but played in reverse to prove that TMBG truly knew the piece sonically backwards. The crowd erupted in amazement.
Closer
I was raised listening to the wonderfully bizarre music of They Might Be Giants. The album Flood was a staple in my parents house, so it brought me such pleasure to be able to bring my mom along with me to this show. Here are some of her notes from the night:
- It was a packed house and everyone in the crowd was smiling and bopping along
- The singers introduced themselves and immediately got down to business
- Great drum solos
- They babbled for a bit very humorously
- Look like a couple of suburban dads
- They sound exactly the same as they did 30 years ago
- Dr. Worm was a standout song
An evening full of horns, accordions, comically large drumsticks and a complimentary comedy routine, night one of They Might Be Giants at Brooklyn Steel was a nostalgic and vibrant experience. The band pulled off a fakeout encore before coming back out for a second and final reappearance to play the legendary “Birdhouse in Your Soul”. You could feel the camaraderie in the room full of strangers who make up They Might Be Giant’s fanbase. 44 years on, the duo is still releasing music. Check out their new album The World Is To Dig.
