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TMBG Setlist
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The “Big Show” from the They Might Be Giants “Big Tour”, kicked off their Minnesota residency show last night at First Avenue. The band promised, “8 piece band. 3 horns. 2 sets. 0 openers. Starts early. Gets loud.”
As per tradition, and possibly legally obligated to play “First Avenue Stage” to start off the show.
After the intro song, John Linnell explained that for this first night, the band will be playing songs from Apollo 18… “the songs you don’t like” he adds. This was incredible news, because we didn’t know what we were going to get (for example Saturday’s show will be focused on John Henry).
The Apollo 18 set is just perfect, a wonderful follow-up to the much-delayed “Flood Show” in Oct 2022.
Due to the massive success of “a brand new album for 1990” Flood, Elektra wanted Elvis Costello to produce their next album Apollo 18… but John Linnell and John Flansburgh wanted to produce the record themselves. Who knows how Apollo 18 might have sounded if Costello had taken over the production. Still, Apollo 18 is a good release, containing some fan-favorites like “I Palindrome I”, “The Statue Got Me High”, and “Mammal” (I’ve always had a problem with this song because Koala Bears are marsupial).
Unfortunately, they didn’t play all the songs, like “See the Constellation” (just a guy made of dots and lines!), “She's Actual Size” (but she seems much bigger than me!), and “My Evil Twin” (he’s even got a twin like me!). I would’ve love a more complete Apollo 18 set, but I’ll take what I can get.
The most amazing song on the set is “Fingertips”. A little history about this song, it’s basically excerpts from 21 “Dial a Song” songs and demos. Each “Fingertips” song is no longer than 30 seconds (most hovering around 15 seconds). The concept is that you put shuffle on your CD player and these Fingertips song would be brief intermission songs between regular songs. Unfortunately, due to mastering problems for the UK and Australia, they got these 21 songs as one track… which is exactly how TMBG played the song live. It’s quite funny, because you would think because the song structures and instruments and different keys, that they couldn’t do it live… yet somehow, they managed to pull it off. Everyone was singing along; it was just wonderful and funny at the same time.
They ended their first set with “The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)”, a song that I’ve never been fond of… however, when you hear it live, complete with a full horns section, they really changed it for the better and it was a great closer for the first set.
The second set was a little looser, with Destiny’s Child’s wonderful cover “Bills, Bills, Bills” played early on. The crowd’s favorite was “Particle Man” (ending with a weird “Triangle Man to the planet Venus” lyrics, a reference to Zombie Zombie’s “Rocket Number 9”), and singalong favorites The Four Lads’ “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”.
The double encore featured “Damn Good Times” and their biggest hit song “Birdhouse in Your Soul”, and finally “Doctor Worm.”
Stay tuned for a report of their Saturday show.
Remaining tour Dates:
June 15 Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
June 16 St Paul, MN @ The Fitzgerald Theater
June 18 Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theater
June 19 Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theater
June 21 Milwaukee, WI @ The Pabst
June 22 Milwaukee, WI @ The Pabst
June 23 Madison, WI @ The Barrymore Theatre
As per tradition, and possibly legally obligated to play “First Avenue Stage” to start off the show.
After the intro song, John Linnell explained that for this first night, the band will be playing songs from Apollo 18… “the songs you don’t like” he adds. This was incredible news, because we didn’t know what we were going to get (for example Saturday’s show will be focused on John Henry).
The Apollo 18 set is just perfect, a wonderful follow-up to the much-delayed “Flood Show” in Oct 2022.
Due to the massive success of “a brand new album for 1990” Flood, Elektra wanted Elvis Costello to produce their next album Apollo 18… but John Linnell and John Flansburgh wanted to produce the record themselves. Who knows how Apollo 18 might have sounded if Costello had taken over the production. Still, Apollo 18 is a good release, containing some fan-favorites like “I Palindrome I”, “The Statue Got Me High”, and “Mammal” (I’ve always had a problem with this song because Koala Bears are marsupial).
Unfortunately, they didn’t play all the songs, like “See the Constellation” (just a guy made of dots and lines!), “She's Actual Size” (but she seems much bigger than me!), and “My Evil Twin” (he’s even got a twin like me!). I would’ve love a more complete Apollo 18 set, but I’ll take what I can get.
The most amazing song on the set is “Fingertips”. A little history about this song, it’s basically excerpts from 21 “Dial a Song” songs and demos. Each “Fingertips” song is no longer than 30 seconds (most hovering around 15 seconds). The concept is that you put shuffle on your CD player and these Fingertips song would be brief intermission songs between regular songs. Unfortunately, due to mastering problems for the UK and Australia, they got these 21 songs as one track… which is exactly how TMBG played the song live. It’s quite funny, because you would think because the song structures and instruments and different keys, that they couldn’t do it live… yet somehow, they managed to pull it off. Everyone was singing along; it was just wonderful and funny at the same time.
They ended their first set with “The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)”, a song that I’ve never been fond of… however, when you hear it live, complete with a full horns section, they really changed it for the better and it was a great closer for the first set.
The second set was a little looser, with Destiny’s Child’s wonderful cover “Bills, Bills, Bills” played early on. The crowd’s favorite was “Particle Man” (ending with a weird “Triangle Man to the planet Venus” lyrics, a reference to Zombie Zombie’s “Rocket Number 9”), and singalong favorites The Four Lads’ “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”.
The double encore featured “Damn Good Times” and their biggest hit song “Birdhouse in Your Soul”, and finally “Doctor Worm.”
Stay tuned for a report of their Saturday show.
Remaining tour Dates:
1 / 6
They Might Be Giants at First Avenue (14 Jun 2024)
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