Watch Your Behind in 2009

[vovat]

bethje and I just got back from ringing in the new year with They Might Be Giants at the TLA. We'd previously seen them for New Year's 2006, and attended both shows, which turned out to be almost entirely the same. After that, I resolved (since it WAS New Year's, after all) not to see two of their shows in a row again. They were doing the same deal tonight, and Beth was originally planning to go to both, but decided she needed more time to study. So we only attended the second one, which means we were there for the actual changing of the year. Corn Mo opened at both shows, but he only did three songs at the one we saw, which was a shame. I was honestly somewhat more excited about seeing him than TMBG, since I've seen them over twenty times already. Oh, well. TMBG tonight included a horn section, and dropped balloons from the ceiling and played "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight. There was an argument between the two Johns as to whether there was a leap second, which eventually led to John Flansburgh joking that their next album would have a lot of faux-factual songs about extra seconds. There wasn't too much new in the setlist, and I was disappointed that we only got two songs from The Else ("Withered Hope" and "The Mesopotamians"); have they pretty much given up on that album already? There was also nothing at all from Here Come the 123s, which surprised me, since it IS still their newest album. They did, however, play both "Mr. Me" and "Cowtown," the latter of which had John Linnell and one of the horn players both playing clarinets for the introduction. Also cool was getting to hear "Why Does the Sun Really Shine? (The Sun Is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma)" for the first time. They did play the TLA venue song (AKA "Philadelphia"), both straight and in a remixed version that included solos from most of the band members. The only other Venue Song included in the set was "Asbury Park," which they introduced by mentioning that they'd played shows in that town where it was raining indoors. Beth and I actually attended the show that he was most likely talking about, and being on the inside of one of the band's inside jokes is always fun.

After the show, we wanted to buy a copy of Corn Mo's latest album, but he'd apparently just sold out of the CDs. He did say that we could get a copy by e-mailing him, though. It's available on iTunes, but I'd really rather have the physical CD. Call me old-fashioned in that respect if you must. Going home was pretty uneventful, aside from when we encountered the malfunctioning traffic light at 5th and Market Streets, which didn't even have a cop to direct traffic. And now I'm tired, so I think I'm just going to post this and go lie down for at least a little while. Happy New Year, everyone! And happy birthday to bec_87rb!

Comments

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

I'm jealous of you guys!

Happy New Year!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You, too!

[lokipokey.livejournal.com]

i saw them play 5 or 6 years ago at the stone pony in asbury park. there was a garbage bag hanging from the ceiling near the stage holding back rain water. they joked about it throughout.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was also at that one. (Well, unless there was more than one show where the Stone Pony had a leaky ceiling, which wouldn't be too surprising.)

[bethje.livejournal.com]

We were there!

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

My friend Gary was there last night.

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

well, he just corrected me, he went to the early show.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Does he like Corn Mo?