Pachebel's gonna fuck you up

[vovat]

I begin this post with another anecdote from Family Radio. Some guy who called in said he had read the Bible a few times, but didn't really understand it. Later, he got brain damage, and started enjoying Family Radio, and understanding the Bible exactly. I'll let this speak for itself, and go on to the main point of the message, the They Might Be Giants show that bethje and I saw at the TLA in Philadelphia.


We got to the TLA about half an hour before the show started, which meant we didn't get a really good spot, but we didn't get a really terrible spot, either. We were pretty much in the middle of the floor. It was certainly a better view at the Prospect Park show, albeit not as comfortable, since we had to stand up the whole time (which is typical for TMBG concerts). The opener was Corn Mo. This was the third time we had seen him, and he played mostly the same songs as the other two times. I still enjoyed them, though, and the fact that I still liked them after the initial weirdness value had worn off is a good sign. He did do one song that he hadn't before, something about Hershey's Miniatures. It was dedicated to therealtdk, who was attending his 101st TMBG show. I actually can't remember exactly how many shows I've attended. Somewhere more than ten and less than twenty. Maybe in the neighborhood of fifteen, but maybe not. I could probably work it out, but I'm not sure why I'd bother, since I doubt I'll ever see 101 shows and have Corn Mo dedicate a song to me. I've been to enough TMBG shows to start getting irritated at some of the songs they play constantly despite the fact they're not that good, but I'm nowhere close to the "I go to every show, and consider it a badge of honor!" or "I'm totally sick of TMBG, yet I still go to concerts for some reason" categories. Anyway, Corn Mo was chattier at this show than he was at Celebrate Brooklyn, telling his usual amusing stories, including one about accidentally leaving his friend at a rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, because the friend hadn't told anyone he was going to use the bathroom. In his speech during his cover of "We Are The Champions," he included a bit on how, when he was playing the accordion with the circus, he would play Game Boy on the bus, because that was part of his job; and how he would look at the girls changing before the show, and he would pretend he wasn't looking, but he really WAS looking, because THAT was part of his job. Very entertaining stuff.

After Corn Mo, we waited a long, long time for the roadies to set up the stage for TMBG. The thing is, this made no sense. All Corn Mo had was an accordion and a cymbal pedal. They could easily have set up TMBG's stuff before doors, and have Corn Mo play in front of it. Of course, the venue probably would have made them wait between sets anyway. Why, I really don't know. I think just about anyone would prefer it if they kept things moving. Does anyone know why they don't?

I haven't seen a setlist posted for the show yet. Usually there's a setlist posted to the newsgroup by the time I get back from the concert. I'm not sure what's keeping the obsessive types from posting one this time. Maybe they all immediately went up to New York for tonight's show. So this review isn't going to be in order right now, and a few songs might be missing, but if anyone DOES post a setlist, I'll edit it accordingly.

What they played included:

Experimental Film
New York City--I actually preferred them doing this one early in the set. I'm kind of tired of hearing it live, but if they HAVE to do it, getting it over with early on is a good idea. Bands often seem to save their "we play this every single time" songs for the encore, and I'd kind of rather have them end with something a little more unusual, to end on a high note. Maybe that's just because I'm a hardcore TMBG fan, though; my opinion might be different with a band where I don't know a lot of the songs. And this show really DID end with a song they don't play all the time, as you'll soon see. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. Stay out of my booze!
Meet James Ensor--I've heard them play this one at four different concerts, at least, yet I never expect it. I guess that's good, really.
TLA venue song--Pretty much every show this tour has included a song tailor-made for the venue, and this show was no exception. The TLA song was an eighties-style thing, with John Flansburgh repeating, "How do you spell TLA?" and John Linnell singing the verses. I couldn't make out most of the lyrics to the verses, but the song as a whole was great. By the way, the Johns said that the venue songs don't really have titles. I would suppose it's reasonable to simply refer to them by the names of the venues themselves, though.
Ana Ng--Flans brought back the chorus of the TLA song for the bridge.
Spine
Memo To Human Resources
Doctor Worm--With the confetti cannon
The Famous Polka--This is always a good live song, but I do wish they'd sing the lyrics occasionally.
Drink!
Letterbox--I forgot about this when trying to remember what the band had played. I'm not sure why, since it's a really cool song. I used to think of it as sort of the introduction to "Whistling In The Dark," an early favorite of mine among the Flood songs, but I later came to appreciate it on its own strong merits.
Thunderbird--The first time I've heard this one live, since I missed the shows where they were first playing it back in 1999 or so, and they've just recently brought it back.
Particle Man--Corn Mo joined in to play a second accordion part on this one. He apparently has been doing this at most of the shows on this tour, but he didn't at Celebrate Brooklyn, even though he was there. I have no idea why. They played the Dallas theme song to introduce him, which I found pretty amusing. He and Linnell did a LONG accordion solo. While Linnell was obviously the leader, Corn Mo looked like he was doing more actual playing.
Damn Good Times
James K. Polk
Bastard Wants To Hit Me--The Johns made up an elaborate story about how the saxophone sample was actually been played just off-stage by Tina Turner's hideously deformed sax player.
She's An Angel
Older
Birdhouse In Your Soul
Alphabet Of Nations--The first time I'd heard this. Pretty simple concept, but still a good song, with "West Xylophone" cleverly used for W and X.
Clap Your Hands
No One Knows My Plan--Flans said they usually had a dance contest during this song, but since the place was so crowded, they would have a spelling bee instead.
Boss Of Me--I hadn't heard this one in a while. Of course, I haven't watched Malcolm in the Middle in a while, either, but I think the last time I did, they might have only used the "life is unfair" clip. Anyway, this was only the thirty second version, rather than the full three-minute one.
Twisting
Robot Parade--This started out with just the Johns, and then brought in the band. Flans included his "Give me an R! Give me another R! Give me another R! What's that spell?" bit, which was the third spelling joke in the show. Kind of a running gag, I suppose, but perhaps not intentionally so.
Fingertips--Flans did the Optimus Prime bit during the "I'm having a heart attack" Fingertip.
Violin--Featuring The Wave, and Nathan searching for his umbrella that had fallen on the floor, and which he had brought because he THOUGHT it was supposed to rain, but it really didn't.
The End Of The Tour--The second time I'd heard this one live. A good way to end the show, for obvious reasons, but also just a really good song overall.

Overall, a really fun show. Even the songs I'd heard numerous times before were pretty fun. I'm not sure whether that was just my mood at the time or what. It did help that they didn't play any of the overplayed and obnoxiously drawn-out songs, like "She's Actual Size" or "Istanbul." (Okay, they did do the really long accordion solo in "Particle Man," but that was the first time I'd heard it, and most things like that are pretty good the first time.) Oh, and by the way, they said they'd be coming back sometime next year. I don't know whether that meant "back to Philadelphia" or just "back on the road," but I hope it puts the fears of the "TMBG must be breaking up for good!" doom-and-gloom prophets to rest. They're just taking a well-deserved break.

After the show, Beth and I split the cost of Corn Mo's CD, The Magic Is You, and got him to autograph it, which was pretty cool. They were selling the Future Soundtrack for America for $20, when it was only $12 at Borders. I wasn't planning on buying it at the show anyway, but I think the higher prices is kind of weird, considering that: 1) you'd think it would be more expensive at a retail outlet, and 2) it seems like something where all the proceeds are supposedly going to charity would cost about the same amount everywhere. Oh, well.


Outside the venue, we met onib and floatyfish in person, which was cool. They were nice people. After talking to them for a while, we went back to Beth's house and watched the presidential debates, which she had taped. I have a few things to say about them, but I think I'll save them for another post. Expect that in the near future. Also expect some comments on the two new Fuzzy Warbles discs, which I got today.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

My guess as to the Higher Price of FSoA: A lot of venues also get a percentage of the merch sales. So, that's why prices for things are usually a bit higher than if you just bought the same things online. So, my guess is that with FSoA, they had the 12-16 buck List Price (with all the stuff figured out for What Dollar Amount Goes To Charity), and since the Venue was all "WE GETS US SOMMA DAT!!!" they had to crank it up so they wouldn't actually lose money on the deal. Which is pretty lame, but hey.

[listenesmerelda.livejournal.com]

i freaking love corn mo.

[onib.livejournal.com]

I think the extra long breaks between sets are to give the audience time to get bored and go buy more beer. There was a secondary bar upstairs that was packed throughout the break.

Thanks for reminding me about the "Pachebel's gonna fuck you up" part of the show. That cracked me up.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

You're probably right about the venue wanting people to buy drinks during the break. It's still really annoying, though. I can't recall at the moment whether venues I've been to that didn't sell alcohol tended to have shorter breaks between acts.

After Flans said the Pachebel line, I pretty much immediately decided that would be title of my concert review entry. I also briefly considered using "How do you spell TLA?" as either the title or the cut-text, but I decided one inside joke from the show was enough.

[therealtdk.livejournal.com]

I would help you out with the setlist order, but Iggy gave up his before I could get back to the light board.

I asked Corn Mo if he would play my favorite song from his first album, I Hope You Win!, and bribed him with a bag of the candy that the song is about. It worked, but I had no idea that he would introduce the song by talking about me for five minutes.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I get the idea that Corn Mo would take the opportunity to talk about just about ANYTHING for five minutes. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you.