Above: John Flansburgh directs traffic. Photos by friend of the blog Todd Zimmer.
Some music scenes are borderline cults, a refuge for people who want to express behavior and emotions that might get a person ridiculed or ostracized in the bigger world. The crowd at the Beaumont Club on Friday didn't necessarily constitute a cult, unless you think there's something aberrant about adults who act as uninhibited as 5-year-olds watching cartoons on Saturday morning.
They Might Be Giants are in town for Jiggle Jam, the two-day family-music festival at Crown Center (that starts Saturday). In the world of children's music, the have stature like U2 or the Jonas Brothers. In the world of child-like alternative pop music for adults, they have a reputation and following like no one.
On their night off, they put on a show with adults in mind. Sort of. About 600 fans showed up Friday to see/hear the band play, from start to finish, its beloved "Flood" album, which clocks in a few hairs more than 45 minutes. Tickets were $28, and after crunching those numbers, the band realized more than "Flood" was required to justify the price of admission. So they bookended the album with a set of songs pulled from the rest of their catalog.
TMBG is a novelty act with a large IQ and a brilliant sense of pop melody. They use their smarts wisely, showing it off in numbers like "Meet James Ensor," a tribute to the Belgian painter; or "Alphabet of Nations," in which they sing-song their way through the alphabet by reeling off the names of countries ("... Egypt, France, Gambia ..."); and in "The Sun Is A Miasma of Incandescent Plasma," the scientifically corrected re-make of "... Incandescent Gas," which followed a consult with a scientist (or so the story goes).
A band that gives a big crowd a big dose of tongue-in-cheek needs a good frontman, and John Flansburgh is a very good one. He could probably do stand-up if he wanted. Actually, he does plenty with his band. He plays well off his co-founder, John Linnell, without resorting to fake ridicule or too many inside jokes. The comic relief is vital; it assures everyone that the act is all fun and escape.
When they finally struck "The Theme From Flood," the crowd erupted like kids do when the pinata hemorrhages candy. As a concept, the full-album re-creation seems more appealing than it turns out to be. When a band is going through a record faithfully, you can't fast-forward through the weaker songs. Or repeat the good ones.
But most of this crowd stayed with the band through it all, especially the one-two-three punch of "Birdhouse In Your Soul," "Lucky Ball & Chain" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)." On that one, Kansas City native Stephen Molloy played some brilliant trumpet -- just one of several moments when the musicianship transcended all the shtick and gimmickry.
After they'd finished "Flood," they delivered a big encore that included more of their trademark theme-songs/fight songs and prompted more joyous crowd participation. Things got particularly geeky-fun during "Seven Days of The Week (I Never Go To Work)," when the crowd rejoiced: "... on Thursdays, it's a holiday!" And during "Clap Your Hands," nearly everyone in the place obeyed the lyrics.
They finished with "The Guitar," which includes some borrowing/sampling of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." That one ended two hours after the show began, and even then most of the faithful were still present, living up to the lyrics in the "Flood" anthem "Whistling in the Dark": " ... you can only do what you know how to do well / And that's be you / Be what you're like / Be yourself ..."
| Timothy Finn, The Star
Setlist: Damn Good Times; Asbury Park (Stone Pony); West Virginia; Meet James Ensor; Dr. Worm; Alphabet of Nations; Unsupervised, I Hit My Head; Why Does The Sun Shine (The Sun Is A Mass of Incandscent Gas)?; The Sun Is A Miasma of Icandescent Plasma. The "Flood" album. Encore: Drink!, Seven Days of The Week, The Mesopotamians, Clap Your Hands, The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight).
Was a great concert!
Posted by: tmbg fan | May 25, 2009 at 01:34 PM
Calling them a novelty act is a little harsh.
Posted by: Gart | May 25, 2009 at 04:12 PM
"nov·el·ty (nvl-t)
n. pl. nov·el·ties
1. The quality of being novel; newness.
2. Something new and unusual; an innovation."
Yep. that fits.
Posted by: Tim Finn | May 25, 2009 at 08:29 PM
nov⋅el⋅ty [nov-uhl-tee]
3. An article of trade whose value is chiefly decorative, comic, or the like and whose appeal is often transitory: a store catering to tourists who loaded up with souvenir pennants and other novelties.
That, though, does not fit.
I loved the concert - The Giants can always be counted on for a great show. I was a little surprised they played songs from Flansburgh's solo project Mono Puff (I Hit My Head) and Linnell's solo project State Songs (West Virginia). That was the 8th time I've seen them but the first time they've done that.
Posted by: sleepy | May 26, 2009 at 01:00 PM
that's the third definition, not the one i'd choose, though you could argue songs like "Alphabet of Nations" are nicknacks and curios.
Posted by: Tim Finn | May 26, 2009 at 04:43 PM