All the Concerts Fit to Print

They Might Be Giants is on tour for the 30th anniversary of their hit album Flood.

Their first set was all Flood. All but two songs, plus a bonus - "Sapphire Bullets" backwards. One of the two they skipped in the first set was "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", so we spent the rest of the show wondering when it would appear.

The band was the two Johns, Linnell (vocals, keyboards, accordion) and Flansburg (vocals, guitar), the band was Marty Beller (drums), Danny Weinkauf (bass) and Dan Miller (guitar). I'm only guessing, because they always said their names really fast at the show, and these are the names listed on Wikipedia as being in the band. But that article doesn't list the horn player. I can't find any of these names on the band's website or their Facebook page. OK, Google answered the question - Curt Ramm on trumpet and other brass. He's been touring with them since 2007.

So yeah, it was fun. They're a fun band. I mean, they're comedians. Their songs are funny. But their music is... quirky. OK, that term doesn't mean much, but their musical styles are all over the map. I don't even know... you'll just have to play a bunch. But it was strange how far out of touch I felt. I hardly recognized some of the songs from Flood. I'm not sure how much of this was due to them changing the styles of the songs, and how much was just that I haven't heard them in so long. And there were the non-Flood songs. I knew I wouldn't recognize many more songs. The problem with songs you don't know is that the sound isn't good enough that you can understand the lyrics, and that's half the fun.

And then they finally played Istanbul to start off the encores. Actually, the guitarist came out to solo with an acoustic. He sounded really great. Lots of fancy finger-style that quickly morphed into a takeoff of Istanbul, and after a while, led directly into the song.

( setlist )

After seeing TMBG the other night (2020), I realized their show at Gen Con wasn't in this log. I had been going to the Gen Con gaming convention for over a decade. They changed their format a little bit, and started having a party, and got bands in. I thought this was when the convention changed ownership, but when I did some research to find out when this happened, I found the TMBG show was the year before that happened.

They had the street blocked off and a big stage set up. The band was They Might Be Giants. I don't really remember the show, except that I was pretty sure they played "Why Does the Sun Shine?" and "James K. Polk" (nerd songs). I'm not certain of the date. I assume it was on the Saturday of the con, and I think it was always in the middle of August. Setlist.fm says they were CT on Thursday the 15th, and in DC on the 16th, so I'll say it was the 17th.. I remember thinking this nerd band was a very appropriate band for the convention.

Wikipedia tells me that this would have been shortly before Factory Showroom, but the setlists of the time show a lot of songs from that album. I assume they were warming up for their big tour. The band would have been Graham Maby on bass and Brian Doherty on drums.

( Setlist )