a different kind of music

I wrote earlier about going to a concert where everyone in attendance tried their hardest to remain frozen in place. Well, Friday night I had really the opposite experience.

I dragged a good friend of mine to see They Might Be Giants. Yeah, you remember them from the late 80s/early 90s. They had that big hit Istanbul (Not Constantinople). Or perhaps you remember Birdhouse in Your Soul.

Well, after that they kept producing the same quirky, experimental, fun-loving, sometimes silly, sometimes morose, always unique brand of music. They've also branched out to produce children's music, which I will rely on to teach my future sons and/or daughters the alphabet among other things.

Playlist (not in order):
Upside down frown (The Else)
The Cap'm (The Else)
With the Dark (The Else)
Bee of the Bird of the Moth (The Else)
The Mesopotamians (The Else)
Take out the Trash (The Else)

XTC vs. Adam Ant (Factory Showroom)
Particle Man (Flood)
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Flood)
Doctor Worm (Severe Tire Damage)
Don't Let's Start (eponymous album)
Ant (b-side to Istanbul, on the EP Indestructible Object)
Drink! (Mink Car)
Mammal
E eats Everything
Alphabet of Nations
a lovely cover of Maybe I Know to end the show

Probably more songs that I don't recall at the moment, but nonetheless an impressive amount of older stuff (The Else being the new album they are promoting on this tour) despite the obvious lack of anything from my favorite album, Lincoln. The show also featured a strange "Phone calls from the Dead" skit that included a call from Ernie Boch, Sr., a late, well-known car dealer all over MA.

I've been to 4 of their shows before, years ago, but I'd forgotten how joyful the experience is. The music lends itself to a lot of toe-tapping (from the more subdued audience members), head bobbing (intermediate), or jumping up and down - which some of the more enthusiastic fans were doing all night, in particular one guy standing next to us who was a lot of fun to watch. He was really enjoying the show! It occurred to me actually that this was one of the few shows where you could see males exhibiting so much childish enthusiasm. Maybe it's just the guys I know.

Maybe it's because the band consists primarily of these two guys - whom I and others would claim are the originators of nerd rock - these two goofy guys that embrace the silliness of what they do on stage with the utmost seriousness. TMBG is John Flansburg and John Linnell.

Flansburg is the rowdy one, he plays the guitar - or rather three or four different guitars - he jumps around, he incites audience participation, he pokes fun at the lighting crew's beards (all in good fun), he acts as the MC of the show, introducing members of the backup band with sordid stories of their real or fictionalized past. He's a big guy, has a big presence, and takes up most of the stage during the show.

Linnell, on the other hand, stands behind his keyboard on the corner of the stage (always stage left, audience's right in my experience) - or occasionally steps out front, but shields himself behind his signature accordion, the one that gives TMBG songs a trademark sound - he speaks to the audience sparingly and usually then only to deliver dry jokes the crowd fails to get. He's a smallish, thin guy, made to seem smaller by his shrinking violet demeanor in between songs. But if you watch him, he smirks and smiles and laughs during the songs. He's enjoying it as much as the other guy, just in a much more subdued way.

An interesting note on the fan base of TMBG: people tend to gravitate towards liking one John more than the other - probably because of their different personalities. I should say that though they both sing on many songs, one or the other, whichever wrote said song, takes the lead usually. I spent many years preferring Flansburgh. Lately I'm leaning the other way.