LOS ANGELES — Once upon a time, They Might Be Giants was oft described as a quirky pop/rock duo. After all, it was just a couple of Brooklyn-based guys named John playing with backing tapes.
Today, the quirkiness remains. But the duo has become a quintet (actually an octet when the horns join them on stage) and has proved, for a while now, to be a really terrific rock band.
Embarking on “The Big Show Tour,” TMBG played at the Orpheum in downtown Los Angeles for the first time in their career, doing so on back to back nights last month in “An Evening With …” fashion — two full sets, no opening band.
Each show featured a group of songs from a particular album, with Friday’s Night 1 including eight tracks from the tragically underrated Mink Car album. This was particularly thrilling for me, as that album’s “Wicked Little Critta” and “Man It’s So Loud In Here” — both performed at Friday’s show — each fully capture the band’s ability to weave together humor, a wicked beat, and a catchy melody. Included in the latter is this gem of a lyric:
“They revamped the airport completely, now it looks just like a nightclub, everyone’s excited and confused.”
They kicked off Saturday’s Night 2 show with “Subliminal,” the bop-to-it opening track from their 1994 album John Henry (from which they also performed eight songs), then John Flansburgh (vocals, guitar) joked that after playing selections from that record, they would be covering Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.”
At one point they asked for the house lights to be turned on, and upon seeing the expansive crowd commented, Holy s—-, there are so many people here,“ which was quickly followed by, “Holy s—-, there are kids here.”
The ridiculous and/or nonsensical humor has been a staple of TMBG shows for years — Flansburgh suggested that at any point, the audience should feel free to “spontaneously stand up right now” — and later thanked They Might Be Giants for opening up the show for them. Flansburgh traditionally has been the more extroverted of the pair, but after 40(!) years of playing and performing together, John Linnell (vocals, accordion, keyboard) has long been nearly as comfortable mixing it up.
“There’s a guy over there dressed like me,” Linnell declared at one point, referring to an audience member. “I’ve never been so paranoid in my life. Because I didn’t choose what I was going to wear until this morning.
“Or maybe I dressed like you. I’m your stalker. Think about that.”
Stage banter aside, the band was just as musically entertaining, if not more so, as the first time I saw them play back in 1992 on their Apollo 18 tour. That tour was their first with a full band rather than just the duo with backing tapes. Fast forward 33 years and they take full advantage of expanded ensemble’s broader sound, especially on fan favorites like “Doctor Worm,” “Damn Good Times,” and “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” In fact, their recent compilation album, Beast of Horns, is comprised of live performances of songs that feature the brass section.
The band also played classics such as “Particle Man,” “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” “Ana Ng” (on Friday), and “Don’t Let’s Start” (on Saturday) — not to mention “The Famous Polka,” a rocking, accordion- and guitar-driving, well, polka, that was the unofficial anthem of the quasi-fake Polka Studs club at my high school an alarmingly long time ago.
The Grammy-winning band also played a tune or two off their “Grammy-losing record, ‘Book’,” argued over whether an upcoming song featured a piccolo trumpet (it did), performed a song with Flansburgh displaying his teeth while singing alarmingly close to a camera, and shared an anecdote regarding an expensive lunch they once had with Disney executives, who shared with the band that “Mickey only has three fingers because he can’t pick up a check.”
I’ve been going to see They Might Be Giants perform for more than 30 years and they, like us, indeed are older than they’ve ever been and now they’re even older. But if they keep playing with this kind of energy, their fans would be more than happy to treat the band to a beverage and pick up the check.
If you’re not familiar with They Might Be Giants, listen to some of their music here.
The Indy Review 