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disinvited-guest · 5 years ago

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3/9/2020 Detroit

The venue staff were much better for this show, primarily because they were able to chill out just a little. I’m not sure if they had gotten a sense of how harmless tmbg fans were from the night before, or if Flans, who had seemed a bit peeved at how uptight they were, gave someone an earful. Either way, they still were a bit strict about some things, but much more relaxed than they had been.

As with the previous night, I was able to hear all of the soundcheck while waiting in line in the bar. They were practicing a bunch of songs I hadn’t yet heard on the tour, all of which they did play during the show. I heard Authenticity Trip, Memo to Human Resources, Number 3, and Man It’s So Loud In Here, and I just got more excited for each and every one. The soundcheck changed to just individuals trying different things out for a while, and then that stopped and they started soundchecking With the Dark.

The rest of the wait was relatively uneventful, and soon we were let inside. To change things up, I found a spot squarely in front of the drum riser. I think the security fence was set slightly closer to the stage than it had been the day before, but the added distance actually worked to my advantage today, as I could see more of the other side of the stage. I always forget how much I enjoy shows from this side of the stage until I actually get there. It’s different from over on the larger side of the stage, but that just makes it another type of wonderful.

Once again, the first set was the same Flood set from the last several nights, so the recap of the first set will be slightly shortened. I have a few general notes before I begin. Fresh was wearing neon doce socks, and once again had his hair in pigtails. This show was the first since Milwaukee where Dan was able to get through the first set without switching to his backup guitar. Marty was absolutely on fire the whole set. There were also a series of cold breezes coming from multiple directions towards the end of the set.

Coming onstage, Linnell was doing his wavy-armed walk to get up to his keyboard. During The Might Be Giants, Flans was apparently having a problem with his guitar, and desperately trying to get the crew’s attention while singing. Eventually, towards the end of the song, he started singing “John Carter look at me” in place of the actual lyrics (the repeated “they might be giants” at the song’s conclusion). It must have worked, because Flans stopped wildly gesturing offstage after that.

After We Want a Rock, Linnell took the task of welcoming us to the show, before Flans made it up to the mic to tell everyone that it was an exciting day for him, “If you came to the show last night, you’ll notice that I just got a haircut.” He called it one of the few perks of staying in the same city for two nights before launching into a detailed account of the event.

Apparently, his barber asked him what he was doing in town, “and, reluctantly, I told her the truth.” He then told us that usually he lies, and that when a cab driver sees his guitar case and asks if he’s in a band he tells them “Yes, I’m in Fountains of Wayne.”

He continued, saying that he has a “whole fanfiction thing going on” to explain why he doesn’t show up in photographs.

“When it turns out the cabbie is a Fountains of Wayne fan who’s like ‘I didn't see you on the album cover’” Linnell interjected.

“Yeah,” Flans agreed. “I’m just covering my tracks for the inevitable Google Search after.”

Getting back to his haircut story, Flans said “I told this woman I was in a band. She did not ask me the name of the band but she did tell me the entire plot of the movie Queen.”

This got a huge laugh from the crowd, but Flans wasn’t done yet telling us his story. The plot of the movie “lasted just about the entire haircut length. Which was great. I’ve gotta see that movie.”

He then moved to to explain the setup of the show, telling us they had put two songs from Flood in the second set “so that the friends that you dragged here will stick around.”

When Flans asked Linnell about his day, Linnell replied promptly “I’ve just been goofing off.” He then told us that every other time they come to Detroit, he checks up on the city, and this time he found a lot more “boutique-y” stores downtown “and we’ve been informed that that is both good and horrible.” He concluded that he was “excited and disgusted” to see how Detroit comes along.

Flans told us that they were “standing in judgement” from 450 miles away. Linnell agreed, but said the crowd was welcome to judge New York as well.“

But only from 450 miles,” Flans told him. “Those are the rules.”

Introducing the next song, Linnell told us it was off the Flood album, and that it was probably the second shortest song on the album.

“No spoilers, John!” Flans interrupted.

“No?” Linnell continued “And here’s another spoiler: it contains unlicensed samples. OOOH!”

“Now I beg you to shut up!”

“You guys ready for this?” Linnell asked, and they launched into Minimum Wage.

I think it was during Particle Man that Danny, backing up towards the drum riser while playing, bumped into it and sat down with a bit of a thump. He stayed sitting there for a few measures before he got up again.

After Hearing Aid, Flans came up to the mic and, without preamble, told us “So, then Queen fired their manager, and they had the opportunity to do Live Aid. Which changed everything for them. Because they rehearsed.”

Moving on to introducing the next song, Flans repeated his preamble from the day before about playing songs backwards, then told us they were embarking into uncharted territory “where the entertainment value is very low,” and that he hoped that our “thresholds of pleasure are set very finely tonight.”

He explained that they weren’t just flipping the chart, but playing what the sound recording backwards would sound like. “So if one was to reverse the live performance in front of you right now-if you could do that-it would reproduce the actual song, incredibly effectively. If you could do that. But you can’t, so we’re just gonna tell you that.”

He concluded “We’re not sure why we’re doing this, but we practiced it, and we’re committed to it, so we’re going to play it.”

He then introduced the members of the band individually. We were asked to scream for Marty, and then for Danny, who Flans pointed out especially to the ladies. He introduced Dan as “on the electric guitar, with his eyes glued to the chart he made himself.” While we cheered for Dan, Danny lifted his bass and pointed the neck of it at Dan as Flans continued “perhaps the finest electric guitarist in They Might Be Giants.”

“This song is called… Well it doesn’t really have a title,” Flans told us, and they started Stilloob. Maybe it was that they were getting more confident with it, but I do believe that this was their best performance yet!

Afterwards, Linnell responded to the crowd’s applause by saying thoughtfully “We should get you guys applaud before we play it, if we’re doing this correctly.”

“That was really the best applause that song has gotten thus far,” Flans decided. “You are really on the vanguard.” He then predicted that in the future, when all songs are backwards, Stilloob will be seen as the ‘Rock Around The Clock’ of the movement. He then imitated a person form the future explaining their musical tastes “I’m not into songs, man. I’m into songs that are played in reverse. I like digital, I like CD’s. I like the sound of CD’s in reverse. It’s got digital harshness, that’s what I like.”

Someone in the crowd shouted something, and Flans answered back that “I want to hear every word you’re saying, but part of me is saying we should resist that.”

Linnell introduced the next song as being the fastest sung in their entire repertoire (Letterbox), and Flans agreed, saying that they had officially entered the “stunt part of the program: stunt songs.”

After Lucky Ball and Chain, Flans admitted he was curious how many people had been to the show the night before. Finding one person who had been he said directly to them “I just want to tell you that the second set is almost completely different. But this part is music under glass. We’re gonna tell the Queen jokes…”

“As you know,” Linnell continued when Flans trailed off, “we’re doing the exact same raps, including what I’m saying right now. As we said last night.”

“I’m getting my hair cut every day,” Flans agreed.

Apparently this reminded Flans of their conversation from the start of the set, because he asked Linnell if he really hadn’t gone to a museum or something that day.

Linnell responded that he really had just goofed off but “A mystical thing happened to me.” He then explained that he had a can of Faygo “my very first can of Faygo.” This got laughs and cheers from the crowd, and Linnell responded “I know. I can feel the clown makeup just starting to grow on my face.”

He tried to continue with his story, but Flans had gone upstage and grabbed a can of Faygo that had been sitting there, which he was now holding up, causing the crowd to start cheering once again. He started to say something about it, but Linnell interrupted him “Let me finish the story, before you start in with your jokes.”

“It’s taking too long, John,” Flans argued, “It’s taking too long.”

Linnell replied “Alright. Let’s just play the next song, forget it. Nevermind. It wasn’t that interesting anyway.” The crowd reacted instantly, demanding the rest of the story, so Linnell finally got his chance to continue. He had set the can of Faygo on a table and fallen asleep, then “I was awoken by the sound of it falling to the floor, but it was still upright. And I thought, ‘I don't’ know what just happened, but there’s something special about this beverage.’”

“Do you think it was the ghost of Insane Clown Posse?” Flans asked, finally free to ‘start in with his jokes’, “Reaching out from before the grave?”

Linnell responded that, from what he knew, ICP wasn’t reluctant to spill Faygo so that didn’t seem likely. Someone in the audience asked him what flavor it was, and he responded that it was Root Beer.

This got some cheers and a lot of shouted responses from the crowd. Flans, trying to get things back on track, seemed slightly annoyed by the shouts, and responded sarcastically “please, talk amongst yourselves for a little while.”

They played Hot Cha, then brought the topic right back to Faygo, with Linnell announcing “Hot Cha, ladies and gentlemen, sponsored by Faygo Root Beer.”

“I always thought that Fayo was like a cocktail put together by the Insane Clown Posse,” Flans admitted, once again holding his can of the stuff. “Then when I saw this I was like ‘Man, they are ripping them off!’ Lawsuit!”

He put the can down and then continued “But I guess it’s just… they really like soda.”

That, apparently, was the wrong thing to say in Detroit. A few people in the crowd cried out “Pop!” “It’s pop!” Other members of the crowd took up the cry, until the room buzzed with it.

Nobody on the stage had any clue what was going on, but realized the crowd was upset. Flans tried to smooth things over, obviously confused “Understand...understand…”

“We are on the outside of this discussion,” Linnell chimed in, coming to his aid. “You guys know what it is…”

Flans, inspired, thought that the anger might be some sort of defense of ICP. “I just want to make it clear,” he said, in a misdirected attempt to smooth things over, “that we are down with the clown.”

This got a laugh from the crowd, and a visibly relieved Flans continued “After that whole FBI thing, I was nervous they didn’t have enough representation.”

That might have been the end of the Beverage Wars, but a few determined people in the crowd started up the “Pop!” cry again, with a few people even beginning to chant it.

Flans, interrupted once again, looked out over the crowd and determined “It seems like fights are breaking out in the audience now, John.”

This stirred up the crowd even more. Flans tried again to calm the crowd while still not sure what they were angry about “Guys, guys, guys…”

He was interrupted by Linnell, who had finally grasped what was going on, “Okay, okay, I get it!” He explained to Flans “They say pop, we say soda. It’s a different language.” As soon as Linnell said the word ‘pop’ emphasizing the final ‘p’ as if it was completely foreign to him, a huge cheer rose from the crowd.

Flans immediately turned this new information into a joking lecture on the cultural differences “We’re from New York City, that means we’re gonna get on stage late. That’s the way it works! People are different, everybody’s got their own thing.” This was all said in an overly-patient voice. “We would change, if we knew how to.”

Linnell, who seemed genuinely amused, chimed in with his thickest Boston accent “But you’ll be cryin’ when we’re havin’ our victory party later on.”

This got laughs from the crowd and Flans cracked a smile, replying in the same voice “At Boston Garden!”

“That’s right!”

“When I put my thumb in my eye.”

Linnell responded with a stadium-organ style scale from his keyboard. There was a beat and both looked a shade embarrassed. Eventually Linnell, recovering, said “Alright, here we go. Another song,” and started them into Women and Men. Linnell switched the words shipwreck and beachhead, singing them in the other’s place.

After Someone Keeps Moving My Chair, Flans stepped up with the picture disk in hand and asked Saul for a “big white spotlight you can throw on me.” He told us he had forgotten to do this yesterday, but was reminded by their new t-shirt person and he promised us that if we bought the picture disk “you could make your money back on ebay right away.”

“We have been asked on social media if it’s true that picture disks don’t sound as good as regular vinyl records,” Flans continued. “And my first thought to write back is like ‘well what do you want it to sound like?’” He admitted that picture disks didn’t sound quite as good but “they have PICTURES on them, which is I think the larger point.” He then introduced the zoetrope on the back, saying they had sweetened the pot with it and promised us “a beautiful visual effect that will remind you of psychedelic drugs.” He concluded by promising that this was “the best sounding zoetrope you will ever see.”

After Whistling In the Dark, Linnell stopped them from moving on because “I just have something to say about that last song.” He told us all that they do a lot of Flood songs slightly different from how they are on the record, and “I was reminded on this song that we completely changed where the big smash sound happens, ‘cause I saw someone in the audience doing it where it happens on the RECORD, and I was like ‘Oh NO! Eugh, no!’”

He then assured us that the live version was the correct one “We did it wrong on the record, and now we’re doing it the right way.”

Flans chimed in with his own observations on the live version of the song, saying that playing familiar songs “at less 4-cup-of-coffee-in-the-studio tempos” gives him “the distinct impression that people just think we’re tired. But there’s no explaining it.” He then did his best impression of the part of the song in question “But it goes ‘Whistling in the dark BOMP, whistling in the dark-”

“It should do that, yeah,” Linnell interrupted.

“It’s a more musical way of doing it, that’s our best explanation” Flans continued.

This reminded Flans of the difference between the album and live versions of another Flood song. Without telling us the title of the song, he explained that they had left out a verse when recording and “didn’t have enough juice, or whatever the term is, to tell the producer people, like ‘we have to redo it.’” Explaining that he sang the missing verse in the live version of the song, he told us that during shows “People will be singing along and then when it gets to that verse, they just stop. ‘Cause nobody knows those words. But we will, uhh-”

Flans had been distracted by a guy in the crowd shouting out the song’s title (Road Movie To Berlin), and responded “No spoilers, man! No spoilers!” The end of this scolding was muffled as Flans lost the battle to keep from cracking up, then moved away from his mic stand for a moment.

Linnell gave him time to recover by promising us “Just bear in mind , we’re older and smarter now than we were then, so this is the right version.”

“You came to the right show, people,” Flans agreed. “We know it’s disorienting when the bass drum is on the opposite beat.”

After Birdhouse, Flans turned Linnell’s accordion mic around to face the crowd. “I just realized the song I was talking about is coming up next,” he told us all. “So I’ve turned the microphone around to you so we can slightly amplify the parts you can sing along to, to which we encourage! And then don’t be afraid of the parts you don’t know. It’s just a little bit different.”

People really took the invitation to sing along to heart, which made it all the more hilarious when, of course, they petered out during the King of Liars verse.

Nothing too noteworthy happened between sets, although I finally was able to successfully pinpoint the end of the new cue song. They used the Godzilla Intro once again, with Linnell speaking over the end of it in his best creepy-TV-narrator voice “Hello...And welcome back.”

Flans introduced Marty on the electronic drums “nothing says unplugged better,” and then made the claim that “In the world of drummers, Marty is Faygo.”

Flans was about to start the first song of the set, when he stopped and decided it needed a better introduction. At this point, I was expecting the Quiet Storm to be identical to the others so far on the tour, so I was completely shocked with Flans explained “This song is the full-length version of a song that a fragment of it was on the album The Else, and we’re gonna perform the entire song called With the Dark.”

And then they performed it. Even though I’d heard strains of them soundchecking it earlier, I hadn’t known it would be this version, or that it would be so beautiful to witness firsthand.

Moving back to more familiar ground, they played 2082 and then Flans introduced Wicked Little Critta, “Ladies and Gentlemen we are now gonna move to the place where John and I first met. It’s a song about New England and it features the Keyboard Stylings of Mr. John Linnell.”

Finishing out the Quiet Storm, they left the stage to a projection of the Gudetama’s Busy Days video, which was a welcome change from Underwater Woman, which they’d used at the last three shows I’d attended. The guys were all onstage before the video ended and Dan, who was apparently raring to go, started Damn Good Times the moment after the last note of the video had finished. Flans didn’t make us sway along to Dan’s solo this time, but he did introduce him as the “King of Pop” beforehand, and demand a “sea of hands” midway through.

This began a truly amazing set. The guys were all at the top of their game, and clearly enjoying themselves as well. They also played a lot of songs I hadn’t gotten to hear yet on this tour, starting right after Damn Good TImes as they went straight into Man It’s So Loud In Here.

Afterwards, Flans started to introduce the next song, claiming that it was on a compilation album of things they’d done during their 2015 Dial-A-Song year. Pausing, he decided “No, it was before that.... It was on an album…that we made...What?” This last bit was directed at Danny, who had come up next to him. Danny said something urgently into his ear, likely the song listed next on the setlist, and Flans responded with a quiet “Oh..” As Danny returned to his spot, Flans grabbed the mic with both hands and whispered into it “Fuuuucck.” Raising his voice out of the whisper, he continued “I don’t even know what song we’re doing.”

Recovering his stage presence and pivoting topics, Flans said, as if he was picking up a story he’d just stopped telling a moment ago, “So, at a certain point Queen realized that if they wrote songs they could do WITH the audience, that it would be like a whole new way of getting everybody involved. And that’s why this song was written.”

This was clearly meant as a graceful exit into the next song, but Linnell had more to say on the topic. “Except… I think he wasn’t wearing the fake teeth in the real story, right? I’m pretty sure.”

“That mustache didn’t look real,” Flans told him.

“I saw the movie, actually,” Linnell admitted.

“Ohh,” Flans was a bit disappointed. “How was the mustache?”

“I-You know- That guy’s a good actor,” Linnell replied, evading the question.

“And he’s a REALLY good singer,” Flans added.

Missing the sarcasm in Flans’ voice, Linnell said “He’s a good singer. You’re not joking around.”

“I actually was joking around,” Flans told him.

“No-no, he’s good.”

“It’s Freddie Mercury,” Flans said flatly.

“But I think the guy can sing,” Linnell insisted. “The robot… The robot guy.” This drew laughs from the crowd, which Linnell stoked by declaring “The robot guy!” once again.

“My acting friends thought that the Oscar should go to Freddie Mercury,” Flans said, as the crowd quieted.

“Oh really?” Linnell asked, “ To the….the robot guy, or to the real Freddie Mercury…”

“No, no, ‘cause he’s lip-synching along to the thing,” Flans clarified.

Linnell answered with a non-committal ‘oh’ and then, after an awkward moment of quiet, brought up that “I hate movies where you’re instructed to like something because members of the audience in the movie are going ‘This is good.’” He completed his impression with a thumbs up and a nodding head. “It drives me crazy. I don’t need a proxy on the screen, I can decide for myself if something is good or not.”

This got a cheer and applause from one solitary member of the crowd. Linnell pointed him out and thanked him for applauding, then Flans declared “This show is dedicated to that guy applauding,” they then finally got around to introducing the next song: Wearing a Raincoat.

From there they played Authenticity Trip, which is always an amazing song to watch live, with Flans roaming around the stage to sing. Introducing Curt as he came on the stage for the next song, Flans told us all “During the break, Curt informed us that in Oklahoma, where he grew up, they refer to all soda-pop...all cola... they refer to everything as Coke. So you just say, like ‘You want a coke? What kind? Orange?’ That’s how it works there.”

This got a reaction from the crowd, who grumbled at the term coke, and even started yelling out a few states where they used the word that way. Flans concluded “There are regional differences everywhere ladies and gentlemen. We’re just ambassadors of disinformation.”

“Which is a way of saying, you were hurting our feelings when you were yelling at us before,” Linnell explained, amused.

“When we saw there was a clamor, we just assumed it was Insane Clown Posse fans,” Flans confessed, “Your mind jumps to that in rock music. We didn’t realise it was the whole pop versus soda thing.” He then started growling deep in his throat in what I can only assume was an imitation of what the upset crowd had sounded like to them.

After watching Flans do that a few times, Linnell moved on with another story about crowds and pronunciations. “I can’t remember if I’ve told you this,” he said, looking over at Flans briefly before addressing the crowd “but I had a solo act about twenty years ago and I had a song. The name of the song was ‘Oregon is Bad’ and I played it in Oregon and people were not offended by the title of the song. They were really offended that I mispronounced the name of their state. That was the- that’s why I had to leave in a hurry. So, you know, I get it!”

“Somebody threw a bottle of Faygo through your windshield,” Flans added.

“Yeah, yeah,” Linnell agreed with a laugh. “So here’s another song not off of Flood.”

This led into Turn Around, and from there straight into Spy. I absolutely love the intro to this song, especially during shows like this, where Curt feels like showing off a bit. The ending was pretty standard for this tour. Linnell used his ‘Take It to the Limit’ sample opposite of and over the band, at normal and slowed down speeds. Flans did a bit of stuff with playing his guitar pressed up against his mic stand opposite the band, and worked in the crowd relatively successfully. At one point, Flans started to indicate the band, but changed his mind part way through and stopped his hand. Marty played anyway, which made some other members of the band play with him. Everyone soon realized what had happened and all looked over at Marty, who must’ve been a bit distressed, because Flans indicated it was his bad at the time and actually went over behind the drum riser after the song to apologize to Marty.

While Flans was dealing with that, the crowd became a bit restless and a few people started to shout out songs. Flans, coming back up to the front, let them go on for a bit. Once the crowd had gone quiet, he commented sarcastically “I was just gonna wait here until someone requested the next song.” This led to another flurry of requests, which Flans quashed with “Guys, guys, guys. We really are from New York City. People don’t- that whole request thing…”

People were still shouting out requests, but Flans ignored them. “It’s like, you know, feel good to a certain extent and then you draw the line. Here’s a song about that. It’s called Memo to Human Resources.” Confession time: I actually cried a little during this song.The song holds a very special place in my heart, and the live experience of it is overwhelmingly emotional for me.

They followed up with Don’t Let’s Start, which is always super fun to watch Flans and Danny spin around during. Dan and Curt returned to the stage and Flans, introducing them, tried on his announcer voice “CAESAR’S PALACE IS PROUD TO PRESENT…”

“That was the thing we did in Chicago, where the guy was like ‘I’M COMPLETELY SINCERE!’” Linnell explained, “I’VE NEVER HEARD OF ANY OF THESE ACTS!”

“I’M YOUR DAD’S ALCOHOLIC FRIEND!” Flans shot back “PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR HEY MUST BE GIANTS!”

This got a mix of laughter and applause from the crowd, which Flans responded to, still in the voice “KEEP IT GOING! FOR AIN’T THEY GUNS.”

Seizing on the moment of quiet after that pronouncement, Danny began the intro to Museum of Idiots. Four songs from Spine in one night! Afterwards Flans briefly introduced Dan, and everyone else stepped back to let Dan begin his intro to Istanbul. After a few fake endings, with some of Dan’s electric and a lot of Curt’s amazing everyone, Dan and Marty left the stage. Flans thanked everybody for coming out and introduced the final song of the night as “the song I thought ended the first set for the last four nights,” Theme From Flood.

(Note: I had no idea of this at the time of course, but Flans’ goodbye had a bit more emotion in it than is typical, and I’m guessing that at this point they were already rescheduling the rest of the April shows.)

Coming on for the first encore, the crowd was a bit rowdy, and Flans made the comment that “I once saw a guy defeated by a mic stand,” before they started the first song of the encore: Number Three! During this song, Marty just plays his kick drum. Danny, coming to the side of the drum riser, looked over at what Marty was doing and began copying his leg movement. It looked more than a bit silly, especially since Danny was grinning hugely up at Marty so he would notice.

“Mr. Dan Miller will be playing the keyboard on the next number,” Flans announced

“Mr. Dan Mil-Ler,” Linnell repeated, with a bit of a call back to the announcers voices they had tried out earlier.

“YOUR DAD’S ALCOHOLIC FRIEND IS ANNOUNCING MR. DAN MILLER ON THE KEYBOARDS,” Flans added, liking the idea.

“MISTER DANNY MY-LER,” Linnell claimed. Dropping the voice with a bit of a laugh, he started to ask “What was that thing where-”

Flans cut him off with a “DANNY MY-LER PLEASE MOVE YOUR CAR!”

Undeterred, Linnell continued telling us about their sometimes trombone player Dan Levine. Apparently, when he was playing in Frank Sinatra’s orchestra “he played that famous trombone solo in You Make me Feel So Young at which point Frank Sinatra said- this is the only time he’d ever called out our trombone player- ‘JOHNNY LEVINE!’” Watching the crowd react, he concluded quietly, “you know, it’s the thought that counts.”

They finished out the first encore with “a song that we do” Doctor Worm. I think Dan finally had the keyboard settings figured out! Just before the trumpet's final bit that ends the song, Linnell called out “Johnny Ramm!”

Coming back onstage for the second encore, they went right into She’s An Angel. I hadn’t realized before, but Marty puts a tambourine on top of his hi hat for this song. They went from Angel to The Guitar without any more of a pause than it took for Linnell to switch from accordion to keys. Flans sang “is it Johnny Levine/ I don’t think so” during the first verse, and introduced Johnny Linnell and Johnny Ramm for an especially interesting and extended Future of Sound. Everybody onstage was really going all out the whole song, including Dan doing what I can only describe as prancing while he played, and as they finished Flans thanked us all for coming one more time before leaving the stage.

The rest of the band quickly followed him as the house mix began playing. Except Danny that is, instead of leaving right away, he grabbed his setlist and walked over to me. He had to step out onto the amp and lean across the aisle for me to reach it. I took it with a big smile, which he returned before heading offstage.

#tmbg #recap

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probableelf · 7 years ago

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2/10/18 Detroit recap

I’m just going to state for the record that the show was awesome :D I doubt if I can remember the order of all the songs but I will describe what I can remember under the cut. Here’s a blurry picture to start things off! (We got a little better later on, haha)

Ok, so we (my sister and I) had to drive a couple hours to get there, through roads that were predicted to be very snowy, so we tried to give ourselves a lot of time to get there… of course, life being the crazy thing it is, we ended up leaving later than we planned, so we were happy the roads turned out fine and we got there exactly at 7. We queued for about 45 minutes before they let us into the venue. It was cold but everyone was in good spirits!

We got inside, checked the winter gear, and hit the venue floor. We were hoping to get a good position (it was standing room only and a sold out show) so we were pretty thrilled to stake out a spot about 4 people-rows from the front. My sister had been to St. Andrews Hall for an Amanda Palmer concert, so she knew the room was tiny but the stage a bit tall, so this was actually more ideal than the front row. Here we are in our DIY concert shirts waiting for the show to start!

We had about an hour to wait, and despite the piped-in music on the PA the audience got restless and started making shadow hand-puppets on the front screen. There was a pretty funny melee between various shadow animals made by people in different rows, and some dude across the room threw up a Trekkie hand-sign so of course I joined him on that!

The band came out about 5 minutes after 9 and immediately started in on a high-energy couple of songs. New York City followed by I Left My Body, which was, as you’d expect, rocking!

At the first major talking break, Flansburgh asked Linnell what he’d done that day. Linnell said he’d gotten a chance to walk around a bit. He said it was Mars Field or something but wasn’t sure where. He and Flans settled on calling it the surface of Mars, and claimed it was littered with the corpses of aliens.

They pulled out Ana Ng fairly early in the first set, which I was thrilled for (that being in my top two favorite songs). Linnell’s keyboard playing was fantastic, and Marty did a top notch job too. Linnell sang the “I don’t want the world” lyric in our general direction and I couldn’t wipe the silly grin off my face! This was about when I figured out that other people were singing along, so I did too but super quietly so I wouldn’t bother the people around me. My sister didn’t let that worry her and ended up pretty much losing her voice, haha! The energy was really good and I was glad I’d stretched this morning because everything was super-danceable.

They brought out Curt Ramm, I think first for Hey Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had a Deal, which is great live with horns. They also capitalized on his talents for Racist Friend, which the audience (including us) got really into.

They pulled out a couple Pink Album favorites in the first set–Don’t Let’s Start, of course, and Nothing’s Gonna Change My Clothes. Both of these were great! They also did Mesopotamians, with a little lead-in about how it was historical stuff… everyone pretty much seemed to guess where they were going with that one!

Clippy got pulled out in the first set with a joke from Flans about how it was “the instrument that never came out of its box in your high school band”. They did I Like Fun, of course, and Flans did his cute “I’m going to take off now” pose while singing about parkour. Linnell looked over at him while he sang the line about being 58 like “I’m the one who’s 58, here.” They also did Cloisonné, and Flans switched the order around so that Linnell wouldn’t have to switch to accordion but he’d already put the accordion on so he had to switch back. Oh well, Flans tried! I love the duet between horn and clarinet in Cloisonné. And I love how happy Marty looks in this picture!

They rounded out the set with Particle Man and the Chandelier breakdown (getting the accordion out), Letterbox (with an intro from Flans about how they were going to sing lyrics with a lot of words in them) and When Will You Die. Linnell managed to fit Curt in super-fast, more or less in rhythm, as “I’m John and he is also John (and that’s Curt) and all of us are wondering…”

For the intermission, we waited restlessly for a bit, then they cued up the Last Wave video. I’m pretty sure it started with the original music to the Aerosmith/Run-DMC song and then seamlessly merged into a slightly chip-tuned version of Last Wave. The “antlers” line absolutely kills me. I managed to confuse my sister as to whether the music was the original or the TMBG song; I guess I forgot to show it for her before-hand.

When they returned, Flans introduced the Quiet Storm section, telling us it would be quiet but emotionally stormy. Since they played Self Called Nowhere, I guess that fits! They led off with Older, which was lovely on the contra-alto clari (like, how does Linnell switch between singing it and playing so easily?! Talk about breath support!) and then introduced the songs from, and about the 1840′s. People started yelling “Polk” but of course Tippecanoe comes first. The Quiet Storm was a nice break for our burned-out eardrums.

Bringing back the full band, plus Curt, they made everyone’s night with a beautiful rendition of Istanbul, with Curt managing to play both the trumpet and the trombone in the same song. Flans initially told us Curt was playing two trumpets, and after the song apologized to the one person in the audience with a music background who knew the difference between a trumpet and a trombone. I’m embarrassed to admit that wasn’t me… I was too busy enjoying the awesome solos that got added on to the ending. (My sister says she noticed, though. So I guess it was her!)

Linnell introduced the next song as “a song I wrote about a woman who lives underwater, which is titled Underwater Woman”.

They next did Spider, and Flans’ introduction made everyone think he was introducing Fingertips, so some people (including me) were confused for a second or two. Spider is really cute as a live song, particularly the way they sing the “uhnhhh”s. I think this was also the song they told us to clap in rhythm to, even if they begged us to stop. That led, of course, into The Guitar, which also holds up well live.

Then we got Number 3, which seemed to be an audience-favorite, as well as Whistling in the Dark, which is an us-favorite. Lots of clapping and stomping to that one! I was glad that I’d listened to the new album a bunch so I could follow the lyrics to When the Lights Come On, which is very loud and very good. They followed that immediately with Twisting, so I did my best to twist to that (not that I’m any great shakes at dancing, haha!) Continuing the sequence, they gave us Man It’s So Loud, which is also very danceable!

And with a drum count-in from Marty, we got my absolute favorite, No One Knows My Plan! No conga line, maybe Flans thought that would break the flow since we were all moving a lot anyway! Linnell got some serious air on that one (if I recall correctly)… how does he jump a foot and a half and keep his hands in the right place on the keyboard?!!

For encores, we started out with This Microphone. Flans apologized beforehand, telling us they’d just learned it and only played it successfully twice. “..in the future,” Linnell added. But it came off without a hitch, except I think Flans started the last chorus with “Killing is carting…” which made me laugh. Then they played Dr. Worm, followed by Birdhouse, and by that time everybody was singing, so it was basically an audience singalong. They waved goodbye and left, but the front screen camera on the audience clued us in that if we kept clapping we’d get a second encore, which turned out to be Dead, a warm and fuzzy ending (if songs about dying can be warm and fuzzy!) to a lovely night.

People started leaving, but I’d heard about the giving away of concert ephemera, so we worked our way forward and got a setlist and stickers for our trouble.

On our way out, we stopped to check out the t-shirt sales (I’ve been looking to grab the Science is Real shirt for a while) but it turned out they weren’t selling the women’s cut shirts. However, the merch guy liked our DIY shirts and asked for a picture, then gave us Marty Time buttons since we weren’t able to buy shirts.

Such a fun night! We got back thoroughly happy, very tired, and definitely interested in seeing their show again in the future!

EDIT:

Ok, here’s things I’m pretty sure I remembered wrong or missed when I wrote this out on like no sleep haha:

1.) We clapped in rhythm for Particle Man. Linnell at one point counted aloud a 3-against-2 rhythm to see if he could mess everybody up!

2.) I think the song Linnell was basically levitating on was The Guitar, which makes more sense since he wasn’t actually singing it. Still, How. Does. He. Do. That.

3.) There was a Future of Sound bit in The Guitar. It was cute.

4.) At one point, during the Quiet Storm, Linnell asked if maybe there could be less pot smell right in front of him (it was wafting from somewhere in front of stage right, where they were grouped). Flans pointed out that it was basically legal most places now. Linnell gave him a super dirty look!

5.) I think I Like Fun was actually in set 2, the Quiet Storm, like the set list says, with the addition of Curt, because I remember Marty was on his electronic drum kit for that. That means All Time What was the song they pulled Clippy out for in set 1.

6.) Why Does the Sun Shine was somewhere in set 1 also. I couldn’t catch all of the spoken parts; the crowd was a bit too rowdy around me at that point. But Linnell claimed that the heat and light from the sun came from various elements “…and… Stuff!” and I got the impression his mind had blanked for a second. Flans teased him a bit about it afterward. Linnell claimed he was just reading the teleprompter where it said to fill in "stuff". Flans pointed out how helpful it was to have the venue name written out for them on the stage, because while it used to seem really silly, he now understands that when you're on tour eventually you no longer know your own names, let alone the venue's.

#concert recap #concert photos

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