Well, well, well. It turns out that I'm older than I've ever been, and I'm not getting any younger. I'm so old, in fact, that going to a They Might Be Giants show doesn't excite me that much any more.
Oh sure, last night's show at the 9:30 club was good, it just wasn't The Best Show Ever (TBSE). But there was no way I was going to miss it. I;d missed the last 4 shows of theirs that I wanted to see, so I had to go to this one to bring my record back up to .500 (I'd been to three before last night). A quick run-down of the shows I missed: and in-store show and a theater show scheduled for September 12, 2001. I'm not sure why these two were cancelled. A July 2002 make up show in Seattle. An all-ages in-store show last February at Tyson's Corner. Anyway, I went, bought some overpriced beers, listened to some songs and went home.
It used to be that TMBG shows were incredibly memorable. The best one I went to was maybe the best concert in general I've ever been to. Even the brickwife (brickgirlfriend at the time) enjoyed it. Of course, it was at Bumbershoot in a 7,000 seat hockey arena that was jam packed, so that might have had something to do with how much energy there was. It was the kind of show where, even if you had never heard of them before, you would have had a blast. On a side note, do you know who was on stage right before them? Yep. Modest Mouse (this was in '98) and they sucked. Right after TMBG was Yo La Tengo, but we skipped out on them and went to see festival headliners The Squirrel Nut Zippers. Ahhhh, remember 1998, when a band like The Squirrel Nut Zippers could be popular? Also appearing at the festival that weekend was Jethro Tull, R.E.M., The Screaming Trees and Live. Good times man, good times.
Where was I going with all this? I'm not really sure. Oh yeah! That's right. In 2000, I was willing to drive from Seattle to Spokane (4 hours each way) to see TMBG. Now, I'm not even willing to drive to Baltimore. I am getting old. Plus my knees hurt.
P.S. The opener last night was this dude named Michael Levitan. He stood on stage by himself and played the ukulele and sang. It ruled. By his CDs (if he has any). I've heard he needs gas money.
8 comments:
Well ... I think you have to consider the relative quality of the drive from here to Baltimore, vs. Seattle to Spokane. It's not just distance you know. Plus, now you have to get up and go to work the next morning.
You drove from Seattle to Spokane in four hours? That frightens me.
You mean, the Squirrel Nut Zippers are no longer popular? Well, that just SUCKS.
I've seen TMBG two or three times. Once for free even, when they used to have those outdoor Penn Quarter concerts. Best one ever was in Portland in, er, 1996? They sang part of the show with giant puppet heads and got the entire concert crowd to form a conga line.
Um, this is a little too weird.
I was at that show in Portland. It was at La Luna, in November of 1996, shortly before my birthday. The giant puppet heads were awesome, but I was too much of a self-conscious teenager to join the conga line. But I was there. If was the first time I'd seen them.
I even remember that the opening act was an all-girl band called Cub, one of whose songs TMBG covered (New York City).
If I remember right, the chant that Flansburgh led was
"everybody Conga! We're not fucking kidding!"
Yeah, the good old confetti cannon. I think they've done that at every show I've been to. Of course, in small clubs it works well, but in a 10,000 seat arena, I'm not sure anybody noticed.
I was at the 9:30 Club show, and I'm glad I'm not the only who thought it was not their best work. I was happy to hear songs like "Number 3" and "Rhythm Section Want Ad", because I never thought I'd get to hear them live. I got the impression (and maybe it's just me) that maybe Flansburgh wasn't feeling all that well. He's normally a lot chattier, and throughout the show he just went back and stood in front of the fan next to the drum kit. I think "uninspired" sums up the show for me.
Your site is on top of my favourites - Great work I like it.
»
Post a Comment