Mighty Fine Show

[omorka]

Squee! I got concert loot direct from Flans! Winnage!

Went to see They Might Be Giants with the Spouse, asland32, lord_of_entropy, lorelein, AK, and special bonus guests DG and his umfriend, whose name I am embarrassed to say I can never remember. Had fun hanging out before the show (the Spouse did some more Spree proselytizing), and got there after the opening band had already started. They were, for me, fun but forgettable; the Spouse was near blown away by them, and I expect he'll post something about them later.

TMBG were in pretty fine form, although there were some technoglitches in the sound system, resulting in them playing "Meridian" twice. I haven't listened to the newest album (yeah, I know, bad fan), but was reasonably impressed with the new songs - not going to be my favorites from them, but then, I said the same thing about "Cyclops Rock" the first time I heard it. Their renditions of the "let's pet the fans" songs - Birdhouse, Istanbul, Ana Ng, and Particle Man - were shiny in the extreme. Flans was seriously on, although I got the impression that he was vaguely frustrated about something (possibly the weather; it's been awful here, and I would hate to have to load in in that). Linnell started out not quite as up, but caught some energy off the crowd after the first couple of songs.

This crowd seemed to be a mix of old-time (Flood and earlier) fans and the folks who picked them up because of "Malcolm in the Middle," with a small handful of newer fans. It got kind of drunk out, but mostly folks were into the show and happy, bubbly drunks - no ugliness. Flans came out after the second encore and handed out band decals to the folks who rushed the stage; I managed to squeeze in and snag one.

Now, I really, really ought to go directly to bed. I'm testing tomorrow, so it's not like I have to be coherent, but I do need to be awake.

Comments

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

TMBG. I'm Jealous. :)

[greeneyes-rpi.livejournal.com]

We had 7 of the 8 Lagerheads there too! I plan to post a quick review later today, but for now -- SQUEEE!

[quantumduck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm really sorry to have missed this one. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a TMBG show with DG. I assume I have, but I don't clearly recall it. Glad to hear they kicked it proper. |AWK told me roughly the same thing you said about Flans vs. Linnel energy levels. She said she thought perhaps L had a cold or trouble with his voice, as he was lower energy and harder to hear throughout.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

We kind of covered this earlier today, but: I think Linnell's mike wasn't working quite right, or possibly just having soundboard problems. And having seen them three times, now, it's my perception that Flans is generally just more excited to be out onstage meeting the fans than Linnell is. Not that Linnell doesn't enjoy performing, exactly, but I think he gets tour fatigue earlier than Flans does.