{"id":997,"date":"2015-07-27T23:19:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T23:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=997"},"modified":"2026-06-27T23:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T23:21:36","slug":"they-might-be-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=997","title":{"rendered":"They Might Be Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

November 2000, Bowery Ballroom, New York City<\/strong><\/p>\n

When traveling somewhere, if I can, I like to go and see a show. I\u2019ve been able to do this in several cities \u2014 San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, Athens Greece (an opera at the Acropolis) \u2014 and if you\u2019re heading to New York City, going to show is a no-brainer. On this particular trip, the first extended trip I would take with my wife to be, a listing of shows revealed a residency of They Might Be Giants at the Bowery Ballroom and one night caught our eye: The playing of Flood<\/em> from start to finish<\/p>\n

I am not a TMBG aficionado, but like a lot of people I did have Flood<\/em>, the band\u2019s biggest and best-known album. Nineteen tracks of varied songs \u2014 weird, poetic, daring, memorable \u2014 the album cemented the band as true talents, who can delve into country, pop and rave-up. The duo of Johns \u2014 Flansburgh and Linnell \u2014 combined their musical abilities and quirks into a record that didn\u2019t sound like anything else. The chance to see this masterpiece live, in what was a home show for the Brooklyn band, was an easy choice. And, unlike me, my wife (who was my girlfriend at the time of the show) is a big TMBG fan (I have since joined in her enthusiasm for the band).<\/p>\n

The Bowery Ballroom, in the heart of Manhattan\u2019s Bowery district, was in a building from the 1920s though the venue opened up in the late 1990s. Holding 600 at most, the main room was quaint where every spot on the floor allowed for a good view. With an excellent sound system, there\u2019s a reason it\u2019s one of the better places to see a show in NYC. There was certainly a good show on this night.<\/p>\n

For those unaware, Linnell is the John who plays the accordion and keyboards and Flansburgh is the one who plays guitar. The two locked down spots on stage, and with the additional band members of the night, sang the \u201cTheme From Flood\u201d. I would find out later it was the first live performance of \u201cTheme From Flood,\u201d because why else would you sing it unless you were then playing the album? The crowd, laughing and geared up for what was about to transpire, was giddy.<\/p>\n

If you know your Flood<\/em>, and many people in the crowd knew it well, there was no suspense to what song was next. \u201cBirdhouse In Your Soul\u201d (a top 10 charting song for the band) followed with \u201cLucky Ball & Chain,\u201d \u201cIstanbul (Not Constantinople),\u201d \u201cDead\u201d and the amazing \u201cParticle Man\u201d. \u201cRemember the night triangle lost,\u201d Flansburgh said to an amused crowd. \u201cThat was a terrible night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band moved into \u201cTwisting\u201d before a shout came from the audience \u2014 \u201cWhat happened to \u2018Your Racist Friend\u2019?\u201d The crowd, TMBG fans as they were, knew that \u201cYour Racist Friend\u201d follows \u201cDead\u201d on the album listing, and the band had skipped the song. \u201cWe haven\u2019t done this before,\u201d Flansburgh said, adding \u201cdo you know how many songs are on this album?\u201d He then kicked into the song, which despite its happy tone is one of the band\u2019s more poignant songs.<\/p>\n

There were no missed songs for the remainder of the Flood<\/em> set, and the crowd reveled in the live fun of \u201cSomeone Keeps Moving My Chair\u201d and \u201cMinimum Wage\u201d. When \u201cRoad to Berlin\u201d brought it home for a triumphant finish, the applause was loud and lasting. Sure, it was just 45 minutes of music, but it meant plenty to those in attendance.<\/p>\n

And no, it didn\u2019t mean the end of the show, not by a long shot. The \u201csecond show\u201d included songs from the upcoming album Mink Car<\/em>, including the future hit \u201cBoss of Me,\u201d which would become the theme song for \u201cMalcolm in the Middle\u201d. After the excellent \u201cJames K. Polk\u201d and the informative \u201cWhy Does The Sun Shine?\u201d (The sun is a mass of incandescent gas. A giant nuclear furnace), the main set ended to riotous applause.<\/p>\n

For encore one the guys carted out \u201cFingertips,\u201d a compilation of 20 10-second or so songs from the band\u2019s fourth album Apollo 18<\/em>. Not really knowing what this was, I watched curiously as Kristen smiled all the way through. After \u201cSpy and Robot Parade,\u201d which was another new song, New York City ended the first encore fittingly. A second encore was also loaded with newer material, ending with \u201cSleepwalkers,\u201d which was reworked song that only appeared on Dial-A-Song, the band\u2019s telephone-operated service. These guys are way cool.<\/p>\n

After the show Kristen and I walked out into the cool Bowery night and looked for a place to get a drink. The show, the time, was everything I wanted it to be, and I remember it as clear as day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 2000, Bowery Ballroom, New York City When traveling somewhere, if I can, I like to go and see a show. I\u2019ve been able to do this in several cities \u2014 San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, Athens Greece (an opera at the Acropolis) \u2014 and if you\u2019re heading to New York City, going to show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[181],"class_list":["post-997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-they-might-be-giants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":999,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions\/999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}