SiS At The Club: They Might Be Giants

Ladies and gentlemen. Three words that were expressed many countless times Friday evening from John Flansburgh; he's one of The Two Johns, Flansy, the one that wears the glasses and plays guitar with his left hand in They Might Be Giants. I bet on average, between every song, he said that phrase at least two times for every sentence it started with. The other John of The Two Johns, last name Linnell, he surprisingly kept quiet for a bit, but when he did talk, he had the crowd laughing as well. It would be hard to walk out of that show without a shit-eating grin on your face, without a bounty of joy and the enthusiasum of a 5-year old gleaming from all possible extremities.

Whereas Flansburgh was the cheerleader, the motivational speaker, Linnell was the second banana who just was there to play his songs and got the crowd roaring when calling the late Ronald Milhouse Sagan during "Phone Calls From The Dead." Out of nowhere in the middle of "Older" came blasts of confetti from the sky; for a minute one would've thought they were at a Flaming Lips show if the Johns walked across the crowd in a big giant bubble. Instead, Flansburgh would break out his big marching drum with the TMBG insignia on it during "Whistling In The Dark," their trademark of recent shows.

They aren't the performing duo that they were when their career started over two decades ago, nor the rock band formation they culled together in the early 90s. They are now that 5-piece rock band live with a blaring horn section. Named the Tricerichops Horns, this brass trio blared their way through a top notch rendition of "Dr. Worm," while carrying the band through "Spy" and The Else fave "With The Dark."

And although they know how to still have fun all these years later, they also can take things seriously. Midway through "Damn Good Times," only the second song of the night, Flansburgh told the crowd of DC's 9:30 Club that they could stop the show at any time, like right now. He had stopped the band to tell the people moshing in front of him to cut it out. And they did. And the happiness continued. And we were all given a reason to be thankful this year.

A phone call from the dead, earlier this year:


They Might Be Giants Set List:
The Cap'm / Damn Good Times / Why Does The Sun Shine? / Take Out The Trash / Alphabet Of Nations / Cyclops Rock / Withered Hope / She's Actual Size / Mr. Me / Turn Around / I'm Impressed / Phone Calls From The Dead / Birdhouse In Your Soul / The Shadow Government / Older / Maybe I Know / Contrecoup / Triangle Man / The Famous Polka / Spy / Whistling In The Dark / With The Dark / Museum Of Idiots / Dr. Worm /// Boss Of Me (theme) / New York City / Graveyard / The Mesopotamians // Purple Toupee / Istambul (Not Constatinople)