They Might Be AWESOME

I saw They Might Be Giants in concert last night at The Variety Playhouse. And it was the best show I've ever been to. As John Flansburgh put it in a funny anecdote, "our shit is golden." After the first song, they declared that it was the best show they'd ever played. And after the second, they decided that there was no way they could suck enough to make this not the best show ever. Then they announced that they'd be playing at about 60% for the rest of the night.

They played about half of their new album, including Mesopotamians, I'm Impressed, Climbing the Walls and Shadow Government. The only song I thought was missing was The Cap'm. But they played tons of classics as well. Istanbul is a given, plus they pulled out Doctor Worm (with confetti cannons), Meet James Ensor, Cyclops Rock, I Palindrome I and an extended version of Particle Man.

The songs were great, but the stage antics really made the show what it was. They put up a slide projector and showed an image of a telephone in a graveyard, then took Calls from the dead.

Needless to day, this was my first They Might Be Giants concert and it exceeded all expectations.