They Might be Giants Come to Town

Written 5/10/2024

Hello! Right now, I am currently in the on the way home in a car with my Laptop from one of the best events I've ever been to! So basically, They Might be Giants (Or TMBG) are a rock band, and they're pretty cool! They're my second favourite band, 2nd behind The Beatles, and my favourite band still touring & Together. So when I found out they were touring Australia in October, I tried to get tickets for a show in my City (Sydney) But it was sold out, but luckily - The ticket provider (Tiketek) had an official Resale Website, So I got two tickets to the one at the City Recital Hall! But who was gonna get the second? Well the person who gave birth to me, Of Course! So we drove to the venue, And I was dropped into a Room filled with TMBG Fans & Photos! I felt... Home. So I then went to the Merchandising Stand while we waited and got a Tour Shirt, and an Australian-Exclusive Reissue of their Debut Album on CD! We then went upstairs to in front of the Gate, in this bar area. We waited, 7:30pm, we went in. We saw the stage, with Linnell's Keyboard, Flans' Telecaster, Marty's Drums, The "Main Squeeze", and most importantly: THE STICK!!! 8:00pm.

We see the "They Might be Giants" intro, and Here they are; Oh man, Here We Go!! They Immediately go into "Synopsis for Latecomers" A track from their latest Album, Book, & Something I haven't heard yet! They then asked for everyone to jump up and go in front the stage, So I did, they then play the first "Flood" Track of the night, as this was a Flood-Themed Tour of course! And it was none other than the unreasonably popular, unreasonably catchy (And somewhat overrated) "Particle Man". Then they play "Subliminal", then "Moonbeam Rays", and then two Back-to-Back Flood tunes, ones that I personally really like: "Someone Keeps Moving my Chair", and my Second personal favourite song: "Twisting". "Then Women and Men", "Your Racist Friend", Some song (I don't know the full name of). And then, the Stick is Pulled out by Mr. John! for Lie Still Little Bottle. But then back to normal (for TMBG Standards) Instruments with "James K. Polk", but then straight back to Weirdness Territory with them playing one of the Flood Songs: "Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love", but Reversed! They also filmed it. and at the Second Set they played the footage of them playing it backwards, backwards! They then played "Road Movie to Berlin", the last track of the album (but not of the show, oh no!) and "Brontosaurus", and that's it for the first Set, Approx. 1 Hr.

After their "Blues Jams", They came back with this "Hearing Aid" Intro. And then they played that video they recorded of them playing the song in reverse, In Reverse as I mentioned previously! And they were spot on with the movements! Then a song from "The Spine", The first album I ever heard from them, in fact, "Memo for Human Resources". and then "Man, It's so Loud in Here". "Letterbox", "Minimum Wage" (I forgot to shout the "Hyaa!", I didn't know the audience was supposed to do it)! "We want a Rock" (Oddly Played on Keyboard, I would've thought Linnell would play it on Accordion), "Whistling in the Dark", "Lucky Ball & Chain", some other song, and "Hot Cha". And through the entire second set, I was stood right in front of the stage, In front of Linnell's Keyboard, singing along to the songs I knew, and during sometime during Letterbox, I think: Danny Weinkauf, the bassist, He Noticed me! I was singing and clapping, and then all of a sudden, he looks in my direction, and a big smile appears on his face! And then they played another Favourite of mine: "Don't Let's Start", a Rocker from their first Album. "Don't Let's Start" is one of those songs where you really have to sing it out loud to know how much breath it drains away! Then "2082", a song about travelling into the future and killing yourself, that one. They then played the "Theme from Flood" and then, a Song that sounded epic due to the Horn Section: "Birdhouse in Your Soul"! everyone really nailed this one and made a great song even better!

And then they went off stage, For a couple of Seconds... Encore time, baby! They played "Dead", a Less popular Song from Flood, and then they played the last of the 18 Flood Songs; "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", But now with 10x more Suspense to the point of being able to Kill a Man! they made a 2 Minute song About 8 Minutes! Okay... But even though they just played the last Flood song, the Show still felt sorta... Incomplete. So we all yelled for One Last encore, and yes, they did come back for the last Time with a Flash! "Dr. Worm"! A song so fit for a Live Setting that the Studio Version was originally released on a Live Album! And then, jus like that, it's over - After one last thing. Danny (The Bassist) gave me a piece of paper at the end, It's the Setlist I have the Setlist! So, that was that, one of the most fun nights of my life, I'll try to put it up on my Bulletin Board.