Concern

29 September, 2007.

Someone in line speculated about how high the collective IQ was of the line waiting to get into the theatre, and then further speculated about about how low its collective dating success was (I mean, personally, that is rather high and very low, respectively, and I’d consider it likely that that answer held for most people there). I was still in recovery from a bad hangover (if you have a bartender that likes you, and shares shots of Fernet with you, you will have fun but will likely get yourself into trouble) so I was stiff and tired for the show.

The opening act was Oppenheimer, a electronic pop duo from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Some of their stuff had to be from backing tracks, because a drummer/singer and and guitarist/keyboardist can’t reproduce that complex a sound live. Their music is nice and upbeat, with a good drum beat and synth bass line, mixed with the drummer’s falsetto, and some vocoder and keyboards. I kind of dig them; they match the sound of TMBG (like, duh), if maybe not as clever. Air horn solo.

They Might Be Giants are awesome. This show was a little mellow, and Linnell seemed a little off/annoyed. TMBG like to involve the audience, and I guess we weren’t that into it (Flansburgh opened the show chanting “Stand up! Move forward! Stand up! Move forward!” And they have lights on the audience, through which I’ve learned I could never be a stage performer, because the bright lights would be too much). They rocked the show anyway, playing a mix of songs from The Else (which I recommend you pick up; it’s one of their strongest albums in a while) and some old favorites. They had some moments of kinda-absurd skits — telephone calls from beyond the grave, where Eleanor Roosevelt called up and talked about her XBox, and wished the hardworking elves of Santa Cruz a nice time.