Mini Epics 5–8

Here are the next four Mini Epics strips. It's been a while; these were drawn back in February.

Concert Review: They Might Be Giants

They Might Be Giants

November 9, 2011

Showbox SoDo, Seattle, USA

(review by Pete)

Nearly 13 years after They Might Be Giants became my favourite band, I finally got to see them live in Seattle, a city whose ‘grunge’ heyday may be long gone but still knows how to rock, as I was soon to discover. Standing ten metres from the stage, I enjoyed opening act Jonathan Coulton and his TMBG-ish (and John Flansburgh-produced) quirky songs. Weirdly, he even looked like Flans, with his beard. 

Then John Flansburgh and John Linnell took the stage with drummer Marty Beller, guitarist Dan Miller and Danny Weinkauf the bassist. John L picked up his accordion and they began the show with ‘Subliminal’. “Good evening everybody, we’re They Might Be Giants from Brooklyn, New York,” said John F after the song to a round of cheers. “It’s a stone cold gas to be back here at the, uh, SoDo...” A few people laughed because he got the name wrong (‘SoDo’ is actually short for ‘south downtown). “My name is Rick Perry and I’m running for President,” he joked, putting on a deep voice.

“We are very, very happy to be back here,” he went on. “Just getting through Customs was enough for us today, but this has really been the icing on the cake. Thanks for comin’ out – we have a brand new album out, it’s called Join Us. We have a very dynamic programme. I use the word ‘programme’ like it’s not a crazy bullshit word to describe a rock show. Shall we get to the prepared portion of the evening John?” With that, they played ‘Can’t Keep Johnny Down’, ‘Celebration’, and ‘Why Does The Sun Shine?’. 

After the song, he said “So how are you, John? What did you do today?” 

“I don’t remember,” said John L. “Being here has shattered my memory – it’s like electroshock therapy.” 

John F said “We’re glad you’re all here, because all day it was just us and a bunch of guys on meth, and it was pretty scary. It’s good to have some normal people around.” 

“We’re assuming you’re not on meth,” said John L. “Because you like us.” 

“But, hey, meth is cool. Whatever, you know. We’re not here to judge. We like meth,” said John F. 

“As long as you do,” John L said. 

‘Snail Shell’ was next, introduced by Flans saying “We have these really old albums that are still on sale in record stores that closed years ago.” Next came ‘Fingertips’, Dan’s guitar in the outro starting off the pogoing in the crowd.  

“We just did a show in Vancouver,” John F said after the song. “It’s very...Canadian. And I don’t know if you know this, but they have a music store there called ‘London Drugs’.” He said it was a very “persuasive” name, and said “I’m surprised there hasn’t been a novelty song called ‘London Drugs’; you could use it as a cover. ‘No man, it’s not about drugs, it’s a music store!’” 

‘Old Pine Box’, a new song, was next and then ‘Birdhouse In Your Soul’, which was greeted with unrestrained yelling and a hearty singalong. ‘Damn Good Times’ followed, and then came the song I was most hoping for, and the highlight of the show: everyone up the front was singing their hearts out to ‘Ana Ng’. It was given an extended intro, repeating the riff, and the video screen at the back of the stage, which until this point had been showing grainy footage of random objects floating in water, now showed black and white TV static creating a strange visual effect as it ‘painted’ the band via a ceiling-mounted projector. Singing the chorus with hundreds of other fans was a blast! 

The lights went down and Flans stood centre stage with a powerful torch in his hand, which he shone over the audience. “For 90 to however many minutes this show goes, we are trying to bridge huge cultural chasms, and build tolerance and acceptance for all kinds of fragile and unacceptable musical ideas,” he said. “We’re going to have to take a brief departure from that agenda, and move to what is usually a hidden agenda, and actually something that we try to bury deep inside ourselves, which is to create an atmosphere of total intolerance, ladies and gentlemen. For the next three minutes, we are going to have a noble experiment, because we are interested in maximum performance, ladies and gentlemen. We are going to harness the powers of intolerance within this room – specifically, within this audience. Listen very closely to the words I’m saying. Until you do what I say, I’m not gonna stop turning this light on you.” 

He shone the torch down the middle of the audience and divided us into two sides. My side was the People; we would be represented by Marty, Dan and Danny and whenever they were playing, we had to rase our right fists and chant “People! People!” for four bars. The other side was the Apes; whenever the Johns were playing, they had to raise their fists and chant “Ape! Ape! Ape! Ape!” for four bars. 

Thus, ‘Battle For The Planet Of The Apes’ began as the two sides vied to chant louder. The battle went back and forth three of four times and as soon as it was over, John F said “The People win.” A great cheer went up from the left side of the audience. The Johns looked disappointed. “Every night, the People win – why?” said John F. “You gotta ask yourself, why do the People get to win, when the Apes are so awesome? Ape! Ape! Ape! Ape!” 

“Night after night, Apes lose,” John L said. “Punish me more.” 

“We love you, you dirty Apes,” John F said. The Apes cheered, but he was keen to move on: “The experimental portion of the show is over.” 

Almost from the start, someone in the crowd near the front of the stage had been waving a broom in the air with a nametag on it that said ‘Not Yours’ (referencing the song ‘I Am Not Your Broom’). He began trying to push his way to the front, still waving the broom over people’s heads. Danny Weinkauf gestured to him to put it down, which he did, but started waving it again during ‘Planet Of The Apes’, so Danny came over and just grabbed it out of his hands. 

After the ‘90s-rock of ‘Judy Is Your Viet Nam’ and a rousing ‘Withered Hope’, John F stopped to talk to the audience again. He said the band felt Join Us was lonely, so they put out a companion album with other songs from the same sessions, called Album Raises New And Troubling Questions. “I know the ratio of rock musicians to civilians in Seattle is roughly two to one,” he said, “so you’ll know that managers don’t like album titles like that. It’s too long and ponderous, and hard to deal with.” He said the next song, ‘Marty Beller Mask’, was on this new CD and they recorded it for Hallowe’en, but weren’t able to release it in time. “But in a way, every day is Hallowe’en for They Might Be Giants,” he said. 

After ‘We Live In A Dump’ and ‘You Probably Get That A Lot’ came another highlight – the Avatars Of They! The stage camera came on, and a shot of the audience filled the video screen. The camera rotated to reveal two knitted hand-puppets, operated by each of the Johns. They began talking about Seattle: “Occupy the Experience Music Project,” John F’s puppet said. “That’s what Jimi would have wanted.” 

“We wanna thank They Might Be Giants for warmin’ you guys up,” he continued. “We were workin’ on a bunch of tunes with James Cameron. It was comin’ out super good, he’s quite a bass player, he’s extremely talented. And then somehow the guys in the Giants got a hold of the deets and they just, like, kiped all our ideas. It’s creepy.” 

“They think puppets don’t have lawyers,” John L’s puppet said. 

“We don’t have lawyers,” John F’s said. “But, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes puppets do have soul patches.” The camera showed a black square on the puppet’s chin. “Fellas, I got a tip – duct tape. It really works.” 

The puppets then sang ‘Spoiler Alert’, with the Johns holding their puppets up to the camera. Linnell played bass clarinet on the next song, ‘Cloisonné’, with Flans saying they broke into a public school to get it, then came ‘Alphabet Of Nations’, with extra verse. 

Several people were yelling out requests – someone apparently yelled “Chess Piece Face” and John F said “We would play ‘Chess Piece Face’ at this point if we wanted to dust, like, 90% of the audience.” About six people near me simultaneously shouted “Doctor Worm!” but John ignored them, as he had the last two times this happened. John L said “We’re entering a request K-hole,” referring to the hallucinations from taking the drug ketamine. ‘Particle Man’ was next, with accordion shredding at the end. 

Then it was time to polka! The moshers, who had been slowly gathering momentum, now bounced away as ‘The Famous Polka’ began, and there was a mad rush to get in front of Flans' guitar. Several people who had arrived early had been given Marty Beller masks, and during this song they put them on. This was the song that caused a stage collapse in 1992 due to moshing. When it’s performed, they don’t always sing the lyrics; this time they didn’t, but at the end Marty just looked at all the people wearing masks of his face and looked confused. 

‘Careful What You Pack’ was next, followed by the final song of the main set, and plenty of people belting out the lyrics to ‘The Mesopotamians’. The first encore was a Johns-only version of ‘How Can I Sing Like A Girl?’ followed by the eighth and final song from Join Us, ‘When Will You Die’. Incidentally, Join Us gave TMBG their highest ever position on the Billboard chart – it peaked at number 32. 

The second encore opened with the song that got the most jumping around and arm-waving – ‘The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)’, always a live fave, before winding down with the final song ‘Dead’. By the end, I was five metres closer to the stage. As the band left, so did most of the audience, who failed to see Flans grab a stack of square Join Us stickers. He was doing it very fast, so I was lucky to stick my hand out in time. I found two more someone had left on the stage, and a guy next to me who had been handed a setlist signed by Marty Beller let me take a photo of it. 

After the show, a man I talked to called Dylan (who wasn't a TMBG fan but had come with a friend), introduced me to the guy who had brought the broom. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to meet the Johns. They had to rush to their hotel, as it seemed they weren’t feeling well at all. Still, professionals that they are, they still went ahead with the show, gave an amazing performance and gave no hint that they were feeling ill. 

Just under a month later I went to Vancouver myself and found the famous ‘London Drugs’, but Flans was mistaken; it’s not a music store, only a pharmacy. But it would still make a great music store name. And later, I did write a song about Vancouver and titled it 'London Drugs', so look out for it on the sixth China 5 album real soon.

Geeks In Space #45

I drew this strip while in Seattle, and the challenge to do a four-panel strip about a real-life event was set by none other than Bernard Caleo. Thanks Bernard! This strip is the last one from the 'backlog', meaning that when you see the next one, it will have been freshly done – straight from my Mac to this blog with minimal time lag. Don't ask me how that makes your life better, it just does.

Sketches From America I: Kurt Cobain

I've finally got around to scanning some pages from the sketchbook I took on my American trip. In this first post of sketches, the drawings all relate to Kurt Cobain, seeing as it's the 18th anniversary of his death. I don't draw buildings much, but I had seen these locations in several magazines and books before I got to see them for real.

In November 2011 I visited three places where he lived, so the drawings below are: Kurt's childhood home in Aberdeen, Washington; under the Young Street Bridge where he hung out and perhaps spent some nights; and his final residence in the Seattle area of Bellevue. It was an amazing experience to visit these places! The next post of sketchy sketches, which I sketched in my sketchbook, will follow hopefully before too long.