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.

Gorillaz

On Saturday, December 11, Dan and I attended the Gorillaz concert at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, the 33rd of 36 dates on the 'Escape To Plastic Beach' World Tour 2010. Here is my review of the show along with some pictures we took – some have been massively zoomed in to show detail!

Gorillaz have come a long way from their days as a virtual band of four cartoon characters created by cartoonist Jamie Hewlett. It’s almost a decade since I first heard their single ‘Clint Eastwood’ in 2001, instantly recognizing the vocals of Blur’s Damon Albarn as the singer 2D, along with bandmates Murdoc the bassist, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel. What once was just a virtual band is now one of the world’s best live bands and concert experiences.

The man DJing on stage who welcomed us all was Mase from De La Soul. He promised the crowd an evening of unforgettable music, and that’s what we got. Both the opening acts were affiliated with Gorillaz, since they have made appearances on two Gorillaz songs, including the new album Plastic Beach. First up was Swedish band Little Dragon, fronted by Japanese-born singer Yukimi Nagano. Their songs had some crazy synth riffs, as well as pounding drums you could feel in your rib cage.

Next was De La Soul, who did a number of their songs including ‘Me Myself And I’, ‘Stakes Is High’ and of course their 1991 single ‘Ring Ring Ring’ which was a crowd favourite. Trugoy and Posdnuos talked to the crowd a lot, saying they have been coming to Australia every year for 15 years. Finally, Mase yelled “Make some noise for the Gorillaz!” The Gorillaz sign lit up, and a video started playing on the big video screen. It showed Murdoc in a backstage room getting annoyed with 2D while he attempts to listen at the stage door. “Will you stop playing that sodding banjo!” Murdoc says. “If you play another bum note on that hillbilly instrument, I’m gonna stick it in your mouth!”

Cheers went up as the band took the stage. Not counting the guest vocalists, I counted 22 people on stage. Seven string players at the back, a five-person orchestra next to them, four female backing vocalists, and the rest of the band which included another one of my favourite musicians, The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite’s Mick Jones on guitar and his fellow Clash ex-bandmate Paul Simonon on bass. Both of them, and a couple of others, were wearing naval hats and T-shirts with black and white horizontal stripes. And of course Damon, who was wearing a black leather jacket and a T-shirt with red and black horizontal stripes – the same thing he has been wearing for the other shows on this tour.

The string section began playing ‘Orchestral Intro’ and then all of a sudden we saw Snoop Dogg dressed as a naval admiral on the big screen, not physically present but very much a part of the show to perform his part in ‘Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach’, the opening song with its blaring horns courtesy of the seven members of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. For each song played, accompanying visuals were on the video screen, playing the music video for the song if there was one, or otherwise various Gorillaz still images or photos. It was all in time with the music and added another dimension to the experience – visual as well as aural spectacle.

The varying influences of rock, hip-hop, electronica, soul and funk can all be heard during the live Gorillaz set and there is no way you can go to one of their shows with a singular mind-set. If you’re into a certain genre of music, chances are you’ll hear it, but there are so many styles mixed into their music that it’s impossible to identify with just one.

“Good evening Melbourne!” said Damon, and they began ‘Last Living Souls’, followed by ‘19-2000’ which got nearly everybody on their feet and singing along. At the end, Damon said “It’s a great pleasure to introduce...Bobby Womack!” Everyone gave a cheer for the 66 year old R&B/soul singer and they knew exactly what song he was going to perform. There was a massive cheer when the first thudding beats of ‘Stylo’ filled the air. It sounds great on record, but being performed live turned it into an anthem. I have no idea what the lyrics are or what the song is even about, but it will definitely get you on your feet.

Damon picked up an acoustic guitar for the next song, ‘On Melancholy Hill’. When he wasn’t playing the guitar, he was usually standing at his keyboard, jumping up and down on the spot while playing, and when he was just holding the mic and singing, he was bounding across the stage with endless energy, a grin on his face, getting the crowd to raise their arms and slapping hands with those in the front row. ‘Rhinestone Eyes’ was next, with crazy arm-waving from the crowd, and then De La Soul came back out for ‘Superfast Jellyfish’, which was accompanied by still images of fast food shop signs on the video screen. Personally, I think it’s pretty awesome that someone has written a song about breakfast.

‘Tomorrow Comes Today’ sounded very chilled-out and slow, and then Little Dragon came back for ‘Empire Ants’ next, followed by ‘Broken’, which featured the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble that Damon said were from Chicago, Illinois. One of them had a tuba, which was pretty cool.

Everyone cheered as they recognized the opening notes of ‘Dirty Harry’, the only song with a video not to have its video played. Instead, the screen showed an animated sequence of the kids from the video singing along to their backing part. Bootie Brown, who had previously come on stage for ‘Stylo’, re-appeared to perform his thought-provoking rap for the song, one of the definite highlights of the Demon Days album and of this show as well.

The melancholy ‘El Mañana’ was next, then Damon went over to the aforementioned five-person orchestra at the back of the stage. “They’ve come all the way here from Damascus in Syria,” he said. Holding the mic up to the leader of the ensemble he said “Do you like it here in Australia?” “Very much, very much,” he replied. I knew what song was coming next; my personal favourite track from the new album, something I was really looking forward to hearing live.

Everyone clapped along as the ensemble performed a short instrumental piece, which was then followed by the amazing Oriental Arabic intro to ‘White Flag’. The song is a cultural blend; a testament to music that knows no boundaries. British ‘grime’ MCs Bashy and Kano, who perform on the album, were also on stage and the song closed with the Arabic section combining with the song’s electro beats and Damon weaving around the stage waving a massive white flag. The flag could be a mere prop, but on the other hand it could symbolize something; not surrender, but victory perhaps, or even a sense of unity like the lyrics suggest. Above them all the video screen showed a Middle Eastern dancer with two phrases written in Arabic. Awe-inspiring stuff.

There was another brief video clip showing Murdoc, still backstage, saying that the people on stage sound like a Gorillaz tribute band. ‘Dare’ was next, which everyone was either singing or clapping along with. Like Snoop Dogg, Shaun Ryder only appeared on-screen, but people seemed to be singing along to his part, as well. After this, it was a great treat to hear ‘Punk’ from the first album, a short burst of manic energy, with Damon once again jumping around. If I’d had an iPod in 2001, this song would be near the top of my ‘Most Played’ on iTunes by now. The first Gorillaz album holds special memories for me because I bought it the day before I went to Japan to live for a year, and I listened to it a lot while I was there. Even now, the songs on it bring back memories of my little apartment in the middle of the rice paddies.

‘Glitter Freeze’ was a chance for the band to show they could produce amazing sounds and energy, being mostly an instrumental, then Yukimi from Little Dragon came back to sing ‘To Binge’ with Damon. This restrained, introspective song has more than a touch of Blur in it and is one of Damon’s best songs. It was accompanied by visuals that best sum up the song: yellow liquid gurgling down a plughole, with two beer bottles rolling around in it at the end. The whole song’s lyrics scrolled up the screen, in Japanese. Ending the main set was ‘Plastic Beach’, sounding much louder and crunchier than it does on the album.

After a few minutes’ break, the band returned, as did Bobby Womack to lend his sombre tones to ‘Cloud Of Unknowing’. “This song was written by Mister Damon Albarn,” he said in his introduction. During this song, some disconcerting war footage was played, showing planes dropping bombs, exploding in fireballs and crash landing, and also footage of people pushing a helicopter off a naval carrier. It fit the music well though, and made a definite point.

Damon said he was really thankful to have worked with all these musicians, and that it was the fourth-last show of the tour, and they had been touring for three and a half months. Then he said “Now, you have to help me out here. This next man...I had the pleasure of DJing with him last night. We were in a really small booth, and it just has one window, and people were looking in...anyway, you have to help me say his name...Mase-ee-o!”

Everyone did, and the three members of De La Soul came out to do a frenetic version of the huge hit ‘Feel Good Inc.’ which maintained the high crowd enthusiasm. After this, Damon was joined by Mick and Paul at the front of the stage. He had a red melodica, which he had already used in a few songs. He only had to play two notes before the whole place erupted knowing it was the start of ‘Clint Eastwood’. Bashy and Kano substituted their own rap for the original one by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, and the whole thing built to a climax.

During the encore Damon brought out Jamie Hewlett which surprised me – I didn’t think Jamie had any involvement in the Gorillaz concerts, but he was there all the same, wearing the same nautical outfits as Mick and Paul. He didn’t say anything, but waved to the crowd. The show closed on a calmer note with the two reflective songs ‘Don’t Get Lost In Heaven’ and ‘Demon Days’ which had people waving their arms. “Melbourne! Do you feel us? Do you feel us?” Damon yelled out.

The verdict: one of the best concerts I have ever been to. It made you feel something – a love of music played without preconceived genres, national borders or creative limits – rather than merely listening to loud music. This is how a concert is supposed to be.