A Trip Through Time
They Might Be Giants
Jami Grey
Issue date: 12/8/08 Section: Editorials
On Friday, November 28 2008, the 9:30 Club posted a Sold-Out sign on the doors and ticket box office. Luckily, I already had a ticket in hand. They Might Be Giants (TMBG), a group which has been performing for over 20 years, played a concert in DC for ages 14 and up. But not just any concert, it was a concert which left me swearing I had traveled back in time. TMBG performed their 1990 album "Flood" in its entirety. I was thrilled as it happens to be my favorite album by the group. At the beginning of the concert, they were keeping faithful to the order of the songs on the cassette tape which I owned as a teenager. With the crowd being so large, it was literally standing room only and I was constantly jostled and my toes stepped on as people danced and sang along.
However, the band warned us when they decided to change the order, giving also the caveat "those who are playing along at home, we are going by the cassette, not the vinyl record." Once the band completed the album, a twenty minute intermission was taken. During the intermission, the floor cleared a bit as the crowd dispersed to the bathroom, smoke breaks, and grabbing drinks from the bar. I repositioned myself, husband, and Kat Darnell, who had gone along with me closer to the bar. We were lucky in that during the second set, the kitchen closed down, so the people bumping into us were much less frequent.
During the second set, TMBG played many more favorites, including "Dr. Worm," "Seven," "Older," during which the drum being played vibrated throughout my body from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. "Why Does the Sun Shine (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)" and it's correction; "The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma" because "We like to fact check ourselves, and found we were singing it wrong the whole time. So now we are going to play every venue we ever sung the song in and correct the misperceptions we cause. Because we care." There were only two major notable songs missing from the set list; "Ana Ng" and "Your Not the Boss of Me," a hit from the TV show "Malcolm in the Middle." Currently the band is working on a project for Disney, and has released several children's albums as well as family friendly ones.
There were two encores as well. Neither were single songs, it was like getting another set for free. The band played songs 17-33 off of one of their albums, but only a snippet of each song, which was playful and fun. The final encore of the evening was "Alphabet of Nations," which left the crowd wanting more. As the lights came up and the crowd dispersed, I grinned widely. I had never felt closer to my high school friends, who had introduced me to TMBG, since I left Tennessee for good. I turned to my spouse and said quietly "who says you can't travel through time."
However, the band warned us when they decided to change the order, giving also the caveat "those who are playing along at home, we are going by the cassette, not the vinyl record." Once the band completed the album, a twenty minute intermission was taken. During the intermission, the floor cleared a bit as the crowd dispersed to the bathroom, smoke breaks, and grabbing drinks from the bar. I repositioned myself, husband, and Kat Darnell, who had gone along with me closer to the bar. We were lucky in that during the second set, the kitchen closed down, so the people bumping into us were much less frequent.
During the second set, TMBG played many more favorites, including "Dr. Worm," "Seven," "Older," during which the drum being played vibrated throughout my body from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. "Why Does the Sun Shine (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)" and it's correction; "The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma" because "We like to fact check ourselves, and found we were singing it wrong the whole time. So now we are going to play every venue we ever sung the song in and correct the misperceptions we cause. Because we care." There were only two major notable songs missing from the set list; "Ana Ng" and "Your Not the Boss of Me," a hit from the TV show "Malcolm in the Middle." Currently the band is working on a project for Disney, and has released several children's albums as well as family friendly ones.
There were two encores as well. Neither were single songs, it was like getting another set for free. The band played songs 17-33 off of one of their albums, but only a snippet of each song, which was playful and fun. The final encore of the evening was "Alphabet of Nations," which left the crowd wanting more. As the lights came up and the crowd dispersed, I grinned widely. I had never felt closer to my high school friends, who had introduced me to TMBG, since I left Tennessee for good. I turned to my spouse and said quietly "who says you can't travel through time."
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