If lyrical non-sequiturs like 'I'm your only friend. I'm not your only friend. But I'm a little glowing friend. But really, I'm not actually your friend. But I am,' give you nerdy goose-bumps of joy, then you should have been at The Intersection in downtown Grand Rapids Sunday night. 'They Might Be Giants', the original experimental pop-nerd rock duo from Brooklyn brought the full-band treatment to classic cuts and new tracks from their latest album 'Join Us'.
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| Brand new album, signed by the entire band: $20! |
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For anyone completely unaware of the TMBG cult phenomenon, allow me to provide a brief bio. TMBG attracted a small by nerdy legion on college radio with classics like “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, and “Particle Man” in the early 1990's. They found their niche by blending a host of different musical styles like funk, punk, and pop-rock without sounding like any of them.
Their catchy eccentric sound tapped directly into middle-school nerd brains across the mid-west including my own. More original than 'Weird Al' parodies and intellectual enough to make you feel enlightened by simply memorizing their songs, TMBG was the only band that I knew that could apply a pop hook formula to a biology textbook forming a song like 'Mammal'. Sing it with me 'So the warm blood flows through the large four-chambered heard, maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have.' Yes, humor and learning belonged in music and it did not have to be biblical.
For me, Sunday night's show highlighted so many reasons whey TMBG stands the test of time. Specifically, they incorporated classic material throughout a set list of new album songs, they promoted audience interaction at one point dividing the audience into 'Apes' and 'People' for a shout off, and perhaps most importantly, they got a large audience of white people to dance...albeit very very badly.
They are fan-centric yet true to themselves, tight musicians but open to improvisation, and goofy without feeling gimmicky. When it's so easy to be cynical and hyper-aware of media manipulation, TMBG feel authentic and anti-agenda...although one does have to have a sense of humor for actual appreciation :)
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| TMBG Full Band WITH Back Screen Projections |
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| Yarn Puppets interlude performing imitations of Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger (no joke). |
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| TMBG Drumset Up Close |
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| Yes, the real John Flansburgh up close, handing out window stickers. |
