They Might Be Giants, pioneers of alternative rock, will bring their eclectic mix of quirky lyrics and catchy pop hooks to Leesburg, Virginia, this week to support the Arc of Loudoun.
And while the band has garnered a large, devoted following over the years, founding member John Flansburgh said the charity performance might even be more interesting for those who are hearing the band for the first time.
“It’s just a big, interesting, barnstormer of a rock show,” Flansburgh told the Loudoun Times-Mirror during a phone interview on Friday. “I think there’s certain songs that we do that the first time you hear them is the most intriguing. I think it will be really interesting for somebody to just walk into our universe.”
The band will be bringing their “universe” — built piece by piece across 23 records since their 1986 debut — to the Shocktober Haunt Party on Oct. 8 at Ion International Training Center in Leesburg.
Proceeds from the show will go toward the Arc of Loudoun, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving people with disabilities. The Haunt Party replaces the Shocktober haunted house the Arc had become known for, which had been held at the Carlheim Manor in Leesburg.
In the nearly 40 years since They Might Be Giants released their self-titled debut, the band has introduced eager listeners to bizarre characters like a sentient night light on the 1990 song “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” a rock band made up of figures from ancient myths on 2007’s “The Mesopotamians” and a dinosaur feeling rather anxious about the thought of being born on 2021’s “Brontosaurus.”
Considering that the band’s tour stop in Leesburg is a Halloween-themed show, Flansburgh suggested the band’s blend of quirky humor and a sense of just-out-of-reach dread makes them a good fit.
“We incorporate our sensibilities and our sense of humor in what we’re doing, and that’s a tricky balancing act right out of the gate,” Flansburgh said. “On paper, it just seems like a terrible idea for anything in rock not to be sort of self-serious. But we took on the challenge of having a little dash of humor in what we’re doing.
“And I think we found an interesting balance,” he went on, “but I guess the sort of shock value of just reminding the listener that there is some existential dread around the corner … it’s sometimes just too hard to resist.”
Underneath the humor, weird characters and healthy dose of existential dread, though, the core of what makes up a They Might Be Giants song is simply solid pop song-writing, Flansburgh said.
As kids, Flansburgh and the band’s other founding member, John Linnell were “very attracted to pop songs,” Flansburgh said. “Pop songs from the heyday of pop music, from, like, the ’60s … songs that were really in the ‘pop song’ format, like choruses and verse and things really oriented towards melody. Then when punk rock, new wave came around, one of the big, simple side effects of it was it kind of resurrected the idea of ‘the song,’ rather than, like, sonic experimentation. In some ways, I think we think of ourselves as the last new wave band, because the thing about the popular song is that it has a form, but the style is kind of the experiment. You can do any kind of sonic work you’re intrigued by, but it’s still in this verse-chorus-riff format, and it’s somehow quite accessible to the listener.”
They Might Be Giants’ stop in Leesburg this week is one of the very few stops on their tour that hasn’t sold out already. Flansburgh said the tour has been a great, if emotional, experience.
Like many bands, They Might Be Giants had been sidelined by COVID-19 and were just getting back to touring when Flansburgh got into a serious car accident after leaving the first night of tour in New York City this summer. After several months of recovery requiring shows be postponed, they’re back on the road.
He said it’s been an eye-opening experience.
“I’m just really grateful to be back upright and be able to do shows, and it just gives you a completely different perspective,” he said. “I just have such gratitude. … We just did a couple of weeks of shows, and it was a blast.”
While They Might Be Giants have released a handful of educational children’s records across their career, this concert will be a PG-13 show.
Costumes are encouraged.