They might be interesting and enigmatic live too. They Might Be Giants had a stop on their 2018 tour in Charlotte NC last night and we were front and center jamming away. The band is an entertaining bunch – and not just for their monumental music careers and expansion of duo to full band while weaving their way through the alternative rock radio plays to writing children’s music and theme music for several movies and TV shows.
Along with the usual self-promotion and tour anecdotes we got some hipster dad jokes, a riff on bandleader Artie Shaw’s frequent marriages and some trivia about Lurch from The Addams Family.
The high energy band led us into two segmented portions of a performance,. During intermission we were treated to a pre-recorded version of the song Last Wave synced to Aerosmith and Run DMC’s Walk This Way video.
The second set started with an acoustic set. Just the two Johns and a drummer. There was a crackling noise coming over the PA for the first few songs that sounded vaguely like rain. They joked it was the “quiet storm” portion of the show.
Overall the 32 song concert was an astonishing display of skill acquired over the bands 35 year career. Their new album I Like Fun (Idlewild Recordings) came out last week, you can grab it direct from TMBG, iTunes / Apple Music, or AmazonMusic. You have a chance to see them on the road until the end of April.