John Linnell (above) and John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants quasi-apologized for their kid’s material at the Gothic Theatre on Thursday. Photos by Michael McGrath.
It’s not often that I leave a show saying, “I need to buy EVERY CD by this band,” but after seeing Thursday night at the , my bank account would certainly be a lot lighter if it wasn’t already somewhat anemic.
They Might Be Giants is nerd rock at its finest, catchy melodies delivered with a knowing wink and a sly bit of humor that never crosses over into self-parody. The band is probably best known for doing “Boss of Me,” the theme song for “Malcolm in the Middle,” though their 1990 album “Flood” was certified platinum and spawned several charting singles, including “Birdhouse in Your Soul.”
The current touring incarnation includes the founding Johns, John Linnell on keyboards and accordion and John Flansburgh on guitar, Marty Beller on drums, guitarist Dan Miller, bassist Danny Wienkauf and Ralph Carney on saxophone and clarinet.
Opening with “Meet the Elements,” the group quickly found a groove that continued over into the post-punk pop of “New York City,” a homage to the band’s current hometown of Brooklyn.
The band’s humor came through clearly on many songs, whether it was introducing “Cowtown” by saying they could say something that had never been said onstage at the Gothic, from what they could tell of their exhaustive research of one paragraph on the theater online (“Introducing, two clarinets to each other!”) or their introducing “Seven” by saying, “We like forcing children’s songs on adults.”
While the children’s songs were well-received, including the ones from the band’s latest CD “Here Comes Science,” they are children’s songs that are written for adults as well — kind of like how you can go back as an adult and watch “Schoolhouse Rock” videos and get something completely different out of them.
While laughing as the band exhorted the balcony and the lower area of the Gothic to sing “Drink” in different time to create a wild echo, or listening to fans sing the absurd folk parody “The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)” — with its line, “In the spaceship, the mighty spaceship, the lion takes control” — or seeing the wild canon-propelled confetti explosions during “They Might Be Giants,” it struck me that They Might Be Giants is what Phish once aspired to be, before Phish crossed over into mass appeal and lost their sense of perspective.
They Might Be Giants even kept the crowd enthralled during a mid-set puppet show performance of “What Is a Shooting Star?” and “Shoehorn with Teeth.” The two Johns used a camera to project the puppets, dubbed the Avatars of They, onto a large screen near the back of the stage.
The set ended with “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” and the band returned for two encores. The first included “Older,” which brilliantly pokes fun at people’s fears of aging by pairing a dark melody to the simple line “You’re older than you’ve ever been, and now you’re even older.”
In an interesting contrast, Belfast folk duo , consisting of Mick Lynch and Kevin May, opened. Their silky harmonies on “The Universe is Laughing” were well-received by an appreciatively quiet crowd.
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Candace Horgan is a Denver freelance writer/photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. When not writing and shooting, she plays guitar and violin in Denver band the defCATS.
Michael McGrath is a Denver area photographer. His work is available at . Visit .
