They Might Be Giants - Fingertips
My fourth concert in 17 days after an almost 3 year live music drought
I’ve written about the greatness of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, AKA They Might Be Giants, here on the E&SL before, but it seems fitting that they’ve become my first repeat earworm customer. I’m closing the loop on my earlier post on the multiple reschedulings of TMBG’s “Flood album in its entirety” tour.
A quick recap: I purchased tickets to the show featured here, back in 2019. Four long, COVID-coated years later (or in human years, four decades) that day finally arrives.
To read all about my extended wait to see TMBG, and about my first time living at my aunt’s assisted living facility click the box below:
Though the concert would feature all 19 songs from the third They Might Be Giants album, Flood (1990), I must admit it has never been my favorite album by the two Johns.
Flood is certainly the band’s most commercially successful release though, featuring several of the most recognized songs from their vast 37-year, 25 album catalog. “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” “Particle Man,” and “Whistling in the Dark” are all worthy entries for a TMBG greatest hits collection.
Although the original album recording includes a horn section and a few additional musical guests, the majority of the songs are played only by the two Johns.
So seeing them live, with drums and bass and a second guitarist, not to mention a four-piece horn section, filled the sonic landscape of the Oakland Fox Theater to the rafters.
The rafters being where I was seated with my wife and friend Colin. Balcony row Y — so I assumed we’d have the 2nd furthest seats in the house. But apparently there are rows VV, WW, XX, YY and ZZ so we were in fact the 7th furthest row in the gorgeously restored art-deco theater. Knowing there were other people with seats more nose-bleedy than us somehow made me feel better.
Not that it mattered, because, for some reason, the lighting design concept for the show seemed to be: “let’s aim the brightest lights back at the audience and time them to flash on the beat!” After the third song of painful headache-inducing squinting, I decided to close my eyes and simply listen to the music. It was the right call.
They Might Be Giants, but from where we were seated, they were anything but giant. 1
Mini rant:
Is this a new thing in concert lighting? The same thing happened when I saw Ween a few years ago. Instead of lighting the artists from the top and front, the lights would be mounted at the back of the stage pointed outward. It befuddles me. Maybe my small sample size is flawed but it makes watching the musicians perform not only difficult but impossible.
I did attend a couple other shows recently that did not blind the audience or cause them to have seizures so I am hopeful this is but a short-lived trend.
I mentioned earlier that Flood is not my favorite They Might Be Giants album.
My favorite is the ‘Giants follow up to Flood, Apollo 18. Apollo 18 is by far my longest term TMBG relationship. It’s the album I play about five times more than any other. You could say Apollo 18 reaches deep into the birdhouse in my soul.
It continues to feature Linnell and Flansburgh’s patented clever wordplay — “I Palindrome I,” “The Statue Got Me High,” and “Which Describes How You’re Feeling” for example — but it feels more adventurous, musically. The song ideas seemed to be dripping from their pores (pouring from their pores?).
This is best expressed in my all-time favorite They Might Be Giants song, “Fingertips.”
“Fingertips” is a suite of 21 song-fragments, tied together sort of like one of those old-time K-TEL hit song commercials, where a single line from a song’s chorus is played and then another and another.
“Fingertips” is 21 micro songs in 1, each of them its own earworm.
My wife and I recite one of the “fingertip” segments to each other all the time. It goes:
I don't understand you... (I don't understand you...)
I just don't understand you. (I don't understand you.)
I don't understand the things you say
I can't understand a single word
I don't understand you... (I don't understand you...)
I just don't understand you. (I don't understand you.)
I cannot understand you. (I don't understand you.)
I don't understand you. (I don't understand you.)
It’s one of those couple inside-joke things I suppose, but it always makes me giddy when we start singing this cause it is silly and lightens any tensions we may be feeling.
And, of course, it makes me think of the entirety of “Fingertips.” A song that makes me 21 times happy.
Oh, and how could I forget?
They Might Be Giants 2nd encore at the concert?
“Fingertips,” of course.
The below is from a different show (duh), and about a mile and half closer than the seats I had.
Have you seen any shows post-COVID? Which ones?
Was it strange to be in crowds again? Was it amazing? That sense of camaraderie of people gathered to enjoy music?
And how did I not use this for my finger-breaking post?
Oh, and you know how I said in the subheading that this was the 4th concert in 17 days? Paid subscribers will get to hear about the other three shows! Doesn’t that make you mad that I would tease you like that? All it takes is 5 dollars to get to read all about the time I went to the Fillmore in San Francisco to see #W@W#Y^%@Q and….oops, nope, I ain’t gonna fall for that one!
Here’s my quarterly pitch for a couple more paid subscribers….looking for a place to use some of that tax refund (U.S. folks, though maybe other countries also have to file in April too)? Why not hit that upgrade to paid button?
Have a fabulous week and see you beautiful avatars soon!
I spent way too much time trying to write a funny play on the band’s name and how they were so far from our seats they were like tiny ants on the stage. I do think there is a great joke here, but I couldn’t find it, so I’m opening it up for you to rework this joke so that it lands better.
Thanks Steve, TMBG have always seemed to be one of those bands (I've got hundreds!) that I 'quite like' but have never committed to, and with so much new stuff to move onto I'm not sure I'll ever find the time to do so ...
... having said that I just tried out 'Fingertips', and have to say it's one of the strangest/intriguing songs I've ever heard. All those disparate choruses cast adrift from their verses (which you have to suspect have never actually existed) is disorientating, in a good way!
As I recall you posted about them before, so I'm glad you got to see them. Yes, I've been going to concerts as the restrictions were lifted. The Hu (Mongolian folk metal); The Warning (Mexican power trio); Band-Maid (Japanese progressive hard-rock); Nemophila (Japanese thrash and deathcore); Will be seeing Buddy Guy in early Aug, but there's room for more in between! Suggestions?