“I’m impressed, I’m impressed…”

Those lyrics open up the first track on The Else, the twelfth album from They Might Be Giants released over the summer.

TMBG did not fail to impress on Saturday at the TLA in Philly where they played the last show of a two month tour in support of the album. The guys put on a two set show, bringing out a three man horn section for the second set.

The opening act, Oppenheimer, was entertaining. A barebones duo, they have sort of a Rentals meets the Postal Service synth/homemade feel. They talked a bit too much between songs, but they made up for that, at least to me, by blasting an air horn once or twice during their music.

A team of cleanroom roadies setup the stage before TMBG’s first set dressed in full body zip-up white jumpsuits complete with hoodies. The roadies tossed out red foam fingers and glow sticks into the crowd. I angered a middle aged woman standing nearby when I snatched one of the foamie fingers above the hands of what must have been her teenage son. “You just stole that from a 14 year old!” she yelled at me. I felt like a dick, a dick with a giant red foam finger.

The band made it clear that they would be playing two sets with signs all around the venue and an announcement at the start. The first set lasted about an hour, with a mix of tracks from the new album (the Cap’m, Take Out the Trash, The Mesopotamiams) and old favorites (Puppet Head, Particle Man, Ana Ng). That set alone would’ve made for a fun show.

But after a short break, the second set kicked off with the Triceratops horn section joining the mix. The three man team featured a trumpet, a trombone, and a saxophone. They really beefed up the sound on songs like Birdhouse in Your Soul, the Guitar, and Doctor Worm.

The Johns returned to the stage alone for the encore and played Maybe I Know, a very mellow cover of a mellow 60’s song originally sung by Lesley Gore. Guitarist Dan Miller reappeared and rocked an amazing classical guitar intro to Instanbul (Not Constantinople). The rest of the band appeared and tore through the actual song with the crowd in a frenzy.

They closed out the night with a musical introduction of the band members. The intros ended with the drummer smashing violently on his kit while Flansburgh demanded that the crowd worship him. “He’s destroying his shit… just for you people!”

TMBG seemed comfortable at the TLA, a venue they’ve played plenty of times over the years. Flansburgh commented at one point on a recent name change for the venue which has been purchased by the Fillmore venue chain.

“We’re thrilled to be back the Theater of the Living Arts, also known as the Fillmore to people who have absolutely no idea where they are.”

Maybe it was the excitement of wrapping up a tour, or maybe strong doses of happy pills, but the two Johns were in high spirits. Of course, John Flansburgh kept the crowd pumped throughout with corny jokes and face to face guitar shredding battles with guitarist Dan Miller. But even the normally subdued John Linnell was all smiles and chatty.

Video from the show after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »