Triangle Man Hates Person Man
As reported last night, Q and I went to see They Might Be Giants at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC. We were dressed for the occasion; Q made each of us t-shirts with TMBG references on them, and I was also wearing a Klingon headpiece.
The Klingon headpiece was "a prosthetic forehead on my real head", a reference to the song "We Want A Rock" from the Flood album. I didn't bother with any makeup to go with it because I wasn't going to the concert as a Klingon; just as someone wearing a prosthetic forehead. (It was hot enough as it was without the makeup making it mor uncomfortable.) The t-shirt was a reference to Universe Man from the song "
Particle Man": "He's got a watch with a minute hand, millennium hand and an eon hand; when they meet it's a happy land."
Q's shirt was a reference to yet another Flood song, "Birdhouse In Your Soul." Many people got the references on the shirts (and on my head); other people needed them explained.
We took the Metro to get there, and fortified ourselves with two different kinds of vodka. When we got to the club, there was already a significant line of people waiting to be let in to the sold-out show. Q immediately got in line while I went up to the windows to pick up our tickets. Picking up tickets at the 9:30 Club is always fun; this time I had to go back and forth a few times between the two windows before they finally found my tickets. Once I got the tickets, I strolled down the line looking for Q, and also kept an eye out for any other familiar faces. I didn't see any, although I'm told there was a gaggle of people there celebrating
kmusser's birthday, and I believe
grayhawkfh was there as well.
Employing a complete lack of consideration for anyone but ourselves, we got through the crowd and right up to the stage. Being as loud and enthusiastic as we were, we couldn't help but to be noticed. The first set was the album Flood in its entirety; and then, after a twenty-minute break, they came back for a second set which contained songs from a number of their other albums (and a couple from their upcoming album). After singing "Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)," they explained that the song was a cover of an old song (
here's the original!) and was no longer scientifically accurate. Due to their uncompromising nature, TMBG insisted on writing a new song to address the deficiencies in the old one, and thus followed up with the song "The Sun Is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma." Although no children were allowed in this show, they still sung a few songs from their children's albums, including Richard's favorite "Clap Your Hands." I didn't know all of the songs that they played in the second set, but I had to pretend that I did because they kept looking at me. The fact that we were right up front, and being noticed, made it hard for us to surreptitiously snap any photos (few of which came out well anyway since I had turned off the flash, but here are a few:
That is, of course, Q in the foreground on the right.
We took those pictures during the encores, since we figured we wouldn't miss much at that point if we got caught and thrown out. They said that they were going to be performing another album, Apollo 18, in its entirety at a gig in New York tonight; they played tracks seventeen through thirty-six as part of the first encore.
It was almost 11:50 PM when we finally got out of there. Fortunately, we managed to catch one of the last Metro green line trains on our way back. And we didn't leave without a couple of souvenirs:
After the first set was over, I got their set list from one of the stage hands who was clearing up and setting up a couple of things for the second set. After the second set was over, before they came back out for the first encore, Q nabbed a guitar pick which John Flansburgh had dropped sometime earlier during the show. As soon as she saw it fall, Q wanted it; but it was out of our reach. We managed to acquire it by employing teamwork. I asked a guy with a big foam finger if we could borrow it; and when Q still couldn't reach it, we got the assistance of someone else in the front row with a longer reach (and in a slightly better position).