They Might Be Giants / Common Rotation / Corn Mo

A lot of bands out there have a loyal following of fans and They Might Be Giants is a prime example. Less often does a group of fans have a band that is loyal to them but I will get back to that...

"Hey, we're on the guest list."
"Sorry man, you're not on here."
"What? I'm writing a show review tonight, #&@% was supposed to put me on there!"
"Sorry, $22.50 or stand over there out of the way."

I've only got 15 bucks on me. Gotta get in there.

"Can you see if someone from their management is in there I can talk to?"
"Give me back that wristband and find 'em outside or call 'em on the phone."

All I've got is an office number and it's 8 o'clock at night.

"Come on brother, you're not gonna help me out?!"
(he looks like he's getting pissed now...)

This dudes big, I better not talk too much shit. It's too early to get in a fight. Over there, somebody is digging something out from the storage space under the bus.

Now, back to a band being down for the fans. "Hey bro, are you with They Might Be Giants?" He pulls his head out of the compartment and says, "Yeah, I'm the drummer." "Hell yeah! Check it out..." I say explaining the situation. Give him my story, "I'm here to write a show review," my name, my contact name that was supposed to put me on the list...

"Hold on, let me talk to our tour manager and see what I can do" he says as he dissapears back into the bus. "What's your name again?" he says sticking his head back out and closes the door again. This is looking promising. "Okay, you're on there now."

"Right on! Thanks bro!" I say throwing him a peace sign as we head back for the door. We get to the door right as another club employee walks up to this bouncer and says, "Put Nick Murray +1 on the list."

"That's us." I say like he doesn't remember me. We get our wristbands back and head in just in time to get a drink and catch Common Rotation take the stage for their set.

Drinks in hand with a smug smiles on our faces, we lean against the bar and listen to "protest songs" from never-oppressed white dudes with polo shirts. First there's two guys, two mics and one guitar. The third member comes and goes occassionally joining in on songs. Particular highlight is a song explaining the difference between God and singer Adam Busch. "Who will want you after you lie about weapons of mass destruction? God will, but I won't, God does, but I don't." Then a chorus with the audience joining in (with some encouragement from Busch "You can sing you fuckers!") "That's the difference, between God and me."

Next up for a short set is Corn Mo. This guy could just as easily be a Jack Black (with a long blonde wig) Saturday Night Live skit as a serious performer. A one man act with a mic and an accordian. He doesn't particularly sing or play exceptionally well, but with humorous songs about time travel, Hershey's Miniatures or his girlfriend encouraging him to pursue music and then dumping him for going out on the road, combined with his stage presence and pizzazz he makes for a damn entertaining act.

After being blown away by The Incredible Moses Leroy the first time I saw TMBG and being thoroughly dissappointed with Muckafurgason the next time, these two acts restored my faith in the ability of TMBG to choose great less-than-well-known acts to bring on tour with them.

If you've never seen TMBG live before, you are missing out. This time around, the guys are on a quest to write an original song for each venue they play thus personalizing the show for the fans. The venue here happens to be "Trees" so we get an slightly eerie, fantasy flavored, elfish drone about about slaying dragons and (roughly) "tell them that you walked through the forest and you saw the...TREES." Playing two nights in Dallas at around 2 hours each night, there is plenty of time to get in a good sampling of new songs from The Spine, rarities such as XTC vs. Adam Ant and live show regulars like New York City.

On several occasions, this show paid particular attention to the skills of guitarist Dan Miller. Electric guitar solo, acoustic solo evolving from folksy strumming with the audience snapping their fingers to frantic jamming with the audience clapping to the intensifying rhythm into a great rendition of Istanbul (Not Constantinople). Later as Dan puts down the guitar, John Linnell tells the audience they should curse him for putting it aside (the audience boos, curses and flips him the bird) then John continues, "...but you should praise him for getting on the keyboard..." The audience erupts into to laughter and cheering as he makes his way to the keyboard.

"We've saved the best for the... beginning of the... middle part of the show..." which is Corn Mo taking the stage for a dueling accordian jam of Triangle Man with Linnell. Unbelievable, two accordians, one great song and a club full of fans that could very well be bi-polar in the heights of a manic moment. I suppose the Johns know that a few hundred bouncing geek rockers could not be content without a healthy dose of their favorites - Why Does The Sun Shine, Birdhouse In Your Soul and The Guitar (with a line a la Biz Markie of "Oh baby, you, you got what I need",) and a tripped out, spacey keyboard solo at the end.

In the highlight moment of the evening, John Flansburgh turns on the small FM radio on stage and the signal is transmitted through the sound system. After turning the dial all the way to the left, scrolling through unrecognizable bits of songs, talk and static, he slowly scans the station and briefly pauses on a few stations. Talk, skip it. Country, skip it. BBC on NPR, skip it. Then he finds Elton John's Bennie and The Jets. They listen for a second and Linnell joins in on the keyboard harmony, Flansburgh and Miller on guitar with Flansburgh singing along. Awesome! The crowd once again erupts. Scan past a few more songs and repeat this process after finding Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me. I have a feeling these guys could do an entire show like this if there were enough radio stations.

The first encore satisfies more of the crowd's craving for older favorites with She's An Angel and Doctor Worm and after another brief exit, they return with a little ditty of thanks to the fans, the crew and most importantly - the spotlight guys - "Keep your lights on each other the whole song spotlight guys! Put them back on each other!" Show closer is another rendition of - "we've almost got this one down now" - the tribute to local venue - TREES!

Don't miss 'em when they roll through your town! Also, head over to http://www.theymightbegiants.com to download the new album, single tracks or live recordings of the show in your town directly from the band and keep their money out of the man's hands.

Dallas, TX - 07/17/04