(Summary written by Carolyn, pronouns changed by Clint, this may be messy..) So we saw They Might Be Giants at the 9:30 Club on the day after Thanksgiving. The show was sold out. The 9:30 Club website didn’t mention an opening band. It said doors were at 8, and TMBG was at 9. So we decided to leave at 8:15, then changed it to 8. Carolyn remembered last year when she went with Vicky & Kipp (Clint went to see Ween in Baltimore instead). There was a line to get into the doors. Since the show was sold out, we’d have to find a parking spot. When we got to the 9:30 Club, we found the lot indeed to be full. As we were driving around the block, we considered going to that other paid parking lot for a split second — until the guy running it blinded us with his stupid light. Fuck that. That’s twice we’ve chosen not to park there because of the light in our face. The line to get into the 9:30 club went around the block. We drove up to the end of the line, and Clint asked the people if they had tickets. The answer was yes. Clint had a hard time believing it, and asked a few times, until I was like “yes, they have tickets, it was just like this last year!” One of them was like, “It’s a sold-out show” So we turned around and parked in the last spot. I commented, “At least we don’t have a long walk from our car to the end of the line”. Small consolation. It wasn’t as cold this year as it was last year when Kipp, Vicky, and I stood in that line. Still, you’d think that a club that says “doors open at 8″ would not make it’s paying customers stand in the cold for 2.5 blocks of line, advancing 6 squares of sidewalk every 3 minutes, a full 45 minutes past when these doors were suposed to open. 9:30 needs to send the hand-stamp guy down the line so everyone is stamped already when they present their ticket. This would move the line a lot faster.
Not sure what time we got in, or what time it started or anything. We got in, went to pee, and then when I got out of the bathroom, Clint was like “it’s really crowded in there.” I said “Well, maybe we should go in this way…” and then Clint suggested we go upstairs. So that’s what we did. We went up to the top level to the bar up there to get our drinks and then scope out a spot. Clint was like “Look, they have the stairs roped off so people could stand on them.” But it was a VIP area. But it was convenient because I got to have that spot right there by the rope at the top of the stairs, and I could actually see. Yay. The upstairs bartender made our drinks really strong. It was cool.
When TMBG came on, they said they were doing things a bit different. They were going to play Flood in it’s entirety, and then take a 20 minute break that would last about 19 minutes and then come back and play other songs. It was awesome.
Someone farted a couple of times, and Carolyn got a whiff of some bad breath a couple of times, but all in all, there weren’t any annoying people around.
During the 20 minute break, Caroln asked Clint if we should get another drink. Clint said something about driving so I said, “Well, considering TMBG is in my top ten, if not top 5 bands, can I get another drink and you drive?” Clint said “Get two drinks.” Carolyn got drinks while Clint held their space. Some pour soul was standing at the bar, and Carolyn squeezed in next to him. The bartender came around with the other guy-next-to-me’s drinks and pointed at me and said, “Two vodka 7-ups, right?” and Carolyn was like, “yeah!”. She turned to the poor soul and said “Wow, he remembered! I’m impressed!” Then Carolyn came back and told Clint about how the bartender remembered her, and what drinks she had ordered before. Carolyn glanced back at the bar, and that guy who she had squeezed in next to was still there! The bartender hadn’t even served him yet! She felt somewhat bad because that usually happens to her instead of someone else. But we got over it pretty quick — the drinks were really strong.
They played a bunch of songs, then went out, and then came back for an encore. So there were like 3 sets. 4 actually, but the last one was only 1 or 2 songs. The encore consisted of Fingertips. They also played She’s An Angel from the first album. Mark had said that that is a popular song, and they’ve probably played it at concerts and I just didn’t know that song. So, when they played it, I thought of Mark and how he was probably right about that. Also, they had a lot of fucking around during Particle Man. But it wasn’t boring fucking around (like Violent Femmes can be). However it was definitely the requisite musical masturbation moment (RMMM).
TMBG mentioned several times that they were playing the next night in New York, and they were playing the entire Apollo 18 album. Carolyn said to Clint she was glad we got the Flood album. Flood is way better. And we got all 21 tracks of Fingertips anyway! Tho it was kind of strange that the ended with Withered Hope (“sad saaaaack”), one of TMBG’s few sad songs. It was kind of a stranger bummer note to go out on. But hey, they went on stage FOUR times.
After the show, Clint was hungry, so we were looking around for some place to eat, and he was like, “Maybe we can go to Adam’s Morgan and get one of those jumbo slices.” I was like, “You know how to get to Adam’s Morgan from here?” Because I sure didn’t. Then Clint said, “Oh wait, didn’t that place burn down or something?” As it turned out, there was a jumbo slice place right on U St near 14th street, so we ate there. Clint got a gyro, and I got a jumbo slice of pepporoni. I knew to expect a big piece, but that piece was HUUUUUGE! It was like a half of a pizza almost!! It was crazy. I ate about a third of it, and about three bites of Clint‘s gyro. Clint ate his gyro, and the rest of my pizza (and regretted it). Carolyn kept starting to wrap it up for later, and Clint kept telling me to wait. Until it was gone. When we got home, we chilled awhile, and then watched The Life And Times Of Tim.
The setlist for this concert was considerable, and we know much of it. It is is posted HERE.
To see every concert I’ve ever been to, go to my List Of All Concerts page. (more…)
