They Might Be Giants (TMBG) returned to the Fillmore in San Francisco on Friday, May 9, to kick off three nights of sold out shows. The alternative rock duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell (who also moonlight as a children’s band), is on their Big Show Tour, where they highlight a different album from their four-decade-long career in each show. They were accompanied by an extended band, with a trio of saxophone, trumpet, and trombone to boot. The night was truly a grand celebration of the band and their storied history, filled with the musical and personal eccentricities that earned them their following.
Flansburgh and Linnell came onto the stage at showtime and kicked off the night with songs from their 1994 album, John Henry. While I was not familiar with this album, I appreciated the unmistakable TMBG energy as well as the mood and instrumental range of the songs performed, from the bluesy “Snail Shell” that exemplified the bizarre lyrical subjects their songs take on, to the electric guitar-laced, polka-inspired number, “The Famous Polka.” Linnell and Flansburgh interlaced their musical numbers with tales from their long musical journey. In the middle of the set, Flansburgh instructed (in song, of course) the crowd to form a conga line. Drum beats boomed to get the conga line going, while Flansburgh sang about the whole absurdity of the situation and being too old for these sorts of shenanigans. Nevertheless, the crowd heeded the commands, got uncomfortably close to strangers for the sake of a group dance, and formed a conga line that circled around the floor section. The conga music seamlessly transitioned into the misleadingly jaunty “No One Knows My Plan,” a brassy tune about a madman’s thoughts behind bars. The penultimate song of the John Henry set, “Dirt Bike,” became a new favorite of mine, the horns providing a warmth that evoked nostalgia.
After a short intermission, TMBG moved onto their second set, a wide sweep of songs that spanned the length of their career. They played the frenetic “Don’t Let’s Start” from their eponymous first album, as well as some newer material from their 2021 album Book. I was particularly tickled at their introduction to “Call You Mom,” where both Linnell and Flansburgh related the awkwardness of performing this song (a cheeky song about people who have the characteristics of their mothers) in front of their own mothers. The band ended the night with some of their well-known works, closing out the set with a horns-boosted rendition of “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” TMBG performed an extended version of “Particle Man” for their encore, quoting Sun Ra’s “Rocket No. 9” in the middle of the song: “Particle Man take off for the planet, to the planet Venus!”
Review and photography by Janine Bedon
