CHICAGO– At the beginning of They Might Be Giants’ (TMBG) opening set at the Vic Theatre on Friday May 1, frontmen John Flansburgh and John Linnell joked that they were going to “put up the fourth wall” by opening for themselves. And then they did.
Beautifully absurd, wonderfully curated, and I couldn’t tell if what I was witnessing was masterful design or perfect synergy. In between numbers, band members would talk amongst themselves, and occasionally to the fans, creating what felt like intimate conversations and a glimpse at what it really means to create music. Their bizarre and comedic remarks complimented the lyrics and provided moments of laughter among the audience. The fans were completely dialed in to the frequency of the show, so much so that TMBG was able to hold five minute conversations and moments of near silence while maintaining the crowd’s full attention.
TMBG had an insane breadth of instrumentation including two guitars, bass, drums, keyboard, clarinet, accordion, triangle, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, a choir, and giant stick. They played two halves with the first focused on their most recent release, “The World is to Dig” and songs from “Lincoln” an older album in TMBG’s discography. Not only did they highlight some lesser known songs, they also played adapted versions of their most popular music including a rendition of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” with saxophone, trombone, and trumpet solos that lasted nearly ten minutes and left members of the audience in tears of joy.
During the second half of their performance, technically the official show, TMBG played additional songs from “Lincoln” and “The World is to Dig” as well as pieces from across their repertoire including “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” “Wu-Tang,” and “Stuff is Way.” This portion of the set was complimented by fun visuals including absurdly close live videos of the band performing, and cartoon animations.
The show ended with a second encore of “Doctor Worm” that had people singing and dancing, even after everything had wrapped up. They Might Be Giants has been producing music for over four-decades and leaves fans hopeful this won’t be the last time to be a part of one of the most unique concert experiences.
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