Dateline: Black Friday 2008

<TMBG nerd>

The TMBG concert last night was awesome. Just completely awesome. I’m a bit saddened by the fact that it was only Ginohn and I that went to this special event, since it wasn’t just any concert, and that they are probably done going to TMBG concerts. I hate going to concerts alone, but that looks like what’s going to have to happen in the future.

But anyway, here’s why the concert was awesome:

• First and foremost, they were energetic and looked genuinely excited to be putting on a show. I noted that I’ve been to some concerts that were near the end of a tour where it wasn’t as good. But this time… totally into it.
• There was no opening act. Instead, they played Flood in its entirety! I could tell there were some songs in there they hadn’t played in a long time. Gina and I only caught one lyric screw-up, but I thought I picked out a few musical mess-ups in some of the songs you don’t hear on tour. Still, just getting to hear those songs played live was awesome!
• Horn section! Trumpet, trombone, and saxophone. Not only am I a big fan of brass in rock, but it meant Istanbul was played the way it was meant to be played. (And later, Dr. Worm.)
• Linnell rocked the accordion so hard during “Particle Man” the top key came off. He said it was his favorite note.
• There was still a full concert after they played Flood- almost 3 hours of music altogether.
• They played “The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas.” THEN they explained that they wrote a new song to keep up with the times, since scientists no longer believed that. They played a brand new song, “The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma” as a retraction of the old song!
• In the process of explaining the song, they revealed the next album is called “Here Comes Science” as another kids album coming where that song will be included. They also revealed that they were already receiving angry emails for their “controversial” stance on evolution as fact.
• They played “West Virginia” and “I Hit My Head”. The former is from State Songs, the latter from Mono Puff, their two side projects. They weren’t just songs I had never seen played live before, they weren’t even technically TMBG songs.
• They rocked hard during the songs, including doing some major rock star jumps during songs. (Not bad for guys in their 40’s.) Flansburgh even rocked a TMBG-branded marching band drum during one song.
• Very glad to see some more obscure favorites, like “Hey Mr. DJ I Thought you Said we Had a Deal” have made it into regular concert play.
• They played only two songs from The Else, and they were my two favorites from the album.

That’s all I remember at the moment. There was some minor fun-dampening stuff, like standing near a mass of obnoxiousness, but overall I had a total blast. I still can’t backtrack and count all the concerts I’ve been to, but it’s got to be around the 20 mark by now. And I’m hoping for many more.

(note I do not close the TMBG nerd tag, indicating that it will go on.)