They Might Be Giants Destroy SoHo Apple Store With Rock

7.21.11

4:42 pm

 

Not really.

I mean, it's still there and you can still buy iStuff and that.

But Flans did make a comment regarding the lack of oxygen...

 

So, I showed up around five to obtain a good seat for TMBG's in-store appearance yesterday, only to be told by a Guy Sitting At A Desk that the actual line for the show would start around six and that I should check back in around then, six.

I said fine, I'll pretend to be shopping until then.

He smiled.

Asshole.

I began to pretend to study the packaging of the Mac products only to realize that it's hard to do that when there's nothing written on them.

Fucking minimalist corporations...

Then the band started doing sound check and that was cool, showing off a few never-before-played songs like "Can't Keep Johnny Down" and "Cloisonné". Once they left the stage around 5:20, I abandoned the top floor and went downstairs to play with some iPod Touches.

Meh.

I have an iPod.

I can touch it AND it has more space than these faggy little Touches ever will.

It did look pretty cool though and there's something so almost-the-future about touch pad stuff.

Then...I saw the iPads.

I don't consider myself a real techy guy.

I own an 80GB iPod and have owned it for years, only a few times considering the upgrade to a 160GB.

I own the cheapest cell phone available, not caring about having a tiny computer with me at all times.

I'd say this is half a vision thing (hey, cool, a tiny little screen on which to watch movies!!! AND I get to pay for it?! WOO!!!) and half a "I have a phone and all the music I'll ever need on me at all times, I'm set" thing.

Then...as I said...I saw the iPads.

I walked over and saw the strings of a guitar displayed on one of these things, looked at my cell phone's display and saw I still had over a half hour before the line for the seven o'clock show even formed, so I plugged my headphones into the iPad and started playing around.

Wow.

I spent a huge amount of time just messing around with this music program.

It was fascinating!

You may or may not know this, but the most recent Gorillaz album, "The Fall", was all composed and recorded using an iPad (1 not 2), and, although not the best written, the idea that this was all done on an iPad was mind blowing.

I now understand how that could have happened.

After spending way too much time exploring this music making program (which, I believe, comes with the iPad) I moved to the iPad next to it...this one had video games on it...

Now, while I might not be a techy guy, I am, most certainly, a gamer.

Not the pothead-first-person-Call-of-Warfare gamer, but I own a PlayStation 3 and buy several games a year.

I listen to a podcast that focuses chiefly on gaming. Not a lot, but every once in a while, the guys on the podcast will bring up something that sounds amazing...but is only for iPads.

I have never thought, oh wow, that's so cool as to warrant the $500 or $600 to buy an iPad.

Because, basically, I'd be paying $500 or $600 for a video game.

Which I don't really think I could do.

I mean it.

But...$500 or $600 for a video game...and a portable recording studio?

Anyway, long story short, I did NOT buy an iPad, but I can see myself doing so at some point.

Back to the story, I looked at my watch after playing Angry Birds and say it was 5:55.

Perfect.

I went back to the top of the stairs and asked about the line for the TMBG show.

"Oh, yeah, that's downstairs and forty people long."

Fucks.

But, thanks to this monstrous height of mine and the size of the performance space, I was seven feet away from the band as opposed to three feet, so it was actually negligible.

Eventually the show started, the band tentatively opening with a new song, "Never Knew Love".

Meh.

I don't love the song on the album and I don't really love it live.

Then "Fingertips".

Yes.

Rock solid as ever with some new flourishes that made it even better.

Then the first single off the new album, "Can't Keep Johnny Down", which sounds a whole lot like the album version.

Also a touch "meh".

They brought it back with "Twistin'", fun as always, with a cool segue into "Ana Ng", an old favorite.

After that, they surprised me by playing "Memo To Human Resources", the morose track from 2004's The Spine.

An odd choice.
Then the only kid's song, and, in my opinion, the only good one from the three Disney albums, "Alphabet of Nations".

Then some repositioning before another new one, one of my favorites off the new album, "You Probably Get That A Lot", which was carried out wonderfully.

Then "Dr. Worm" which, well, I'm starting to count it among those TMBG songs I really don't care to see live anymore.

It's not their fault, it's just that I've seen it played at almost every show since my first back in 1998.

After that, another new one, "Cloisonné" which featured John Linnell on the bass clarinet, "all the way from the basement". This one...kind of broke down at the end.

It sort of worked, "we'll be announcing the winner of that song later" remarked Linnell, but I could see it working well with their full horn section.

Then the always wonderful live staple "Birdhouse In Your Soul" before Flansburgh commanded us to stand for "the shortest song of the set", "Judy Is Your Viet Nam", which, despite not really hitting me on the album, is great live. The drummer, Marty, started this track off with the intro from "Clap Your Hands" and, for a moment, I wondered if the Apple store could handle all the jumping and stomping...
Then, the last track off The Else, the still-enjoyable "The Mesopotamians" before the one song encore of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" featuring a blazing extended guitar intro from Dan Miller and an extended jam band outro hosted by Flansburgh.

Huge energy for such a tiny space.

It was great to see TMBG after so long a time and I'm more excited than ever about seeing them AND Jonathan Coulton AND Eugene Mirman AND Kristen Schaal AND Patton Oswalt....for free.

God, something has got to be wrong with that set up..

Guess I'll find out in 8 days.

Wong.

 

Never Knew Love

Fingertips

Twistin'

Ana Ng

Closonne

You Probably Get That A Lot

Alphabet of Nations

Dr. Worm

Memo To Human Resources

Judy Is Your Viet Nam (with Clap Your Hands intro)

Birdhouse

Istanbul