A review of They Might Be Giants' 30th Anniversary Show at Royce Hall at UCLA

Had a chance to see They Might Be Giants’ 30th Anniversary Show at Royce Hall at UCLA.
Here’s how it went…

Even though this show had a “Lincoln* theme” and therefore featured a slew of songs I hadn’t heard in a while over my fifteen years of fandom, the whole thing felt a bit lackluster for their 30^th anniversary playing together.
I honestly expected a full horn section, special guests…flaming tigers?
At one point, Robin “Goldie” Goldwasser popped out and joined the band for “Dr. Evil” (probably because she’d performed at the family show earlier that afternoon and had no plans for the evening) and Conan O’Brien’s pet trumpet player, Mark Pender was on-stage for a handful of tunes, but that was all.
This show marked thirty years to the day that these guys (Flansburgh and Linnell) have been playing together.
THREE DECADES.
And all they could muster was one trumpet player and Flans’ wife?Don’t misunderstand, both Pender and Goldwasser are exceptional performers, but this was to be a special night and it felt a bit flat.John and John offhandedly mentioned the significance of the evening once and that was it.I wasn’t looking for a VH-1 Storyteller’s session, but, come on, this band has been around for longer than some of its fans have been on the planet!It’s a massive achievement and I was a bit puzzled they didn’t take three minutes to pat themselves on the back is all.

Aside from the indifference towards this momentous occasion, the show was excellent. The Avatars of They came out and performed a song from their upcoming EP (a jingle for a new, fake drug called PANDOR) as well as the bridge of “Snowball In Hell”, a high point of the show. Some other great moments included a rallying game of Apes Vs. People (people won) as well as a John/John/accordion rendition of “How Can I Sing Like A Girl?”, plus some of the best tracks off of Lincoln (“They’ll Need A Crane”, “Pencil Rain” and “Ana Ng”) and their latest single from their second most recent release, Join Us, the shimmeringly aggressive, “When Will You Die?”.
Personally, I would have replaced the ridiculously overplayed “Damn Good Times” with “New York City” or “Don’t Let’s Start” or “No One Knows My Plan” or “The Lady and The Tiger” or “The Guitar” or even just three minutes of old school John and John banter, but that’s just me…and me thinks that they should stop playing that song.

Overall, the energy felt a little low, whether because of the afternoon show or the fact that this was a seated venue, but, other than that and the aforementioned failure to make a big deal about themselves, it was, like I said, an excellent show, as pretty much all They Might Be Giants shows are.
After thirty years, these guys can still sell out a venue and have their audience standing and stamping their feet for an encore.

This was the second date on the last leg of their Join Us tour and I’ll also be seeing them on the last date of said leg in March at Terminal 5.
There will be no show earlier in the day, the audience will be standing the whole time and it’s going to take place a mildly expensive cab ride away from the Johns’ homes in Brooklyn; in other words: no excuses.

See you in March, gentlemen.

*Their second album, released in 1988.