Holding Back Since 1978

October 13, 2009 - The Vogue - Indianapolis, IN

Yet another rock club tucked into a suburban neighborhood. This one was next to a comedy club and the line of people waiting to get into that show was longer than ours. There was apparently some kind of MySpace comedy show that was only admitting 250 people so everyone was there early.

We got a spot smack center stage. The stage was very low and they had set up all the equipment trunks on their ends in front of the stage, as far as I can tell, just to give Flans a spot to come out and play in front of the crowd. There was even a big taped X on the edge of the stage to indicate where it was safe for him to step to get out there.

They seem to have made a new pre-show mix because there were new songs playing before the show. I believe the ones after the opener were the old ones. It was nice to hear new stuff but I have really grown to love the old ones and I missed it.

We got talking to the guy next to us about the band and other shows we had been to. Turns out he was at the Chicago show with us too. He had made a Chess Piece Face mask to wear for a bit of the show. It didn't inspire them to play the song but it was cool.

Guggenheim played a new song. It was actually something brand new that they had never played before so we were the test audience. It was called Wisdom and was quite good. It had an audience sing along part, just some la-la-las but any audience participation is good. We finally caved and bought their CDs after the show. I really am fond of them.

This was one of the few non-Flood shows on this tour. The downside was the show was really short. They were done by 10:30. They keep using basically the same setlist for the non-Flood shows but it gets shorter every time. They had dropped another song or two off it tonight and changed the order around.

So, setlist: Meet the Elements - New York City - Ana Ng - My Brother the Ape - Twisting - Dr. Worm - Birdhouse - Clap Your Hands - Where Your Eyes Don't Go - Seven - Hearing Aid - Polk - Science Is Real - Paleontologist - Dead - Spider - Don't Let's Start - Shooting Star - Shoehorn - Cowtown - Istanbul Encore - We Live In A Dump - Mesopotamians Encore 2 - Drink - Alphabet of Nations - Damn Good Times

Things of note:

Flans gave a shoutout to Cub before NYC.

He had this whole thing about it being a Tuesday night show and that meaning that this wasn't the night that your friend went crazy and you got locked out of your car like you would on a Saturday. Then he said this was the point in the show where he should be going into the audience with the mic and asking "so, where you from?" Lots of people started screaming for him to bring the mic to them and he said "no, we're NOT going to do that.

After one of the first songs, Linnell made a comment comparing tonight's performance to a Simply Red show and said they were holding back. This was apparently a reference to a Simply Red song or album called Holding Back the Goods which Flans initially didn't get but then picked up on. Linnell said, in reference to the other band, that they had been "holding back since 1978." Flans chimed in saying TMBG were holding back the goods and were only going to be delivering 78% tonight. The "holding back the goods" line became a running joke for the next several songs. The dowside of not having time to blog immediately after the show is that I forget some of the specifics. There was a lot more too this joke that I just don't remember.

Linnell said that My Brother the Ape was about Flansburgh's brother who is a gorilla.

Dan was having trouble with the keyboard at the beginning of Doctor Worm, which made the beginning sound so odd I didn't recognize it at first.

Before Where Your Eyes Don't Go Linnell said that they sometimes had to go back and completely relearn a song in order to perform it for us which was the case for this one.

Flans had the best riff about their Grammy win which was all basically justifying his regular "it's an honor just to win" comment. I don't remember most of it but it ended with "fuck it, its Tuesday." He was talking about how being a musician is a joke when you're 20 but when you're 30, 35, 40 you mom starts to cry," where did I go wrong." "The Grammy helps."

While introducing Science Is Real, Flans said they had gotten a lesson in YouTube flaming when they posted the Science videos online.

Danny before Paleontologist: "This is my favorite song because it's about me. I am a paleontologist." After the song Linnell called him Dr. Danny Weinkauf, then Dr. Daniel H. Weinkauf. "Don't ask him what the H stands for." Flans got into this whole thing about the H standing for Danny's pin number and if you tried to look it up on the internet your computer would blow up.

It took longer than normal to get the screen and puppets set up and when the band finished playing a longer than average version of the puppet intro music, Linnell said "And we're still not ready. I think you guys are going to have to play the whole song." The Avatars were talking about their new album James Camerson Presents Songs from Avatar but they aren't allowed to play any of the songs until after the movie is released. Flans was fixated on the puppet shadows that were obscuring his puppet on the screen. Flans-puppet tried to eat his shadow again. Linnell suggested that Flans tilt the camera down to illiminate the shadow but Flans said that then the audience would be able to see the people operating the puppets. Linnell pointed out that the audience probably already knew there were people operating the puppets. Linnell also demonstrated some of his new puppeteering skills he has been learning by making his puppet swallow.

Flans talked about Cast Your Pod to the Wind before Dump. He said back in December all of their music mysteriously vanished from iTunes for a bit but that the upshot was when it came back they added some stuff that wasn't available before like Cast Your Pod. So if you liked things without DRM and wanted to support artists you could buy it. Linnell joked that only four people in the crowd supported this. After joking for a bit Flans said "seriously people, come on. Please?" He was obviously indicating that for all the joking they would really like you to support the band by paying for your songs.

Linnell actually came part way out on the trunks for his solo bit on Alphabet, at least as far as his mic would let him.

When Flans was talking about the stickers at the end, Linnell took one that Flans had set on his keyboard and stuck it to the front of his keyboard on the white tape, next to the TMBG logo.

We snagged a setlist at the end and got Marty to sign it. We also bought a signed copy of Science, making the fourth time we have purchased the album so Flans can't complain that I am not supporting the band. We were a little disappointed to realize that it is only signed by the Johns and not the whole band like the ones at the earlier shows were. We're going to have to try to get the rest of the guys to sign it before the end of the trip. And, as I said, we picked up the two Guggenheim CDs and got Kevin and Mick to sign them.

So an excellent but short show. No pictures but I'll get one of the setlist up. I'll attempt to get the Cleveland write-up done tomorrow so I don't fall behind again. On to Pittsburgh in the morning. Mr. Small's here I come. Hope I don't roll down the hill!