The Sound Is Bringing The People Round

First, I must make a plug. The very awesome Fouroftwo has just created a shiny new TMBG forum for all of us fans to play on. Please come check it out. It's a great opportunity to talk with other fans and make some new friends. You can find it here: http://theymightbegiants.proboards.com/

And in other news.... My last audience participation blog entry seemed to be pretty popular (or at least as popular as anything gets on this blog) so I am bringing back the concept for round two.

Since this is, for the most part, a blog about live shows, this round is going to be about.... you guessed it: live shows. I'm going to round up my top 10 live shows I've attended (and why they were my favorites), then you, the audience, can share yours in the comments. (You don't have to stick to 10 if you don't want to, you can do 20 or 5 or 1 if you want.) Then we'll see how much cross-over there is.

Putting together this list was actually a lot harder for me than I thought it was going to be. There were several shows that, looking back on them, there was some aspect of the show that really stood out but not necessarily the whole show. There were also fantastic shows that had a single aspect I didn't like that kept them off the list. My second show at The Stone Church should be on this list because it had an awesome setlist and something like six or seven of the Else songs played at that show were the debut performance. But I don't remember it. I didn't care about the band yet so I wasn't really paying attention. I didn't know the songs were new at the time. Which is truly sad.

So, here we go. This is what I came up with.

10. 4/19/08 - The Egg - Albany, NY - This was the first show I went to as a fan. It was actually my fifth show but it was my first show I attended after falling hard for the band. It was the first time I recognized all the songs. And they were almost all still new to me. It was my first time by the stage, getting to bounce and dance and really enjoy the show. Flans played right in front of me. I heard Seven for the first time. Dan played Darkened Corridors from the top of the theater. It was a wonderful experience for me.

9. 7/11/09 - Prospect Park - Brooklyn, NY - This is the only family show on the list, not because I don't enjoy them, because I do, but because they are usually more subdued affairs, they get eclipsed by the rock shows. Not so with this one. This show was just fun. All the confetti. All the goofy jokes. Paleontologist and Balloons. Marty's dancing. Broom covering All Star. Just fun.

8. 8/9/08 - Wolf Den - Uncasville, CT - I have a feeling this show was one of those once in a life time experiences. There were songs played that I am pretty sure I will never hear again (unless they do another Factory Showroom show). This show would actually be ranked much higher on the list if I had attended it more recently because FS has since become my favorite album and at the time I just didn't appreciate some of the songs the way I would now.

7. 1/30/09 - Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel - Providence, RI - This is a show that might have been left off the list due to a bad audience experience (drunk girl..very annoying) but was actually so good it made the cut anyway. The setlist played like a greatest hits show with some of my favorite rarities thrown in. The banter was some of the most memorable I can recall with the Lizard People and the Tom Poston story that popped up again repeated over the next several shows. The bitter cold and the KFC lights. The best Older confetti launch I have ever seen. And Dan playing the Darkened Corridors solo from atop the giant speaker set with wild abandon while the security and techs looked on worriedly. Just so good.

6. 1/31/09 - Le Poisson Rouge - This was a good weekend for me, obviously. There were a lot of really good shows at LPR but this was my favorite. I seem to have a thing for shows where stuff goes wrong and this was definitely one of those. There were sound problems almost all the way through. But the setlist was so good. Museum of Idiots and End of the Tour, two of my favorite songs, both for the first time for me. And Puppet Head. Dan playing in my face for the whole show. Watching Danny try to get all the sound issues fixed from the far side of the stage. My only stage side spot in eight shows at this venue and the awesome view that came with it. Good times.

5. 10/9/09 - The Pageant - St Louis, MO - Speaking of shows where things went wrong. This was the gloriously screwed up Flood show. But it was so much fun watching them try to put it back together again. The whole sequence of events with Danny running around the stage trying to re-insert skipped songs until he finally gave in to the ridiculousness of it all and took up Marty's drum mallets. Flans asking if they had forgotten to play anything else, like all of Lincoln. Ralph and his made-up instrument and fruit maracas. The Guggenheim boys. I laughed so hard, got covered in confetti and had a marvelous time.

4. 3/12/10 - Recher Theatre - Towson, MD - Best puppet show ever. From where we were standing at this show it was so easy to believe that the whole show was being played especially for us. It was ground shaking. Literally. And the Towson venue song is one of my favorites.

3. 10/1/09 - The State Theater - Ithaca, NY - Tour kick off show that totally shook up the live act and launched it into it's current version. Tons of new Science songs. Youth Culture and Where Your Eyes Don't Go. The very first Avatar show, when they were still figuring things out and Linnell played keyboard while operating his puppet. And enough confetti to fill a small swimming pool. Flans playing on the right and sitting down in a chair to do Science is Real. Really, really good.

2. 9/29/08 - Chameleon Club - Lancaster, PA - I went into this show tired and sick and kind of miserable and came out so happy I couldn't stop talking about it. The conga. The Stick. Unsupervised and West Virginia. Linnell playing the cowbell. Dinner Bell. The surprise add-on of the Polka at the end (I'd never heard it before). Why Does the Sun Really Shine? for the first time. I think it really says something that I've seen 41 shows since this one and only one of them topped it. Damn, that was a good show.

1. 3/11/10 - The National - Richmond, VA - Wow. A lot of the reason this show is my favorite is due to context. The disaster that was the show before, JoCo playing my request, talking to Danny after the show. All of those things definitely have a strong influence on it's placement. But the show also rocked so hard. The reverse Flood plays so well and the guys played with such energy and enthusiasm. We drowned in confetti, just got absolutely buried. It was awesome. Just...wow.


And the Grand Prize for my very, very favorite show goes to.......the next one. My favorite is always the next one down the line. I look forward to my next show now as much as I ever did, if not more. There is so much possibility in it. The next show can really keep me going through some pretty rough patches. Like right now. I've been pretty miserable lately but I've never looked forward to Earth Day more. It can't come soon enough.


Your turn! What are your favorite shows? Comment away (and don't forget to visit the forum)!