Accordion! You can not really love They Might Be Giants and not love the accordion. It just doesn't work. I guess I am a fan of unusual instruments in rock music, in general. This certainly qualifies. The accordion has such a unique sound to it, that oddly blends in with the electric guitars and drums and horns quite well. Especially on the really bombastic rocking songs. Sometimes I look back and am a little sad that I missed out on the earlier years when the accordion was more heavily used in live shows. (But I think I just unintentionally named why it isn't now; the thing is heavy!) A couple of my favorite moments from recent shows were when, for one reason or another, Linnell started to play Ana Ng on the accordion before switching to keyboard (my very favorite being in Chicago when he did it without notifying the rest of the band that they were going to play it and left everyone scrambling for appropriate instruments). I love how the crowd cheers every time he picks up the accordion now.
Remember my story from my last show in Baltimore? Where Stacy and I got all accordioned on in the front row in Particle Man and the woman behind us leaned over to say "That doesn't happen everyday!" and Stacy whispered to me "well, actually it kind of does." Well, I wouldn't have it any other way :-)
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