Wrong And Strong

February 28, 2013 - Higher Ground - Burlington, VT

Thankfully, it was warmer and the weather was nicer in Vermont. At nearly 40 it was practically balmy. As the first person to arrive at Higher Ground, I got to initiate the line. But first I went in to get my ticket from will call. Right as the band was sound checking Twisting, so I was greeted by a blood curdling scream from Flansburgh. Both startling and funny. It was nice to get to hang out with my friend, Emily, in line once again as well. It really is nearly getting to a point where I know someone everywhere I go.

I made a point of stopping at the merch stand first this time, so I could get a copy of Nanobots before they sold out. I was very excited to finally get to see my own name printed in the liner notes as a Super President. I also picked up the new tour shirt, which I had initially mistaken for the Drinky Crow New Years shirt I already own. It is the same design, except on purple instead of black, and it says TMBG under the birds instead of 4-3-2-1. And then all the tour dates are listed on the back.

Vandaveer did a slightly different set this time. Adding in a tune from their upcoming album of murder ballads. They joked that there management had advised them that they should be advertising that they have a new album coming out. The song was morbidly depressing, about a man who murdered his entire family and then himself. But then I suppose that is what murder ballads are usually about. I also got a much better look at the pedal guitar tonight and realized it has a whole other system of pedals that are operated by the knees in addition to the foot pedals. Really must look up how that thing works.



The smoke machine in this place emitted a foul smell when it was turned on. It smelled like something was burning though it did fade with time, thankfully. Oh, and a thank you to the couple next to me who gave me a poster from the show! It is now hanging on my bedroom door.

The setlist tonight was identical to the night before, except that they successfully executed the Avatar segment and they performed They Might Be Giants in the second encore as originally planned.

TMBG setlist: You're On Fire - When Will You Die - Memo To Human Resources - Celebration - Call You Mom - Fingertips - Cloisonné - Whistling In The Dark - Doctor Worm - Puppet Head - Where Your Eyes Don't Go - The Guitar - Battle for the Planet Of The Apes - They'll Need A Crane - Insect Hospital - He's Loco - Nanobots - Birdhouse In Your Soul - 123 Band Intro - The Mesopotamians - Istanbul  Encore - Alphabet Of Nations - New York City - Ana Ng  Encore 2 - They Might Be Giants - Twisting

Keeping with the trend of wearing winter gear on stage this week, Danny arrived on stage for this show wearing a scarf with his blazer. It looked rather dapper, though I think it may have been to combat the fact that he was feeling under the weather. I heard him say something to Linnell at one point and he sounded like he had a frog in his throat.



After When Will You Die, Flans joked that he was trying to figure out who had finished first. He introduced the new album and said it would be in record stores in a few days, if there were still any record stores. Linnell pointed out that they were on day 2 of their 40,000 day tour. Flans joked that they were waiting for their totally computerized light show to boot up. Linnell said that they were doing all the same jokes as they did the day before, so now they were better rehearsed but they sounded like they didn't care anymore. And Flans added that they referred to stunned silences as jokes.

Before Memo to Human Resources, Flans counted off the song, 1-2-3-4, except he shouted "Four!" just as they started. I was so confused for a bit, because I couldn't understand why. I suddenly thought I was on a golf course.



Watching Marty do Call You Mom from directly in front of him was even more amazing than it was from across the stage. I was so impressed by his control. He would just explode all over the kit and then come to a complete stand still during the breaks in the song, only bouncing slightly to keep the beat. And then explode back out all over the place. He never even seemed out of breath. That man is a machine. My favorite part of this performance was during the last little beat of silence at the end of the song, Marty let out this spontaneous shout that fit in so beautifully with his performance. During one of the particularly impressive bits, Danny caught my eye for just a second and we had this brief shared moment of "hot damn, Marty is on fire! Are you seeing this?!" When they finished, Danny started bowing down to Marty, giving much deserved praise. And fortunately it is all captured on video for you to enjoy :-)



Flans did his usual routine about stealing bass clarinets again before Cloisonné. Linnell made a point of returning to the mic during this to point out "it's for the kids."



Prior to Drink!, Flans gave a shout out to a couple of their crew members who were from Burlington: Jon Carter, and their long time, though not current, tour manager Chris Bailey (or possibly Dailey, hard to tell since I don't really know who he was talking about). I can't remember if it was at this show or Rochester where Flans gave the Drink! instructions but forgot to tell the crowd to repeat the word and on the first test, everyone just went "Drink!" and that was it. Flans blamed himself for giving improper instructions.



During the solo on Doctor Worm, Flans came over and crouched down on the stage right in front of me with Danny, provided what should have been a perfect photo op. But sadly, I blew it. I just wasn't fast enough getting the camera up. This picture is all I could salvage. Lost moments like that always make me sad.



When Flans introduced Dan on the keyboard for Puppet Head, Dan leaned back and shouted "keyboards!" into the sky. It sounded like a battle cry and was very entertaining.

Jon Carter came on stage to fix something before Where Your Eyes Don't Go and Linnell said that they made a whole movie about Jon Carter... "and no one saw it." Over on the side of the stage, Dan raised his hand to indicate that he had actually seen the movie, but I don't think anyone was paying attention. Poor Dan. The Johns riffed a bit on their previous night's performance of The Rockford Files and said they thought it had gone pretty well, until they realized that no one in the audience had been born with The Rockford Files was one. Flans said they were entering the Smothers Brothers casino era of their career and Linnell made some dated jokes about Anita Eckberg and Henry Kissinger.



When Flans started the explanation of Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Dan suddenly disappeared from the stage. He just put down his guitar and walked back stage. The boys were looking after him confused, and Mr. Brunette briefly went to check on him. He came back a couple of minutes later and Dan gave him an "everything alright?" look which Dan responded to by pointing out that the timing of his return was perfect. I assume he either just needed to pee, or remove a layer of clothing, as there didn't seem to be anything wrong.



This was a one of a kind people vs apes battle as after each team had had a turn and the people were just starting up again, Flans called the whole thing to a halt. It seemed he had neglected to give the part of the instructions that said that the two teams do not continue chanting while the other team chants. I had tried to get my "people" team to stop this and I think I unfortunately frightened a guy behind me by waving my hands at him telling him to stop. Hopefully he figured out I was trying to be helpful and wasn't criticizing his chanting. Anyway, Flan declared a do over and made it clear that "this is only a competition. There is no larger point." And then we made another attempt at doing it properly, which the "people" won. I have to assume that the halted Battle is, if not a first, than a very rare occasion, as I have certainly never seen it happen. And the dialogue in between attempts while Flans explained what had gone wrong was absolutely hilarious, at least for me. I couldn't stop laughing. Afterward, Flans thanked everyone for participating and said they would never forget it.



Linnell did his "accenting the wrong syllable" thing again after Crane. The Avatars didn't do anything especially notable. Actually, they didn't do much more than sing He's Loco. Afterward, Linnell complained that they eat all the snack and come out and do one song. "I don't know why we put up with those little shits." Flans pointed out that they work cheap. And Linnell added that they live in a suitcase.



Flans had the robot effect on his mic for Nanobots and told the audience he had taken on a new robot affect that he was going to maintain for the remainder of the performance. "It might seem a little heavy handed right now, but you get used to it over the fullness of time. In fact I'm already quite fond of it. It makes you speak in short sentences. *Pause* This is a brand new song. *Pause* Please talk, John." The last was said with a note of laughter and desperation in his voice. Linnell apologized and said he was mesmerized. He then pointed out that this was the title track of their new album. Flans came back in to say, "I don't know if I can work with this portion of the show." Linnell told him he just need to embrace it. "It's just not working for me," said Flans. "Wrong and strong," said Linnell. "Please begin," begged Flans. And they did.

When when Dan went to start the Istanbul introduction, he still had his wah-wah pedal on from doing the band intro, and thus the intro came out in a different key than usual, until he went over to use the pedal again to play with the intro.


This has got to be one of my all time favorite pictures of Flans, I have managed to get, and it was a total accident.

Flans pointed out that their new album was on sale at the merch booth and said they were trying out a new business model, which was to actually sell their music. He also mentioned the app again.



I don't recall there being anything else particularly notable about the encores. Flans and Marty came out and handed out stickers after the show (I got mine from Marty :-)). And Scott joined them to sell copies of Nanobots off the front of the stage. I am sorry to say, that this show busted my perfect setlist retention streak that I have maintained for over a year, but it was a duplicate of the previous night so I can't be too fussed about it. The stage area was pretty chaotic with the stickers and CDs and what not and I eventually gave up.

Super fun show :-)