And Then The Rains Came

July 29, 2011 - Williamsburg Waterfront - Brooklyn, NY

Wow. This show was an experience you had to be there to believe. As someone said on Twitter "If you didn't get your underwear soaked at TMBG in Williamsburg, you weren't there." And oh boy, was I there!

Unlike Lancaster we got to this show three hours before doors. When we first parked, it was just TDK and Paul in line but we spent a few minutes wandering around trying to find a place to buy soda and when we got down to the line another three people were already in it plus Kathy. And it seemed that everyone in front of us had friends join them so we went from sixth in line to about 12th by the time we were let in.

New York brought out some sweltering heat to enjoy during our 3 hour outdoor wait on the sidewalk. One very saavy ice cream man saw the advantage in the situation and pulled his truck over across the street and was swarmed by hot TMBG fans.

The line grew rapidly behind us and at last check before we were let in, it stretched from 8th street all the way to 12th and probably beyond. There was a constant stream of people assuming we were the end of the line who had to be directed on down the street. I know the venue holds about 6000 people and I don't know if we had that many but it had to have been several thousand at least.

We went into the park to use the Port-a-Potty early on (turns out we weren't really supposed to) and saw Flans and Marty on stage getting stuff set up. Later as we stood outside, Danny drove up in his car and parked right in the middle of the roadblock in front of the entrance to the park while he attempted to figure out where he was supposed to go. He got some directions and revved off down the street again. We found this terribly entertaining.

I got to meet a few new folks in line. Some friends of Kathy's that I knew of but hadn't formally met. A couple of guys that had made my personal favorite of the contest winning Johnny videos. And a kid whose name I never managed to get. Hi, nameless kid. You were cool. Hope you enjoyed the show!

We could pretty clearly hear the sound check though we were not in a position to see the stage. They ran through Johnny, Cloisonne, When Will You Die and parts of You Probably Get That A Lot, Judy and a bit of riff from Meet the Elements. There was also a lot of general drum banging. Jonathan Coulton eventually came out for soundcheck as well and did Shop Vac and something else I don't remember.

Gary and Rebecca ran into JoCo outside on his phone on a successful trip to an alternate set of Port-a-Pottys. Megan, Kathy and I all spotted Dan on another (unsuccessful this time...stupid security) trip to those same facilities. So, as is typical, spotted all the guys before the show except Linnell.

We finally were let into the park later than we had been promised. We had to go through a security check and the guy was uber thorough on my tiny purse. He even made me empty my pockets. Not sure what he thought I might have. Then he barely gave Gary a pat down. This delay scattered our already sizeable crowd as we trudged up a hill onto stage level and bolted into the rows of folding chairs.

We took over most of the front row of chairs to the right of the aisle with myself, Gary, Megan, Kathy, Marci, Melanie, Colin and Tessa with John, Rebecca, Finn, Heather, Jim and their friends in the row behind us. The rest of the folks we know went to the left so if you want the story from that side of the stage you can go hit up one of them.

Flans came out and passed out Join Us stickers to some of the folks over by the barrier on the right of the stage. Heather managed to get over and give him one of their TMBG themed pathtags from geocaching like the one that hangs on my purse.

We had been informed on our way in that the chairs were going to be removed before TMBG went on which was just fine with us. But at some point before the comedians who opened the show went on, the people to our left stood up to take positions on the barrier. So we jumped up to avoid anyone getting in front of us. But when Eugene Mirman came out to start the show, security made us all sit down again. It was a little awkward because some people had come up behind us who didn't have chairs and they had nowhere to go but they were allowed to hang on the sides of the aisles.

As all of this was going on, the sky was growing omminously dark. A couple of minutes into Eugene Mirman's set it started to sprinkle and then the skys opened up and it started to pour. We rapidly went from a little wet to soaked. A three inch deep puddle grew under our feet. I had been sitting on the front of my chair and a puddle developed behind me preventing me from moving back and soaking my butt thoroughly.



Jim Gaffigan followed Eugene. Every comedian was quite funny but I have to say, just about the last thing you want to do when sitting outside in the pouring rain is listen to comedy. Kristen Schaal went up next and she at least got points from every wet fan in the crowd by doing a bit re-enacting Flashdance which involved her getting water dumped on her head. It did eventually stop raining. Briefly. (Apologies. I don't have a picture of Kristen. It was pouring too hard.)



Todd Barry came out. The rains started again. There was some very heavy thunder. Eugene came back with Neil Degrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium (who had a beer in his hand the entire time). They answered some questions about science that had been collected from the audience before the show. This was a lot more entertaining than you'd think. But by this point it had started pouring again, even harder than the last time. There was nothing dry left on my person. Even the stuff that was wet got wetter. Neil pointed out that once you were completely wet you actually could not get any wetter. This may be true but not entirely comforting.





Patton Oswald came out to close out the comedians. By this point I was starting to freeze and was actually pretty miserable and lost my ability to laugh even though it was still funny. But it stopped raining by the end of his set and I started feeling a warm breeze again.



When Jonathan Coulton was announced we all stood up again with or without the consent of security and they didn't attempt to stop us. The first thing I did was wring out my dress. I could have filled a water bottle with the water I squeezed out of my dress and hair. And I couldn't even do anything about my shoes.



JoCo only did 4 songs. I don't know if that was intended or if he cut it short because the show was running long. He opened with Shop Vac. Then Alone At Home from his new album. Then an excellent Mr. Fancy Pants. And he closed with the traditional Re: Your Brains. He was excited about having a crowd of thousands of sopping wet fans to play his zombies. And we were excellent zombies.



The crew ran through resetting the stage impressively fast. JoCo had promised us TMBG in five minutes and while it wasn't quite that fast it wasn't much more than ten.

And I have to say, as a general comment, that for a crowd as wet and miserable as we were the energy level was still intense when the band hit the stage. I think maybe everyone was especially determined to enjoy themselves after the hours in line and the drenching rain.

Keeping the energy level at maximum volume, the band opened with Birdhouse. Nothing like thousands of people all screaming "Who watches over you!"

Marty revved us into Clap Your Hands. Flans yelled my favorite line. "Aw, shit, clap your hands!" As I jumped in the air I could feel water squishing in my shoes and shaking off the back of my dress. It was also a challenge to jump in the close quarters of the front row. Danny performed some quite amusing stomping in the "stomp your feet" section, swinging his bass back and forth as he swung back and forth from one foot to the other in total contrast with the tempo of the music.

Johnny is quickly becoming a favorite to hear live. It's just fun to watch and the boys really get to show off their chops. And Linnell almost mostly gets the keyboard part right. He hasn't gotten to the lazy stage of performing a song yet where he just fudges his way through it. He's really still trying to get it perfect. (That's not meant to be a criticism of his playing. I actually find it really endearing the way he just fudges through complicated passages when he's in a hurry). And it also amuses me that they are still new enough at the performance that Danny has to walk up to the keyboard at the end of every performance of the song so that he and Linnell can look at each other to come in on the final chord at the same time.



"This song is called Damn Good Times and it's about this show." Wow, Dan really outdid himself on this DGT solo, particularly the screeching slide at the end. Then he left the stage as they set up on of the songs he doesn't play on. Flans apologized for the weather, commenting that this was the second big outdoor festival they had recently done in the rain. Linnell said the next song was one of their earliest and that it wasn't insulting to say you liked their early work. Flans said we were traveling back to 2007. But it was a fake out since they did Don't Let's Start.



I don't know what kind of hyper pills Danny took before this song but he kind of went insane. He was hopping in circles on the choruses, kicking his leg out in the air and doing wilding exaggerated arm flailing off of each of the note on the letters (D,O,N, etc). And I think his hyper activity was contagious because Flans got in on the action, jumping up and down and eventually taking off his guitar and playing it over his head. It was pretty wild.

Yet another attempt at Judy and Flans managed to screw up the last lyrics yet again. He just can't get the "Judy lies but you believe her" and "Judy is the great deceiver" lyrics straight. This is a fantastic song for watching Marty explode all over his drum kit except this time I couldn't see him. But we could hear every beat bizarrely magnified because the giant speakers in front of us had sheet plastic wrapped around them and latched on with a single strap around the middle. So with each beat of the kick drum the plastic pulsed against the speakers with this weird snapping plastic sound. It was an effect I found oddly fascinating but it was apparently rather obnoxious for my friends who were standing closer to it.

Flans claimed the next song was off their debut album, They Might Be Giants on Bar None Records, but was lying again as it turned out to be The Mesopotamians. You just can't believe anything he says :-)



Linnell pointed out the expensive New York City Skyline backdrop that they had purchased for the show, which was in fact, the actual NYC skyline spread out behind us. With the sun setting and the evening actually becoming quite pleasant, the skyline was stunning if a little foggy. They made some jokes about going all out for the Brooklyn crowd with the skyline and the rain effects. And surprisingly the crowd was easily able to laugh at their sodden state.



Flans also messed up Never Knew Love again, this time reversing the first and second verses almost entirely.

Before the next song, they stopped for some extended banter that made me laugh harder than anything else all day. Fortunately, this part was captured on video so I can quote it verbatim.

Flans started out mentioning their Asbury Park show the next day and inviting just a small section of the crowd to the show because he said that would fill the room. Then he asked that the lights be turned on the audience "like the Bon Jovi show."

Flans: "Look at those faces. Leave those lights on for a second. Look at all those people. Look at all those satisfied customers. People, your luck is just about to change. It's time to turn that frown inside out, people.

We've been having a crazy week. We actually talked to Robert Siegel, the guy who announces All Things Considered, which is exactly like talking to God. "

Linnell: "The weird thing is he looks like a little kid whose got a shaved head and he sits in this like, pod. It was really weird because we expected a full grown adult and it was like..

*doing a Robert Siegel impression* "Come in gentleman. I am a small boy with a shaved head."

(That was the bit that particularly made me laugh)

Flans: "And then yesterday we were on the Jimmy Fallon Show and every time..

*crowd cheers* (I wanted to point out that it had been the day before yesterday, but no one cared.)

...wait a minute, please hold your applause for our performance on The Jimmy Fallon Show. You know, every time you are on television, it is like being shot out of a cannon into another cannon.

(Flans made this same joke in Lancaster.)

But then at the very end of our performance, unbeknownst to us, the author Fran Lebowitz had been booked on the show, and Jimmy Fallon is like "I want to thank our guests They Might Be Giants and Fran Lebowitz" (*Flans is miming holding the giant album cover Jimmy Fallon was carrying during this part*) and all of a sudden Fran Leibowitz is right here standing next to me and it's like, it might as well have been "I'd like to thank Harry Truman for coming on the show."

Linnell: "And she was like *in the Robert Siegel voice again* "Hello gentlemen, come in."

(More laughing from me.)

Flans: "And then today this! An entire crowd of people, soaked to the bone. As we were walking over here, just like a couple of hours ago, there were actually people that were leaving who were like super pissed off. I'm glad they're not here! Fuck those people! Can't take a little weather. I see you guys are all weather jocks. You have no concerns about weather. It's like, "Bring it." So John, what's this next song?"

Linnell: "This next song is a question. And the question is... WHEN...Will You Die?"

And I finally got to rock out properly to my song at the front of the stage. Danny and Marty seem to get a kick out of their call outs in the song. Dan remains concentrated on his guitar part but boogies on the side of the stage. Linnell points at himself and Flans. Everything is adorable. Flans randomly screams "Kid Rooooock!" into the mic. All is excellent.

They got set up for the Avatars. Danny gave me a thumbs up from the back of the stage. We started with Sea of Hands. Jumbotrons got a call out. The Avatars introduced themselves as Rebekah Brooks and and Rupert Murdoch. Blue Avatar said the crowd was "even more handsome on television." He also said he thought the crowd was going to start singing "that Bon Jovi song when I saw them on screen." There was some typical schtick with the hat and James Cameron preventing them from singing their own songs so they had to sing TMBG songs. Blue said that the Green Avatar preferred the "treble kicking indie rock. He likes the drum machine songs." Green Avatar said he felt more like the purple one today. Blue said, "I think it looks different when you're below in, John." Way to break character Flans! The screen was actually displaying in black and white so Green didn't look anything other than gray. Blue asked if the audience was seeing them in full color. We all yelled "No." Blue said he couldn't tell if we were saying no or just booing them. Green said it sounded like no if you were down there but yes if you were up here. Blue admitted, "Yeah, we bought a crappy camera. It's true. But it was cheap."

Blue said they like the new TMBG album so they were going to perform a song from that never before performed live on stage. More lies, as it was the same one they did last night. I'm telling you. Do not trust this man ;-) Blue asked if he could get a what, what. The audience went "What? What?" He said if he had hands we would be in the palm of them. Then Flans put his hand in front of the camera and said, "Look at my enormous hand!" And then in reference to the fact that his wedding ring was hugely magnified, "I'm married. Settle down, ladies. Settle down." In retrospect, this may have been the comment that was most quoted after the show. In fact, I'm almost sure of it.

Flans managed to do Spoiler Alert without his cheat sheet this time. And the puppets movements on and off the camera were hysterical. Plus Linnell's head was clearly visible in the corner of the screen the whole time. At the line about "two extra pairs of hands" Linnell stuck his other hand in front of the camera and waved it around. Then Flans stuck his hand back in front of the camera on the other side. And when the line "cover my eyes" came, Linnell covered the puppet's eyes with his hand. Blue Avatar tilted his head back to imitate resting and reclining at the appropriate moment. Honestly, I don't think there could have been a funnier or more perfect performance of the song.

There is a note on the setlist that says "Marty Ana Beat Solo" and that is indeed what followed the Avatars. Marty began pounding out the beat to Ana Ng as the Johns put the puppets to bed and made their way back to their positions on stage, until eventually everyone joined him and they started the song. Dan was jumping in time with some of the beats on the verses. There was another song earlier where he was just bouncing in the air but I don't remember which one it was.

As Linnell and Dan switched places for the next song, some people in the crowd were chanting "Doctor Worm" but the band couldn't understand what they were chanting. Flans was imitating them, chanting, "What you said. What you said." He also pointed out this guy in the crowd that we had noticed before who was carrying a large black foam sword and waving it in the air. Flans was frightened. He said, "Peace." Meanwhile the sword started fighting with a large inflatable parrot that was also being waved in the air. Totally bizarre.

Flans claimed the next song, You Probably Get That A Lot, was being performed for the second time. More lies, as it was actually the fifth. He executed some more amusing arm gestures and facial expressions while singing but sadly, the main thing most of our crowd noticed while he was performing this was that the shirt he had chosen was a bit too small.



The band shuffled on stage again. Flans said he had two words for us: "The bass clarinet." Linnell held up three fingers indicating that that had actually been three words. Flans response was, "The 'the' is parenthetical, for all the researchers out there." I am still really enjoying this song live. Linnell did his dying goose improv at the end again, which I love. It's also just terribly entertaining watching him play the clarinet. It's such an awkward thing to walk around a stage with and he makes great faces doing it. And Danny was dancing while he played the keyboard which was pretty funny. Dan also makes this amazing noise with his guitar at the beginning which I don't even feel like should be able to come out of a guitar and yet it does. There is just nothing about this song that isn't cool.

Flans asked if they could do a little Graveyard. He then proceeded to thank individual members of the audience for coming to the show in falsetto. A guy in a blue shirt. A girl with a "head thing on her head" and finally "I wanna thank the tall guy in the baseball cap and the short lady standing right behind, her hate you. For the whole show. She's hating you for the whole show. He's 8 feet tall. She's small feet small. And she hates you." I actually recognized this guy as one of the Johnny video contest runners up. He's the one in the video with the Polaroids.



Dan got a very brief shout out. Then Flans attempted to replicate the intro he did for Danny in Lancaster but it didn't come out as well. "Put your tiny hands together for Mr. Danny Weinkauf on the bass. His name is Danny Weinkfauf. When I say Danny Weinkauf, you say Danny Weinkauf. Danny Weinkauf!" Crowd: "Danny Weinkauf!" Flans: "Thank you." Then a very typical screaming session for Marty except both the ladies and the "8 foot tall guy" got their own shot at screaming.

Flans announced they had time for one more number and it was called Blues in G. (He did at least admit he was lying this time.) He introduced Dan for the intro to Istanbul. And what followed was actually kind of awful, though it all turned out ok in the end. Dan started to play the solo and then his guitar exploded with massive feedback. He stopped playing and went around behind the drum to try to sort it. Flans tried to think up something to cover with. Linnell started making imitation guitar feedback noises on his keyboard to compete with the ones coming out of the guitar. Flans started teasing Dan asking, "Mr. Dan Miller, is he gonna be playing soon?" Dan was not in a good humor for this. He had come back around with his Telecaster and started to play a bit of super speed riff, before that guitar crapped out too and he just stopped with a gesture at the sound booth and an obviously frustrated comment directed back stage. I felt awful for him and I think Flansburgh's attempt to lighten the mood just made it worse. This is the kind of thing, I just find painful to watch. The band covered and proceeded into the song while Dan got his guitar going, but you could just tell he wasn't happy. And it was all kind of tense and awful, until the end. Because at the end during one of the fake endings, Linnell tossed in some of the fake guitar feedback noises he had been making on the keyboard at the beginning. And Dan finally just cracked up. I mean, he was just cackling on stage which was absolutely wonderful to see. Because Dan Miller has the most amazing full bodied laugh and the camaraderie that was apparent between them, as Linnell was obviously just trying to make Dan lighten up and realize it wasn't so bad. It was just beautiful.

They came back for one encore. Flans encouraged us to buy all of the tracks on Join Us individually on iTunes (possibly not right then, but at some point). He thanked us repeatedly for coming. And then they closed out the night with Fingertips. It was a fairly typical performance. Linnell set some goofy noises playing on the Kaoss Pad during I Don't Understand You. Dan led us in epic arm waving in Mysterious Whisper. Instead of ad-libbing on Heart Attack Flans scratched his guitar pick across his mic. For the final Fingertips, Flans set his own mic next to Dan's so that Dan had two and alternated syllables between them. He had actually done this the night before too and I forgot. Instead of belting the last line of Darkened Corridors, Linnell just repeated the line over and over adding a syllable to it each time until he got to the end. And Dan coordinated with Marty to end the song on a killer slide and drum crash, ending the show with a literal bang.

There was some question after the show of how we would acquire a setlist if one were presented to us because we were separated from the stage by a four foot photographer's alley (which had been full earlier in the show) and the stage was impossibly high. But Victor, ever looking out for my setlist needs, solved this problem by flagging down a confused security guard to hand deliver my setlist to me. He is the best.



We united with Megan's friend Anna who was traveling with us to Asbury the next day and trudged back to the car and sat, still dripping wet, in traffic for what seemed like a lifetime. But good company and good memories made all the difference.