blog.thebigreason

Nerd Core

Ivan, Nigel and I caught They Might Be Giants last night at the Empire club in midtown Sac last night!  They were totally great.  Totally.

The show was early, starting at 6:30, so the staff could clear out the club for porn dancing afterward.  They managed to squeeze in about a 2 hour deal, including two encores.  They went a little heavier on the hit classics than I was hoping, but it probably made sense to do that in Sacramento where a larger portion of the crowd may have been there for the nostalgia factor.

They had a mini train wreck on She’s an Angel but played it off nicely.  I was sort of glad for that.  The last bunch of shows I’ve been to have been so completely flawless and professional that I was really starting to feel there like is a level of skill that is simply unattainable by non-full-time musicians like myself.

The new stuff sounded really polished.  Harmonies were dead on, dynamics were elegant — although the sound system was way too loud (I’m over 30) — and rhythms were perfectly tight.

They Might Be Giants have been stuck in an underground musical paradox for the past 17 years or so.  Despite their huge and extremely loyal underground following, and that they have a name and a string of timeless hits that pretty much everyone in the free world recognizes and can still sing by heart, the amount of people that I come across that are surprised to hear that they are still together (and have been regularly releasing albums since Flood) is wholly perplexing to me.

Notice to the public: Not only are They Might Be Giants still together and releasing records, they are doing so on a level that arguably surpasses their previous work.  They collaborated with Bob Mould on the friggin’ Daily Show theme.  Have you heard of it?

To digress, it was a fabulous show.  One that has reminded me how important it is not to miss them when they come through town.

I would be remiss in not also noting the opening act for the evening, Oppenheimer.  They are a new two-piece indie electro-nerd core band from Belfast, pushing their self-titled debut, Oppenheimer.  I instantly loved it and highly reccomend it to all.  I missed the opportunity to talk to them after the show, but it looks like they were very well received.  They were very professional and cordial, on top of delivering a flawless performance of their super-cute, super-catchy songs.