I don't think that I mentioned this... the theater people were so nice. They allowed us to come and stand in the lobby during soundcheck so that my daughter could listen to it. She was ecstatic! Then we were back outside until 7:00 when the doors opened.
Before going into the theater area I bought each of my daughters a shirt and an EP CD for Stesha.
I mentioned that our seats were wonderful. During the opening act everyone just sat in their seats and enjoyed the show. Fine by me. I'm getting old. I don't really like to have to stand through a show. Though my daughter and I were the first on our feet to give the opening act a standing ovation.
So, finally They Might Be Giants take the stage. And again, everyone remains seated... fine by me! I'm really happy with the arrangement. And they opened with the song I was most hoping they'd play that night (The Cap'm). So my daughter and I are clapping in time (you're supposed to in that song) and singing along and having a great time. The first song ends and Flansburg says, "Hey everybody, if you'd like a better view just leave your seats and c'mon down front! C'mon down! We don't give a rats a$$ about that sh*t! We need people close to us. People in the front seats, please stand up and let people stand beside you!" My daughter was off like a shot, climbing over seats and people to get to her dream spot... right in front of Linnell's keyboard (think Kares stand in front of Geddy's keyboard, except stnadingeven closer... almost in touching distance).
I stayed where I was. I had a fantastic view. And the sound is better if you're a couple of rows back. But we were on our feet for the rest of the show.
After another song John Linnell said, "I feel a little bad... we've probably got some people here who started out with front row seats and now they've got people crowded all around them. I feel a little bad about that... but only a little bit."
They played the three songs I most wanted to hear that night. At one point Flans held his guitar out to the audience to strum and my daughter got to touch it. The whole show was really her dream show come true.
Wendy asked me what my favorite song of theirs is. That's hard to say. I love the classic radio hit from 1990, Birdhouse in Your Soul, which they played. My other favorites right now are The Cap'm, Withered Hope, and The Mesopotamians. Oh, Dawn, they did do Fingertips for us.
They also did a little segment where they took a phone call from beyond the grave. Earlier this tour it was often a call from a disgruntled Elanor Roosevelt (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNy5IYahCEI). We were privileged to hear from a disgruntled Sacagawea who was upset that her coin had been discontinued so quickly.There was too much profanity from the stage for my tastes, but I'm in the minority there, I know. Other than that, I couldn't have asked for a better experience for my daughter.
Afterwards we hung around. Theater security helped steer my daughter to where Flans was and she got him to autograph the booklet of her new CD. I was able to get the bass player to autograph the shirt that I bought for my younger daughter who couldn't attend. Then I talked to him a bit about basses. "I notice you were playing a Lakland instead of your Fender Jazz basses..."
The girl running the merchandise stand called us over and said, "You two were waiting out front for hours... I want to give you these. You deserve them. She gave us each one of those big foam hands doing the "number one" thing like they have at football games, but these said They Might Be Giants on them. Everyone was just so nice to us.
And now we have a CD of the show which we were able to download! What a great souvenir!
So, there it is in a nutshell. Any more questions?
