There are few bands who can follow a support act which consists of a guy who looks like an 80s metal star playing Queen covers and songs about someone who looks like Gary Busey on an accordian (his name is Corn Mo, and he is a genius). By an extraordinary coincidence, one of those bands – They Might Be Giants – is exactly who did follow said support act. Which is lucky, really, because that’s what it said on the tickets for the gig, too.
(not that I actually had a ticket, mind you – a friend of a friend who used to be on the Union exec or something managed to blag me in, and so she’s now my new best friend and is owed several pints of her preferred beverage if I ever see her again)
Opening with their new single, Experimental Film, and then ploughing through a mix of new material and their fairly extensive back catalogue, including a frankly astonishing live version of Fingertips – astonishing purely because they did it live – Particle Man (featuring Corn Mo on guest accordian) and the obligatory Birdhouse in your Soul, this was very much a fan’s gig (as also evidenced by the rather intimate venue) – but of course, TMBG have always been very much a fan’s band (massive mainstream success has never been easy when you sing songs about purple toupees, exploding heads and lighthouses as seen from the perspective of a nightlight shaped like a canary).
Live, they are polished but approachable – good humoured and hugely talented all at once, and between songs, the banter flowed comfortably back and forth between the band members and the audience. And ultimately, I don’t believe a single person left that gig without a big silly grin on their face. They’re just that kind of band.