They Might Be Giants and Apollo Sunshine at the Somerville Theater - 3/28

My girlfriend Stephanie and I had initially bought tickets for the Mezzanine section of the Somerville Theater, but Chris Chafin of Girlie Action put me on the guest list for writing the review and we ended up four seats from the front.

The show started right at 7:30 with Apollo Sunshine, an experimental, psychedelic-rock group originally from Boston. I was immediately impressed as they started playing “Breeze” with Sam Cohen playing a distorted Autoharp, Jesse Gallagher mercilessly slamming away at the bass and Jeremy Black providing a clean and steady rock beat.

Click here to stream Apollo Sunshine music for free!

Many of their songs were upbeat, some surreal-sounding, some rock/blues-heavy, and most of them included Sam and Jesse singing together about moons and pissed-off lords made by pissed-off men. Their rockin’ blues song “Lord” included an amazing drum interlude with all three members playing intricate, layered drum beats giving off a very Blue Man Group-y feel. Jesse did most of the song banter that mostly involved him only saying “cool” in a very mellow, humorous way.

They Might Be Giants came out on the stage 30 minutes after Apollo Sunshine departed, and they promptly told everyone to run to the front (so Stephanie and I did so immediately, reaching the edge of the stage). The band began with their 1998 hit, “Dr. Worm”, a crowd favorite. They went on to play the educational cover, “Why Does the Sun Shine?”, “The Guitar”, and “Particle Man”, a favorite from Flood. They busted out an old b-side rarity, “Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal”, that has never been played until this year.

Guitarist Dan Miller had a new synthesizer for the show, and he added a new layer of sound to songs like “Put Your Hand Inside Your Puppet Head” and “Twisting”. John Linnell played around with his Kaoss Pad in a humorous fashion, often making me laugh at his antics. John Flansburgh did most of the talking with Linnell often giving his own input. At one point, Flansburgh asked the audience about which presidential candidate they’re supporting, starting with Obama. As all of the Obama supporters raised their hands and cheering, Flansburgh replied, “Alright, that’s all I need to hear!”

Here is some concert footage provided by cbgbrocker22

TMBG played a new and impressive rendition of “She’s an Angel” with an electro-beat that played during the verses instead of the normal 1-2-3 bass drum synth. The danceable “Damn Good Times” brought the energy of the audience to level of a dance club. And as usual, the famous “James K. Polk” welcomed the confetti cannon, which has been a normal stage prop for all modern TMBG shows.

There were two encores after the band finished “James K. Polk”. The first encore included an adult version of “One Dozen Monkeys” from the new children’s album, Here Come the 123’s, “Ana Ng”, and “The Mesopotamians”. In the second encore, the band played their classic hit “Birdhouse in your Soul” and the epic “Fingertips”, a song containing a total of 20 mini-songs such as “Everything Is Catching On Fire” and “Aren’t You The Guy Who Hit Me In The Eye?” The last bit of “Fingertips” titled “I Walk Along Darkened Corridors” with a heavy riffing guitar and a reverb Linnell proved to be a great way to end the show. Everyone was waving their arms with the slow of the final song. It felt like the energy of the audience easily matched the band throughout the entire show.

They Might Be Giants never seem to disappoint me at their shows, and they always seem to get better with every show. It’s an even better experience for me to share with Stephanie because we met through the band. She managed to grab a setlist at the end so here it is: