Line-up

Headliner
They Might Be Giants Last time in Milwaukee: 1 year ago

Venue

Pabst Theatre

144 East Wells St., 53203, Milwaukee, WI, US

www.pabsttheater.org/

View upcoming concerts

Additional details

Doors open: 19:00

Concert in your area for Rock and Indie & Alt.

Find out more about Rock.

They Might Be Giants biography

They Might Be Giants are a rock band hailing from Lincoln, Massachusetts, United States who formed in 1981. The band was formed by John Flansburgh and John Linnell and has released 17 studio albums since their debut in 1986.

Flansburgh and Linnell have the kind of back-story that could make one seriously think about whether fate or destiny had some kind of hand in it. The two met while they were teenagers in their home town of Lincoln, Massachusetts. While both of them were budding songwriters and wrote together a couple of times when they were still in high school, they didn’t form a band together and eventually went to separate colleges. This is where fate possibly comes in. Completely unknown to each other, they both decided to settle in Brooklyn, New York after finishing college, and didn’t just end up in the same neighbourhood, they ended up in the same apartment block, and moved in on the same day.

The duo started hanging out and writing together again, and soon after they regained each others acquaintance they decided to form a band together. Taking the name of a ventriloquist act that a mutual friend had used and then dropped, they called themselves They Might Be Giants, and started busking all over New York City. Flansburgh played the guitar, Linnell played the accordion or the saxophone, both of them sang and they were backed by a drum machine or a boombox playing a backing tape. Soon, their spirited live shows and esoteric songs attracted a devoted local following before they’d released their first single, which came in the form of March 1985’s flexi-disk, the “Wiggle-Diskette”.

A demo of theirs later gained a positive review in the highly respected publication People Magazine, which led to a record deal with Bar/None Records. In 1986 their self-titled debut album was released and was a huge hit around the colleges of New York City. Pressured to release a single from it to capitalise on their newfound popularity, they filmed a video for the track “Don’t Let’s Start”, which saw a massive amount of rotation on MTV. This led to the legitimate success of their second record “Lincoln” and especially the single “Ana Ng”, which hit number 11 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. Clearly, they were not going to be a band that stayed underground for long.

The band signed a deal with Elektra Records in 1989, and one year afterwards they released “Flood”, their first record to be certified Platinum thanks to the success of its lead single “Birdhouse In Your Soul”. The single is still one of the bands most beloved songs, and was a top ten hit in the U.K and a top three hit on the Billboard Modern Rock charts as well. Ever since then the band have been one of the biggest cult bands in American Rock, always ready with the last thing anyone expects of them. To wit, their three biggest selling albums after “Flood” are three records of children’s music they did in 2005 (“Here Come The ABC’s”), 2008 (“Here Come The 123s”) and 2009 (“Here Comes Science”).

Most bands are considered unique if their singer sings in a weird accent or wears a particular kind of hat. They Might Be Giants aren’t so much unique as they are once in a lifetime, but beyond the weirdness is two of the finest songwriters of their generation, and for that, they come highly recommended.

Live reviews

It is difficult to discern whether you are seeing a comedy production or a rock show when attending a They Might Be Giants concert. In a way you are seeing both. One thing is certain though. When entering in a They Might Be Giants show it is like opening the doors to the nerd mecca. It is as if Elvis Costello, XTC and Emo Phillips formed a supergroup.
One thing that I absolutely respect about this band is that they never put on the same tour twice. They are constantly writing new material, introducing new stage gimmicks and alternating line ups. Though They Might Be Giants have always managed to retain their playful sound and cutting wit they have in a technical sense come a long way since there lo-fi upbringing. On their first self-titled album the two Johns were essentially the only musicians on the recordings as well as on their respective tour. They adopted a sort of DIY ethos often taking toylike gadgets and cheap instruments applying them in the most creative ways imaginable. When they first started out they were backed by allegedly one of the crappiest drum machines, Boss' Dr. Rhythm. It was practices like this that gave They Might Be Giants their naive-like but deeply characteristic style, which in a sense has become their trademark. Their later material for better or worse has matured greatly over the years. This is evident on the highly polished sounding and more straightforward rock song "Can't Keep Johnny Down."
It would be misleading to say that the group's sound has matured on all levels. I am simply using this term to apply to the production of their music. Their antics-driven lyrics are still as prevalent as ever (for example "Circular Karate Chop" and "When Will You Die"). And of course who can forget their critically acclaimed children albums ('Here Come the ABCs' and the Grammy nominated 'Here Comes Science'). Both the children and adult shows are well worth catching. Their interaction with the audience often exceeds to hyper levels. At one of the shows I attended they randomly started shining a spotlight on individuals in the crowd and provided them with nicknames. During the same performance they transitioned into a ludicrous puppet show entitled "The Avatars of They."
Apart from the hilarious and downright entertaining interjections that occur throughout the show, the music is absolutely riveting. They Might Be Giants have a rare knack for delivering one catchy pop song after another. As for the setlist, you never know what you are going to hear. The first time I saw them, they played their second album 'Lincoln' (considered by many to be an indie masterpiece) in its entirety. The next time I saw them they almost completely changed their setlist. They showcased their finest tracks from the 'Nanobots' album and performed a wide variety of other material both highly recognized and obscure, some which harkened back to their 1986 debut album (tracks such as "Everything Right Is Wrong Again"). The only songs I heard repeated were "Bird House In Your Soul" and "Istanbul". And how could I possibly complain about that?

Report