114. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, 3/6/10

They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh and John Linnell have tapped into a new niche audience: kids. Since their inception in 1982, they’ve hit the bullseye with quirky melodies and intelligent – sometimes too intelligent – lyrics that continue to thrill fans. In the past few years, however, the Giants have sneakily infused a kid-friendly song into an album here and there. With a successful outcome, they decided to make it official.

2002’s No! was their first fulltime foray down this road less traveled. And it was a huge hit. Followed by Here Come the ABCs, Here Come the 123s, and Here Comes Science, the two Johns have created an alternate career for themselves. With songs that even parents find catchy, this seems to be long from ending.



The venue was the Variety Playhouse for another family show from They Might Be Giants (their tours now consist of one adult show and one family show for most cities). A sold-out crowd of parents and kids sang, clapped, jumped, and laughed throughout the afternoon. The lion’s share of songs were pulled from the latest release, Here Comes Science. Some highlights from this include “Electric Car,” “Meet the Elements,” “I Am A Paleontologist,” and the TMBG oldie “Why Does the Sun Shine?” (“The sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace / Where hydrogen is turned into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees”).

These songs are perfect for elementary school teachers. In fact, why every school system in the country has not included this stuff in their curriculum is a mystery.

The term “family friendly” goes beyond the subject matter of the songs, though. Two selections were performed by puppets and the volume was at an acceptable level for little ears. The two Johns also spoke to the kids as if no adults were present. Kids loved this. The kids also loved the half-dozen times that confetti was shot out of a cannon. This completely covered everyone standing in the pit, as well as the first few rows.

Parents got their fair share of TMBG songs, as well. From the Flood album – their major label debut in 1991 – came the crowd favorites “Particle Man” and “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” This brought down the house. Also dragged from the vaults was “Older,” and “Dr. Worm” (“They call me Dr. Worm / Good morning how are you, I’m Dr. Worm / I’m interested in things / I’m not a real doctor but I am a real worm / I am an actual worm…”).



Be sure to catch a TMBG show near you – kids or not. You can find their tour dates are other quirky things at www.tmbg.com.