speed of dark

Alt-gramma and I traveled to the Anaheim House of Blues on Friday to see They Might Be Giants with Oppenheimer. Since neither of us had heard of the opening band, we did not know what a great show we were about to experience. The House of Blues is a medium-sized venue, with extremely strict security personnel, and even though I was waved over with a metal detector, I still got my camera into the show. However, since we were directly in front of the large and imposing security guy standing on top of the bar during the entire show, I was unable to get any pictures of either band. Alt-gramma got some on her camera phone, but I doubt if they came out very well.

Oppenheimer consists of two Belfast natives, Rocky O'Reilly on keys, guitar, and vocoder, and Shaun Robinson with lead vocals and drums (not to mention the airhorn). Robinson's stage patter was hilarious, and as their set progressed, the audience warmed up to their sound and cheered louder after each song. I have to admit that immediately after their set, I pushed and shoved to the back of the HoB to the merch table, where I picked up their album, and I've been listening to it non-stop in my car since then. Their sound is vaguely reminiscent of The Postal Service, although Oppenheimer's sound is much happier...well, it's hard to label.

The band's short songs are pure fun sugar pop, but their debut self-titled 2006 album is a joy to behold. The longest track clocks in at 3:37, with most tracks hovering right around 2 minutes each. The most polished track is "Saturday Looks Bad to Me", which features O'Reilly on the vocoder, and "M.O.", which Robinson dedicated to "the best T.V. show of all time, Twin Peaks" is a great track. Robinson mentioned that they were finishing the follow-up album soon, so check out these tracks and enjoy!

oppenheimer: saturday looks bad to me [buy]
oppenheimer: this is a test [buy]

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(photo from photodu.de)

What else can I say about They Might Be Giants which hasn't already been said? This was my first opportunity to see the extremely prolific band live since I first discovered them 20 years ago. Alt-gramma saw them live maybe ten or so years ago, and she said that this show was much more polished, and I have to admit that the band almost looked like they were going through the motions at times. Their show is silly and funny, and included a skit where John Linnell spoke to a dead mouse named Milton through the magic of a "necro-optic phone line". One of the highlights was the excellent brass section, who played their hearts out, much to my delight.

TMBG played songs I never imagined they would play but secretly hoped they would. They performed "Mammal", long a favorite in our family, and "She's An Angel", Alt-gramma's favorite. They also played "Particle Man" and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" like I figured they would, but mostly they played tracks from their latest release The Else. TMBG whipped the crowd up into a frenzy and did not disappoint - it was definitely worth seeing.

Set List:
1. The Cap'm
2. New York City
3. Birdhouse in Your Soul
4. Upside Down Frown
5. Take Out the Trash
6. She's An Angel
7. It's Not My Birthday
8. Older
9. Meet James Ensor
10. Anaheim House of Blues (original song)
11. Memo to Human Resources
12. I'm Impressed
13. Damn Good Times
14. Climbing the Walls
15. Twisting
16. Mammal [buy]
17. Mr. Me
18. With The Dark
19. Museum of Idiots
20. Ant
21. Particle Man
ENCORE 1
22. Alphabet of Nations
23. The Mesopotamians
ENCORE 2
24. Mr. Tamborine Man (Bob Dylan cover)
25. Istanbul (Not Constantinople) [buy]

buy TMBG albums | tmbg.com | offical site | flickr photo pool