They Could Be Oversized Men

Last night was the main event. The one that I had been waiting for since the day I was born. What every self-respecting (and unbeknownst to them, even those not self-respecting) music-loving geek, nerd, dweeb, kook, reject and last but not least, cub fan was waiting for arrived: The day of the They Might Be Giants show in Vancouver. At Richard’s on Richards, none the less, to make a nice intimate setting. Just you and 200 or so of your fellow nerds.

And nerds there were in force! Based on obvious stereotypes, there were math nerds, comic-book nerds, role-playing nerds, SCA nerds (ok, nerd. I’m pretty sure she was alone), computer nerds, music nerds, and the most abundant cross-over demographic, TMBG nerds. The ones who knew each song by the end of the first note. Sometimes, it would seem, they knew the song merely from the expression on one of the Jons’ faces. It had been a long time since TMBG had been to town (I think it must be at least 5 years, possibly twice that), and these fans were ready. They were so ready, they even rocked out to TMBG’s version of a 1960’s-era NYC PSA for children about how to safely cross the road. They rocked out, even though the lead-in and explanation to the song (which admittedly, did make it better) was quite possibly twice as long as the song itself. They were frantic and rabid. One joker (a pure-bred TMBG nerd, I believe), standing right in front of me, kept calling for them to play Richard’s on Richards, the song they wrote just for that show, just for that venue, even though they’d already played it once to open the show, attempted it a second time, then finally played it all the way through a third. But he wanted more.

Which is fair enough, the wanting more of TMBG, because they were fantastic. Almost disapointingly so. It’s so hard to critique a show when the worst thing I can say about it is that a)They didn’t play every song I wanted to hear. Nor did I have a great vantage point. Nor was the venue really suited to them (vocals at Richard’s are always a hit-and-miss thing). But still, it was excellent.

But and so, what I’d secretly been hoping for, and which they so graciously delivered on, was a rendition of their cover of CUB’s song “New York City”, which of course ties us (CUB being from Vancouver) to them (TMBG being from NYC), and made all the girl-nerds swoon and boy-nerds cheer. Because the best thing about New York City? It really is me & TMBG.