Item From the Past: They Might Be Giants, 1988

My packratish ways provide my plenty of debris from the past. Somewhere, several somewheres really, I have most of the ticket stubs from most of the concerts I've ever been to. Such as They Might Be Giants at the Cabaret Metro in Wrigleyville on December 16, 1988. I'm happy to say that the venue is still around, though called simply Metro these days.

By coincidence my youngest nephew, Robert, was born the next day. He turns 20 this week.

I don't remember at all how I heard about the show -- WXRT, which I used to listen to, perhaps, or The Reader, which I used to read, or my friend Dave, who used to tell me about eccentric acts. I've fairly sure Dave introduced me to The Bobs and Jonathan Richman, both of whom I eventually saw live, and Pianosaurus and the Young Nashvillians, tapes by which repose somewhere in my collection of obsolescent cassettes.

Everything lives on on YouTube, even the Young Nashvillians. And here's an article about them by a fellow I went to college with.

I remember being pleased by TMBG in 1988, in those days simply a duo with guitars and a boom box on stage, with the audience standing around watching, since there were no seats. Lincoln would have been their new album in those days, so I expect "Ana Ng" and "Shoehorn With Teeth," among others, were on the evening's playlist. I thought they were at their funniest singing "Why Does the Sun Shine?" It wasn't until years later that I heard of Singing Science Records.