They Might Be Giants @ XPoNential Music Festival, 7/25, Wiggins Park, Camden

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They Might Be Giants @ XPoNential Music Festival, 7/25, Wiggins Park, Camden

POSTED: Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Music

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When I get into it I can't tell if you are watching me twirling the stick.

It's been a few years since I last saw TMBG, but there was a time when I never missed a show. Catching them, again, finally, at twilight at XPoNential was kinda awesome. I mean, yeah, they played some stuff from their children's albums, which I didn't dig. And John Flansburgh seemed to introduce the band an inordinate number of times. But they sounded great, from the accordions to the horn section to the guitar to John Linnell's voice, and ripped through a career-spanning setlist: "Ana Ng," "Birdhouse in Your Soul," "The Guitar," "Dr. Worm." "The Mesopotamians," and a bunch more (not in that order). Unless I'm mistaken, they completely skipped what I think was their best album, John Henry. No need to be picky. The played "Spider" and "Older" and "Dig My Grave" and it all rocked in that weird, fun way. They left the stage with Flans encouraging everybody to stick around for their Brooklyn neighbors The Hold Steady, "the only band that matters." Read into that what you will, then take a sec to appreciate the complete strangeness of a bill that could include these two utterly incongruous bands.

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