the first time I ever heard this song was a bit before i was actively into tmbg in this meme video. my immediate reaction was "wow, very groovy, but those lyrics are so on-the-nose, these guys must be really obsessed with death." and then i promptly forgot about the song for three years. 🤦♀️
when I finally listened to I Like Fun all the way through earlier this year, the opening chords immediately struck me as a 'ride into the sunset' type of thing. instrumentally, Last Wave is the perfect album closer. the lyrics still felt really weird though - maybe they were self-parodic. but then tmbw came to my rescue and gave me the real details. (the alternate version is always a quick way to get me to smile.) however, i doubt the Johns didn't at least have a small idea that the lyrics they chose reflected some sort of warped picture many have of their style.
this week, as i tend to do with even the most nonsensical tmbg lyrics, i superimposed my own emotionally-charged interpretation. on a whim, i started singing "here comes your wave" instead of "here comes the wave". having wave imagery among the frank existentialist talk makes me think of my own experiences with that thinking, with depression in general. going from that angle, linnell's passionate delivery of "last waveeeeee!" feels like a rallying cry. you will get over this hump! convince yourself it's your last, for hope, even if you know you'll be back someday.
and, as with many tmbg songs, it's even better live. i hope they bring it back next time they come around.
my first non-tmbg related post here is sort of a doozy. I never thought I would ever see a cover band in my life, but when I saw them in the calendar for the venue I thought, eh, what's $25 for a night of music I like and rarely get to hear played live.
Read more for my thoughts and occasional moments of me channeling a past hyperfixation.
The Cure tribute act that opened is barely worth mentioning. I'm already not a huge fan of The Cure so I was just kind of waiting for it to be over. (Sorry Cure fans.)
Fake Morrissey (apparently called Seanissey) was pretty good. I watched a ton of live Smiths footage back in the day and he's got the mannerisms down pat. In certain angles I could almost trick myself into thinking it was him.
Unfortunately, the rest of the band doesn't try to look like the other band members, so that sort of breaks the illusion. (On the one hand doing that could cross the line into cheesiness, but on the other hand it's sort of like having a Beatles cover band where only Paul looks like Paul.)
Seanissey's voice is also pretty good. Nobody can be a perfect replica, so he's definitely close enough. I was surprised (and felt slightly dumb) to learn that he's not even British.
I started screaming when Seanissey started singing the outro of the first take version of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, which goes "there is a light in your eyes that never goes out". A lot of people don't like that the lyric explicitly reveals what the light is, but I love it so much that I have the demo in my Smiths playlist instead of the album version.
HOWEVER, they didn't add the extra verse of Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others which showed up in the only known live version of it, or transpose it to that version's key, which was a slight disappointment. (Their rendition of the song was still groovy though.)
The guitar was shockingly mediocre. a lot of missed notes, flubbed progressions. I'm not even a guitar person and I could tell it was subpar. Like obviously I'm not expecting you to be Marr-like, that's an unrealistic standard. but at least sound rehearsed. It also seemed to be way too quiet in the mix, so maybe that compounded the issue.
Drums and bass, however, were awesome. Drums especially kept it all together.
Now, for some non-music related thoughts:
I miss tmbg fans' cordiality. This guy behind me was being pretty obnoxious the entire time, singing loudly and yelling during silences. (He's the reason I know what the Fake Morrissey's name is — I guess that's one positive.) I was able to tune him out by taking my earplug out on the side he was on, but that's not ideal for my tinnitus lol. He even snatched some flowers from me that Seanissey tried to lob into the front row by quite literally grabbing over my shoulder. male smiths fans certainly haven't shaken their reputation.
However, that did result in a nice moment later where Seanissey more deliberately gave me some flowers, which satisfied my heart just enough.
Overall, it was pretty decent, and other than that one guy, the crowd was pretty energetic - almost a little rowdy, but based on footage I've seen of old Smiths shows it was par for the course. I had a good night for a relatively cheap price, and I would probably see them again. (Hopefully the guitarist was just having an off night!)
thinking of converting this into a tmbg sideblog? 🤔 idk lately i just feel like it'd be more appropriate for me to post my gifsets and stuff to a place where the people following me on my main for animation- and game-related stuff wouldn't have to see random old men lol. but i have such a history with tmbg content on my main. sigh
Most of the banter for this show, including the "happy birthday" running gag and the traffic cone incident, are recorded pretty well on TMBW. Here's a few extra things I remember:
Near the beginning there was a few photographers running around in the pit between the stage and the barricade. Flans asked them to make him look thinner, and Linnell asked to make them look younger ("You guys know how to do that.") Flans also told them that they could stay as long as they wanted, but they pretty much disappeared after the first few songs. I'll be looking out for those photos in the meantime.
Flans said he thought about visiting a museum that day because it would give him something more interesting to say during the show. Instead, he ended up just puttering around his hotel because it was too hot out. (It really was quite terrible that day; very humid.) He did not end up reciting his apparently "career-ending" story mentioned on 6/5, which now makes it even more mysterious.
He also recalled a story where he had to drive in the Kenmore area of Boston during winter to visit his parents as a teen, resulting in an accident that got his driving privileges revoked.
A bunch of people in the front were waving pride flags and trying to get their attention, but Linnell couldn't hear what they were saying. JF: "I think they're saying OI! get on with the music!" JL: "I'm glad we have the 'OI' community on our side." (Or something like that.) Eventually it clicked and I heard him say sheepishly, "Oh, you said it was pride?" According to other folks in the audience he then said Happy Pride, but I didn't hear it, unfortunately.
JF said something about the audience loving the horns, to which JL replied: "If you knew how much the horns loved you back, it would totally creep you out!"
The horns also did cute little random dances throughout the show when they were in the background, but I didn’t get footage of that, so you’ll just have to believe me.
Marty signed stuff after the show in a rather snazzy suit jacket. I got my cassette for The World Is To Dig signed. He tried to tell me that I dropped my earplugs, but by the time I realized what he was miming it was too late. 😞 Oh well, thanks anyway Mr. Beller. They weren't that expensive.
concert report: TMBG @ House of Blues Boston, Day 2
Welp, it was an unexpected long time coming. After a bout with a really bad and weirdly existential case of post-concert depression, I've come back with a much happier disposition to report on Day 2 of the Boston gig, which was, of course, amazing. (Only an amazing concert would cause me such mental distress.)
Notes below!
In general, the band was on their A game. everyone seemed way more upbeat than the previous night, maybe because they wanted to put their all into the last show before "summer break" (as JL put it). I had a really good view of Linnell this time and he kept smiling throughout, it was really infectious.
The whole first set was so tight. Banger after banger after banger. My dream since getting back into the band was to see Statue and Palindrome live, so actually seeing them live barely felt real. The concertgoers I'd befriended that day agreed that if it'd been the only set, it still would've been one of the best concerts we'd ever been to. My only complaint is that it felt like it went by way too fast!
She's Actual Size live was actually life-changing. As reported on the wiki, Flans did a ton of experimental things with the vocal and it was stellar. (Not to mention he was right in front of me most of the time. Almost theatrical expressions of lovestruckness ensued on my end as we locked eyes for approximately 1 second.) If there's one full song recording from the show that I hope ends up online, I hope it's this one, because I purposely didn't record it so I could enjoy the crooning. Marty also did a really crazy drum solo at the end, which was fun.
Linnell went full evil villain with "GET RID OF SPIDER!" He would've made a great old time radio voice actor.
I never really liked The Guitar until I heard live recordings, and this performance was no different. With the horns and the on-stage energy, it's a whole different beast. I managed to capture this really unexpected and well-executed ad-lib from Flans:
The Eyeball EP representation in the second set was awesome, and I had so much fun shouting "LOOK ME IN THE EYEBALL" with the rest of the audience as if it weren't an obscure song to the rest of the world. I also love the super mundane laundry machine footage used for Glamour of Rock — it made me appreciate the humor of the lyrics a little more.
As if that weren't generous enough, we also got not one, but three Mink Car songs. Funnily enough, the only concert dream I've had about TMBG involved Drink!, so being able to participate in that was a very satisfying full circle moment.
I think I'm in the minority when I say I actually prefer the album version of Man, It's So Loud In Here to the more rock-oriented live version, but it still sounded great. I was hoping they'd use the venue's disco ball, though, but it's not a huge loss.
First time they've played Working Undercover For The Man this tour, too, which was a surprisingly fun audience participation song. I imagine, since the random Apollo 18 song appearances in Philly preceded the Apollo 18 set in Brooklyn, that the next shows could have Mink Car sets.
Ana Ng, Shoehorn with Teeth, and Lie Still Little Bottle appeared as a vague apology to those hoping for a Lincoln night:
Withered Hope is an encore for the super fans, and yet another example of the band's dedication to their front row. Some people were reciting the sample exactly on beat, it was really impressive. Linnell slayed the vocal.
At the end of the show, Flans yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND HAPPY PRIDE, SEE YOU LATER!", and then the band exploded into Doctor Worm. It felt like such a perfect ending to a perfect show. I actually took off my earplugs to really soak it all in.
So yeah. This was pretty much the best show it could've been. The only songs I feel like I missed were Snowball In Hell, Damn Good Times, and You Probably Get That A Lot, but if I had to trade those for the Mink Car and Eyeball representation, I'm totally fine with that.
(writing this down mostly for the sake of memories, but posting in case some people want to know. feel free to correct if something is exceptionally misquoted, i had pretty heavy-duty earplugs in.)
Flans recalled his time browsing Yelp, since "when you're in a band, you have a lot of free time on your hands." Apparently Riker's Island is on there, and he described how there were pretty mundane reviews about the food, etc. He then said he made the mistake of looking up reviews for They Might Be Giants shows (not sure how that was possible, maybe he was looking at venues?). One review he read gave them two stars, taking Flans typical "we didn't rehearse this" line way too literally. He then reassured us that they, in fact, rehearsed the next song many times. The star rating system was referenced again throughout the show.
During the "Beards vs Glasses" bit, someone misheard "Beards" and held up their beer, apparently in an obvious enough way for Linnell to notice. He said "Beards, not beer." Flans then asked if he had been saying "beards" wrong. He noticed that there weren't a lot of beards ("I guess you all have careers now") but he said he felt like there were a lot of high SAT scores in the audience. (Jokes on you, I failed the math portion!)
A person who had been to 100 shows (JF: "Which is a few more than we've done") got the free TWITD album.
During the intermission, Everybody by Backstreet Boys came on, leading to an audience singalong. The lighting people put on some flashing lights during the "alright!" part, and near the end they put on the eye graphic from Hate The Villanelle for a split second, which was very creepy but very fitting for TMBG.
just as I'd hoped, our lord and savior Concerts Hub has posted some clips from the first day in Boston! I'm especially grateful since I couldn't get a good view of stage left. some of my fav moments follow.
first good news: I found the Flans falsetto moment I was talking about!!!! it's about a minute into Letterbox. It might not seem incredibly impactful in the mix here, but he was standing right in front of me and all I could do was hold my hands over my heart. oh man.
Ok, onto the other highlights.
More Flans hopping! And spinning!
Can't Keep Johnny Down went so hard. It was like a rock club for nerds in there. The video doesn't capture that energy but it was really euphoric.
And here's XTC vs Adam Ant -> Till My Head Falls Off (despite the erroneous title). Not only was this whole thing totally rocking, but it was a bit heartwarming too since Flans and Linnell sang right next to each other at the end. So precious... 😭❤️❤️
reporting for my couch, where i feel slightly hungover despite not doing any substances...
last night was really great, and worth all 6 hours i spent standing patiently. surely it will be worth it to do the same again tonight, although I will be bringing tylenol this time.
very long notes ahead!
near the beginning, linnell told us (somewhat disparagingly) that we would "woo" at anything, which is true, but only because we love them <3 he then proceeded to mess up spiraling shape a couple times, in part because of an (apparently) rowdy middle section (which I didn't hear) and his IEMs not having Marty loud enough.
but after this they killed absolutely everything. Till My Head Falls Off, XTC vs Adam Ant, Metal Detector, Can't Keep Johnny Down, and Out of Jail were my favorites of the night.
hearing Don't Let's Start live was sort of life changing. and I'm going to treasure this 1.5 seconds i got of flans bouncing forever.
horns were absolutely rocking and you could tell they were having so much fun. Dan Levine played directly to me and these other girls in front of me since we were right in his spot. it was very very cute. their arrangements for Where Your Eyes Don't Go and I'll Sink Manhattan were especially cool.
not as much yapping as I expected. JF even mentioned near the middle of the show that it was going too fast, but he had nothing to say. after some mention of a cassette tape, he said he had a story to tell that was "too long for a public forum" but that he'd come up with a way to tell it "in a non-career-ending way" for today. we'll see.
someone yelled "I love you" and JF mouthed "we love YOU!". that interaction pretty much encapsulates why we're in this cult.
people were (understandably) annoyed by some yelling during the 2nd encore istanbul horn section, but someone said "let's get horny!" and that did make me laugh. at least it wasn't an unwanted request or something.
one thingI can say about tmbg fans is that 1. they're extremely creative 2. they have a great sense of personal space. Any other concert of this size I wouldn't have expected having enough space to dance. I'm glad we're all on the same page about that. here are some of the bracelets I scored! (the frog one is mine.)
mushy fangirl stuff ahead!
I got a decent spot near the front of flans' side. every time he meandered back over my heart was racing so bad, it was really embarrassing. I only caught his eyes once when he was already at the very far end of the stage, after I did a really crazy dip during "Get Down" (or as crazy as you can get with the crowd). or maybe he wasn't looking at me at all, idk, let me be delusional. I did get a really funny clip of linnell looking into my camera, though. here's a screenshot:
unfortunately because of this really tall dude (no offense to them personally, but they were very tall) I couldn't see linnell very well most of the show, so tonight I'm aiming to get on the right where I can see them singing as a duo. :D
flans was also on top of his game in terms of singing. there was one song where he did a really surprising falsetto bit that shook me so bad, I can't even remember what song it was. all I remember was that it was lyrical and it was super unexpected, not present in the original recording. linnell also hit a really awesome vocal scale at the end of Birdhouse. I could be accidentally be mixing up these memories, so I'm really hoping someone will upload the show so I can confirm. I'm so serious when I say this show was so intoxicating I can't really trust my own memory... who knew Spiraling Shape was actually about Them? (well, I've seen posts saying that before, so I guess we did know.)
see you tonight for Apollo 18! so glad I got my second ticket, despite all my aching.
song of the week: the statue got me high (HIIIiigh!)
Album: Apollo 18
Very long entry ahead, mostly about my history of listening to the band. This song is very special to me in that context.
TMBG has been in my periphery since at least 2018. (I only know this because when I first checked out their discography, I Like Fun was brand new.) Unfortunately, I wasn't smart nor cultured enough to really get embroiled in the band in the cultish way I am now (I've missed at least 8 shows in my area!!!!), but I was a huge, huge fan of Erase and All Time What. Not to self-glaze, but those are pretty decently deep-cut favorites for an amateur who came from Stuff Is Way.
What does any of this have to do with Apollo 18? well, I believe in the first few months of 2024, I decided to give their discography a more serious go. I don't remember why. I think I listened to Pink, which I disliked except for Don't Let's Start. (My opinion on that album has since changed, but it's still not my favorite.) Then, since their discography was so vast, I decided to speed up the process by listening to just their singles. The Statue Got Me High absolutely got me high. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. The production was so joyous. The lyrics were a psychedelic, folk tale sort of story, one that you could picture a cartoon to. The music video was full of gorgeous, funny, nerdy men. It was literally made for me. It felt like it could possibly be the best song ever made in the entire universe. So, that (and I Palindrome I) were on repeat for at least two months.
...Then I fell into a hyperfixation on The Smiths, which cut my TMBG journey short for the time being. While I don't necessarily regret that phase (listening to Hatful of Hollow over and over again on a 6-hour Amtrak ride is one of my favorite music memories), I have complicated feelings about it that don't belong in this particular blog post.
In October of 2025, I decided to give them yet another shot. Again, I don't really remember why, although that month was an absolutely terrible one for me, so maybe I just wanted to revisit how absolutely blown away I felt by songs like The Statue Got Me High. So, one day, while I sat at my library's sewing machine for a few hours, I put on Nanobots (because Stuff Is Way). I thought it was entertaining, but nothing really grabbed me.
And then I listened to Apollo 18. And that's when it clicked for me that these guys were geniuses. Dig My Grave -> Palindrome -> She's Actual Size -> My Evil Twin -> The Statue Got Me High... it was banger after banger after banger of incomprehensible levels of talent and creativity.
As a final word, would it surprise you that this song wormed its way back into my head this week before they even did the Apollo 18 show, and even before they played it at Union Transfer? And can you imagine how thrilled I was to think that maybe, just maybe, they'll play this song in Boston this week?
The first TWITD song to be featured in my journal is probably its most controversial. I've seen some people claim it as their least favorite. I can understand it. When it first came on, I was really taken aback by Linnell's punky vocals. "Certainly, this song would annoy the hell out of my friends." But remember, dear reader, it doesn't matter whether a song would annoy anyone, as long as it doesn't annoy you. I find this melody undeniably catchy and fun to sing, even though I don't know French and inevitably make up some french-sounding bullshit along the way.
Let's also not forget Flans' wobbly guitar riff, which really makes this track special for me. Especially during "ouis" "quoi" etc., paired with that bassline... it's weirdly hypnotizing. It's so good.
While I would always choose Character Flaw as the next TWITD song to show up this tour, this one would also go really, really hard.
If you couldn't tell, I'm a huge Mink Car defender. It perfectly encapsulates something like "TMBG for a new century", throwing as many genres and sounds to the wall as possible, with most if not all of them sticking. Yes, even Mr. Xcitement. But that's an argument to be had another time.
Bangs into Cyclops Rock into Man It's So Loud In Here is a top 5 album start for me, but Cyclops Rock in particular has been in my head a lot this week. there's something genuinely sad about the lyrics that gets turned around into more of a 'fuck you' anthem through the harder rock sound. I can't help but interpret this as a modern Frankenstein's Monster narrative. Being burned after finally thinking you've found your people — that's rough. Although, from this narrator's perspective, we've no clue if he did something horrendous to deserve his fate.
I really love the witchy bridge, too. It makes me feel like it should be in way more Halloween playlists. and I really really love that Flans does it in the live performances. Look how much fun he's having!
Also, check out this (surprisingly good quality) demo that has almost more of a ska feel in the first verse (or whatever genre the Malcolm In The Middle theme is supposed to be — I always thought it was ska-ish).
fun fact: because of how stuck in my head this was last week, I almost named my tmbg compilation "rare-ish tmbg moments that will make you want to twist in the wind." but then i went on tmbw and learned what that actually means. i really did commit a cardinal sin of tmbg listening and assumed this was a silly little track with some heartbreak sprinkled in. (and, somehow, i had never heard this turn of phrase in real life.)
as many well know, twisting in the wind is something like "being left high and dry", but with the much darker visual of someone being hung. and "tmbg moments that make you want to be hanged" was certainly not what i was going for.
anyways, this is a really great track. the 80s and early 90s had a huge 50s rock and roll revival, and tmbg really made that style their own here. also, something i really love about flans lyrics is how he writes his women characters. even though we only know about her from this third-person account, she sounds fucking awesome. she doesn't want any of her shit back, she just wants to see you suffer. we get some idea of what kind of guy she's dealing with in these lost lyrics from the demo:
She says there's a place in Brooklyn for bitchin' and for moanin'
And when they built that place she said they saw you comin'
i can see why they left it out of the final cut (kind of a mouthful), but man is it a great burn.
perhaps inspired by peeking at current setlists, this song has been a staple for my commute this week. i love the weird characters linnell writes songs on behalf of. what's especially really addicting to me is how, in the beginning, we have this sort of humorously neurotic narration. but suddenly, in the second prechorus...
And when I lean my head against the frosted shower stall
I see stuff through the glass that I don't recognize at all
... we cross the line into depressive. but then that's immediately shot into angry, declarative bits by the chorus. i think the little narrative parts like this would make this song fit for a music video, so i'm a little sad it never got one.
also, as many tend to do with tmbg's lyrics, i do wonder if it's an exaggerated self-portrait — linnell has addressed his own neuroticisms at some point or another. or it just could be nothing. take this performance for example:
notice how JL says "someone more decrepit than yourself" instead of "forgetful" here. almost makes me wonder if the character is supposed to be some stubborn, possibly senile old guy. who knows? that's the fun of this band.
BOOK is actually one of my least favorite tmbg albums, save for Brontosaurus (one of my fav songs of all time, period). upon shuffling on YouTube Music, i came upon this track again and gained a new appreciation for it.
(as a side note, YouTube Music thinks I literally only listen to tmbg, so if i create a Mix from any song from any artist, it will inevitably turn into a tmbg playlist... this is because I switched to it from Spotify pretty early in my hyperfixation, so their assumption is lowkey true.)
Upon looking at the interpretations on the wiki, I was surprised to see that the "my partner joined a cult" interpretation is considered a weird one. It feels pretty obvious to me (the whole bonfire imagery, half-asleep and brainwashed, hallway bulbs and peepholes covered up), but I might be biased since my most recent ex got involved with a psychedelia-meditation type cult shortly after we broke up. less brutally, i could also see it as the singer seeing their ex take the wrong path, wanting them to change, but ultimately leaving because they've changed too much.
finally, as per usual, a live performance i like a lot:
(i know, TWITD just released — Get Down was almost the song for this week, but this song absolutely took over Friday and this weekend for me....)
my absolute favorite track from Factory Showroom; an insanely clever lyric evoking trends as a type of hypnotism, backed by an equally hypnotizing arrangement of keys, guitars, vibraphone, and percussion that gets stuck in my head ad nauseam. it feels like spinning around and not wanting to stop because 1) it's fun and 2) you'll get sick when you stop.
i really especially like the lyric:
And nobody knows what it's really like
But everyone says it's great
not to bring AI into the conversation, but as someone who extensively studied how those technologies actually work in an academic context, seeing naive users and businesses fawning over it feels pretty much exactly like this.
also — so extremely excited that the song is back in their lineup for this tour. i'm really really hoping I get a Factory Showroom set now so i can spontaneously combust when it comes on.
last week i took a full listen of Lincoln again (slowly moving up the ranks into my fav TMBG albums). while I had this song liked already, it stuck out to me much more this time. the accordion solo at the beginning just gave me this incredible sense of melancholy. but the song itself is so catchy, the melody almost cheery, and the lyrics are so full of contempt for late capitalism. it sort of comforts my complex emotions about job hunting — wanting to survive, to feel successful, but knowing the solution is to get trapped in a cell where i can't even be myself. (especially since i initially misheard "panacea" as "fantasy"...)
i also really like how the improvised bridge they do in the live performance gives the song a little more satire-ish levity.
a less 'deep' song for the first week. it was an instant like upon my first listen. funky, upbeat, very classic. i was familiar with the melody, but not the original song entirely, so i wasn't sure if it was a johns original inspired by a particular track, or a cover. even though the latter is true, the johns personalized in such an effortless way it wouldn't be out of place in their original catalog.
i especially love the synth sound that plays during the post-chorus. and "we gotta do that, we gotta do that!" has also been a vocal stim for a couple days now...
i was also surprised to see that it hasn't been played live since 2017 (and even then, there was a large gap between then and when it was regularly played). maybe they got tired of it? i would love to see it return, it would really get the crowd groovin'. (but maybe they should slow it down a little so flans can catch up on the vocals...!)
