When it comes to They Might Be Giants, lefty co-founder John Flansburgh put it best: It has a lot more commercial success than a band of its caliber typically would. And nearly 40 years after the release of its debut album, Flansburgh and John Linnell are still trying new things, and it’s hard to believe that the group falls under the “legacy band” category.
Last Friday, over the course of 140 minutes with intermission at St. Petersburg’s Jannus Live, John and John worked through a keyboard technical hiccup or two, utilized an all-star, three-piece horn section starting on 2021’s “Synopsis For Latecomers,” and made sure no one climbed the infamous Jannus tree to watch the show like old times.
“We don’t recommend it, but we do require that the tree is still here,” Flans explained, with Linnell following that remark by not remembering whether the much-larger apartments on stage left existed two years ago (spoiler alert: they did). “I wonder if the people in the apartments right around us feel like they got a really special deal, or if they just feel super ripped off.”
[content-1] Flood had its time to shine in St. Petersburg back in 2023, when the guys brought the album’s celebratory 33rd anniversary tour (thanks, COVID) to the same space, so only hearing four songs from the iconic album was fairly understandable. This specific show was mostly leaning on 1994’s John Henry, but just like last time, Flood‘s “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love” was performed backwards, recorded, and after an intermission, played forwards on the screen. It wasn’t a bad end result, either. Nothing perfect, but someone who showed up late would still be able to tell what John and John were playing.
The uber-quick “Shoehorn With Teeth” featured an actual high school alarm bell played by the band’s drummer of 21 years Marty Beller.
“We’re not sure what high school donated this alarm bell to the show, but we want to thank them,” Flansburgh joked before starting the Lincoln ditty. “We do know that they no longer know when class is out, so they’re still there,” Linnell quipped back.
In an interview ahead of this show, Flansburgh told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that his mother, Polly lives in the area, and apparently, she was at the Friday night show. “Call You Mom” (a mommy issues anthem) was on the setlist and Flansburgh became understandably skeptical to perform it. There’s no telling how Ms. Polly reacted to the addition, but hey: It was just another new thing for the anti-legacy band to try out in 2025.
