How do you keep a room of nerds happy? Friday's evening with They Might Be Giants seemed to do the trick. I say "nerd" affectionately as one glasses-wearing member of the crowd who came to hear the nasally-voiced group sing songs about science, name changes in Turkey and the installation of birdhouse infrastructure.

And what an evening! The two Johns, John Flansburgh and John Linnell, definitely satisfied, and actually exceeded my expectations. Backed by a full band, they started off their set with "Alphabet of Nations" a track from 2004's Here Come the ABCs that listed the nations of the world in ABC order from Algeria to Zimbabwe.

After a few more obscure tracks such as "Electric Car" and "Doctor Worm," TMBG guitarist Dan Miller's classical guitar started strumming a tune familiar to the crowd of mostly twenty-to-thirtysomethings. It turned out to be an inspired instrumental version of one of the duo's most popular songs, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)." They soon followed that popular track with another of their most popular, "Ana Ng," showing the crowd they weren't too good to play tracks from over two decades ago.

About midway through their two-hour-long set the band demonstrated that they had a knack for showmanship, shooting out rainbow confetti into the air at the close of a song. They also brought on a sock puppet band called the Avatars of They, which consisted of the two Johns puppeteering two knit sock puppets and having them sing "What is a Shooting Star" as a strobe light of stars gave the room the feel of an planetarium.

Astronomy was a popular topic of the night, with the group following up the 1993 song "Why Does the Sun Shine?" with the swanky, scientifically up-to-date 2009 remake "Why Does the Sun Really Shine?" The lyrics of the latter I found especially funny: "The sun is a miasma /Of incandescent plasma" and "The sun isn't a red dwarf /I hope it never morphs/Into a supernova'd collapsed orb /Orb, orb, orb"

Other highlights of the night included the playing of their infectious 1990 hit "Birdhouse in your Soul," an impromptu conga line and more rainbow-colored confetti. The band received two encores, and the crowd might've kept calling for more had the band not decided to call it quits after the second.

I'd definitely see them again and recommend them to all my friends — especially the more nerdy.

TMBG Video: Why does the sun really shine?