TMBG 8/14/04 - The Fillmore

Good show overall. Not as much energy as some of the shows I've seen in the past, but maybe it's just me. They did a lot of songs from their latest album The Spine. They also did a lot of older material, like Birdhouse, Mammal, I Palindrome I, Fingertips, and Don't Lets Start. Very chatty this time. Compared their guitarist to Lon Chaney, which was intended as a compliment. :-) High point of the show was when they brought out the radio and started improvising along to whatever caught their interest. At one point they found some Evanescence song and John (Flansburgh) starts wailing "I'm not the one who's singing this song." and something about "Look into my cyborg eyes!" Very funny stuff.

The opening act was a long haired accordion player by the name of Corn Mo. He reminded me of Jack Black, except he had a good singing voice. I liked his work, except that some of the songs were kind of repetitive. He came out to play along with them for Particle Man.

Upstairs, before the show, Jon and I saw this freaky guy called Brian Kenney Fresno who plays this combo guitar/bass thing called a Stick. He had the craziest songs, like the one about how he wants to have sex in the back yard with the FedEx lady. Or his tribute to Yngwie (fucking) Malmsteen Or the little dog he found up in the mountains ("Big Tejunga) near LA Or his bad experiences with Chinese street dentistry. He had a commentary through most of his songs and these funky effects pedals (delay loops, chorus, etc) that really made the songs wacky. And the fact that his stage looked like a small shrine to weirdness. The whole thing reminded me of Frank Zappa sped up a bit. You can find more about him at Bonghit Records If you have an opportunity to check this guy out, he's worth at least one viewing.

Big Tejunga.mp3
That's Who.mp3