News You Can Bruise for 2002 July 17

Last night I went to see They Might Be Giants, and had a great time. First we ('we' being a wide variety of people who know Zack) went to a Japanese restaurant (the same restaurant a different 'we' once went to with Pete Peterson II). Zack had an okonomiyaki, which I thought was the thing you got in Nethack instead of a pancake when playing a samurai, but this is not correct. I bring up the okonomiyaki because it had little shavings on top which waved around due to the okonomiyaki's body heat, making the whole thing look like a living slime mold.

Then on to the concert, which was good. A local singer-songwriter named Noe Venable opened. She claimed to be a big TMBG fan. She was well-received and played five songs, three of which were really good.

An unexplained break of about twenty minutes (is that normal?) and then TMBG came on. John Flansburgh was the excited rock-geek jumping around and yelling, and John Linnell was the dispassionate keyboard player scowling out the lyrics. They played many songs from a new album called No!, which I had, strangely, not heard of before. (But why is that surprising? My news sources include nothing that would mention new TMBG album releases. I didn't hear about Mink Car until I saw it in a store.)

My feet are sore from standing. Two other complaints:

• The venue has absolutely no incentive to start the show on time because they are selling booze and booze sales per unit time drop sharply once the band comes on stage. I suspect places like the Fillmore wish they were a bar with live music and a really high cover charge.
• At one point, TMBG left the stage but the house lights didn't come on. The audience stomped and clapped for more. TMBG came back on, played a couple songs as an encore, then left again. Still no house lights. The audience stomped and clapped for more some more. TMBG came back on, did a musical skit involving a prop that had been on the stage for the entire show, did a few more songs, then left for real (the house lights came on this time). What a farce! They planned two encores because the audience wouldn't be satisfied with just a longer set! Does everyone do that?

Kevin found a Googlewhack without knowing what one was: qhyyneqf cerpyhqvat

Funny phrase: ".NET antics." As in "I've had just about enough of you Microsoft kids and your .NET antics!"