Postponed twice from 2020, They Might Be Giants have finally made it to Oakland’s historic Fox Theater for an “evening with” (i.e. no openers) celebrating the 30th anniversary (a few years late) of their major label breakthrough album Flood. In spite of having played across the bay at the Fillmore only the night before, TMBG seemed to have no problem selling out the larger Fox, and what would normally be a sleepy Sunday evening, Telegraph Ave. was absolutely buzzing in anticipation.
Taking the stage at 8:15 PM, guitarist/vocalist John Flansburgh kindly reminded the crowd (most of whom probably bought their tickets 3 years ago) that they would be performing Flood in its entirety (although a few songs were prerecorded). As important, he let the crowd know that the band would actually be playing two sets and to not leave during the intermission.
Regarding Flood, the band chose to eschew the cliché of playing an album front to back and rather smattered the tunes throughout their career spanning set. With the setlist predictability out the window, the enthusiastic crowd (many wearing “They” paper hats from the merch table) was kept on edge, hanging on every word of the stage banter, and losing their minds when literally every song was introduced. There are not many bands that can hold a room’s attention like this.
Halfway through the first set, Flansburgh announced that they would be playing “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love” backwards as the pinnacle of the show and then playing back the video of the performance in reverse at the start of the second set. What came next—“Stellub” (Bullets spelled backwards)—was an unintelligible cacophony which ended on a 4-count by drummer Marty Beller.