They Might Be Giants lit up Union Transfer with an innovative, engaging retrospective

Fans ran to secure their spots at the barricade just before They Might Be Giants took the stage at their second of two sold-out shows of “The Big Tour” at Union Transfer on Friday. TMBG has been rocking the music scene since the eighties, gaining significant recognition after their 1990 release Flood – the album that contains fan-favorites “Istanbul” and “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” Electrifying the stage Friday night were TMBG’s co-founders, John Linnell and John Flansburgh, as well as Dan Miller on guitar, Marty Beller on drums, Danny Weinkauf on bass, Stan Harrison on saxophone, Dan Levine on trombone, and Mark Pender on trumpet. Floating between genres, the band combines alternative and indie music, while succeeding to maintain seriousness and humor within their songs.

The energized crowd–full of anticipation– screamed with excitement as the concert began, and as the band stepped onto the stage. With no opener, they started their first of two full sets around eight o’clock with “Stomp Box” from the 1994 release, John Henry. The audience was kept on their toes throughout both sets, as the band wove long instrumental solos and performances into many of their songs. In between songs, Linnell and Flansburgh would pause to tell stories about the origins of their songs and how they were created, including details of snowstorms and times in New York, much to the delight of the crowd. 

As set one came to a close, Flansburgh proposed a new project. TMBG recently released a new record titled stelluB. This project, which can be purchased on the band’s merchandise site, has two sides– one with their song “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love” played backwards, and the other with a performance of the backwards song reversed. To showcase this impressive performance to the crowd, the band sang the original “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love” backwards. While it wasn’t understandable to some, fans at the barricade seemed to know the backward lyrics by heart. Linnell kicked off his shoe to demonstrate the reversing effect on video. At the beginning of the second set, the recorded live performance at Union Transfer of “stelluB” (reversed) was projected and played for the audience. Not only was it impressively quite like the original, but Linnell’s shoe did indeed land back on his foot.

After the twenty-minute intermission, where fans danced to Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” TMBG returned to the stage. The horns reappeared three songs into the second set, followed by massive applause. This set was filled with crowd participation, with Flansburgh orchestrating the audience to sing at certain points of songs, and bandmates encouraging fans to wave their arms in the air. Linnell and Flansburgh announced that the house lights should be turned on, and continued to explain that the crowd should turn around and face away from them while taking selfies. Thousands of fans pulled their phones out, opened their cameras, raised their devices, and took photographs with TMBG on stage in the background.

The house lights were then turned off, and the audience turned on their flashlights. The band was illuminated purely by flashlights, and thousands of lights floated through the crowd while they sang their next song. To close out the second set, the band played “Dr. Worm” from their album Severe Tire Damage. The band left the stage and returned for the long-anticipated encore to sing two songs. TMBG thanked the Philly crowd and performed “The End of the Tour” and “Istanbul.” The latter had an extended intro and outro with multiple minutes of various outstanding horn solo performances. The band then left the stage, but momentarily returned one last time to sing “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” Fans jumped up and down, screamed, and cried for the last song of the electrically powerful evening. 

The U.S. leg of They Might Be Giants’ “The Big Tour” is just beginning, and runs through June of 2025, stopping in cities such as Boston, Orlando, and Los Angeles. If you’re reading this from somewhere other than Philly, make sure to get your tickets and catch They Might Be Giants in your local city for an evening filled with songs from every era of the band, including TMBG classics reborn, and fan-favorites.