They Might Be Giants Return to Milwaukee

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For some Milwaukee-area residents, their sense of the “before times” might drift back to a sold-out Pabst Theater and They Might Be Giants on a night in early March 2020, March 6 specifically, a mostly normal Thursday.

Of course, in the weeks that followed, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, shook us all up in a way that still hasn’t completely left us, and killed millions of people.

But that night, those moments of joy and absurdity from the legendary alternative band celebrating the 30th anniversary of the album Flood, maybe it was something they leaned on in tough times over the past few years. They Might Be Giants return to Milwaukee for two nights at the Pabst on Friday and Saturday, June 21 and 22.

They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh says he remembers the show and that time very well. After gigs in Milwaukee and Detroit, they were looking toward another stretch of about 40 sold-out shows ahead of them “when the curtain came down for everyone.”

“It was a glorious fleeting moment of uncomplicated living,” he says.

On Stage Again

Flansburgh says there are very few things he enjoys more than being on the stage and connecting with fans. It’s a very different process from recording for him.

“I think, as a creative process, the studio stuff we have done is interesting, and is probably the most original part of our output,” he says. “I’m probably proudest of our recordings, but I think our live show might be the best way to take us in because it always kind of clicks.” 

The essence of “clicking” is kind of hard to explain, Flansburgh says, but he has an idea of it.

“I think there’s a lot of things going on at the same time, just the way our shows work, the way we present ourselves, seems to break through stuff we might not have even been really involved in,” he says. “Rock music is a very self-involved thing. A lot of rock performers put up a lot of facades. There’s a pretty dead fourth wall to a lot of shows. And our shows don’t work that way. Our shows are a lot like a bar show.”

A Performance Art Start

Bars, however, were not really where They Might Be Giants got their start when Flansburgh and John Linnell formed in 1982 in Brooklyn. It was New York’s performance art scene that gave them a unique introduction into the world of show business, Flansburgh says.

When they were starting, once popular venues like CBGB and the Mudd Club, were on the rocks, he says, so They Might Be Giants kind of became the band that would play while performance artists provided other types of entertainment, including dancing, painting, poetry, etc.

“Performance art is definitely not music,” he says. “It’s a heightened kind of theatrical experience. It really was only happening in New York City when we started, and I actually don’t know how much performance art in the world there is now. The idea kind of came and went, but it was very real back then.”

The crowds they would find in those spaces were slightly older than the Johns, both around 23 or 24, Flansburgh says.

“It seems like the crowds were like in their late twenties and thirties,” he says. “I guess remember thinking they were much more sophisticated than we were. It was kind of challenging that way. We don’t make any assumptions about them, but they weren’t exactly us. I think a lot of friends’ (bands) played for other college kids or teenagers. 

“For us, we were just out of that college age, but we were playing for adults. We were playing in an adult environment, so it kind of changes you as a performer.”

Back to Milwaukee

This weekend’s shows at the Pabst are being promoted as “two very different shows” with an “8-piece band. Three horns, two sets.”

Flansburgh says the band is spotlighting a different album every night, performing about half of each album. They Might Be Giants are largely picking songs from Apollo 18, Mink Car, John Henry, and a fourth album they are still deciding on. The band currently has an arsenal of about 85 songs they are rotating each night.

“We can do a show without repeating ourselves pretty easily,” Flansburgh says.

They Might Be Giants play Friday and Saturday, June 21 and 22 at the Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St. Both nights are sold out and start at 8 p.m.