It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your dad is?

They Might Be Giants are a band of guys that look like they could be your father—and you definitely know them, even if the name doesn’t quite ring a bell yet. John Flansurgh and John Linnell have credits ranging from “The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” to “Coraline” to “The Spongebob Musical,” and a grand total of 23 studio albums, including five children’s albums. With activity spanning back to 1981, you’re sure to have heard their not-quite-melodic voices somewhere. Unless you’re living under a rock of course.

It was a chilly night as Becca and I walked down the streets of Brooklyn, the fifteen-minute walk from the car leaving nothing but goosebumps and shivers. However, the air felt a little warmer as the antique theater marquee lights came into view. “They Might Be Giants, Dec 13.” 

While we were collecting our press passes and figuring out where to go, I got a real view of how diverse the fanbase truly was. While there were plenty of middle-aged fathers, there were also a lot of young people too, young adults, even young kids had made the trek out to Brooklyn to see the show. With a discography and credits as varied as the two Johns, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see how many people their music had touched.

What I hadn’t realized prior to the show (forgive me, superfans), was the fact that Becca and I had stumbled upon the band’s homecoming. The Brooklyn show was the Johns’ hometown performance. This was just one stop on the band’s lengthy “BIG SHOW TOUR,” the next day they’d be traveling to Boston for a two-show weekend, and the tour will continue into 2025 with dates until June.

A popular move among artists in recent years is to include a surprise song from a certain album, but They Might Be Giants takes it one step further. At the very beginning of the show, John Flansburg told the sold out crowd that they would be featuring one of their albums. Most of my favorite songs are from “Flood,” so I had been silently hoping that would be the album they featured in their home state, alas, they featured “John Henry.” No hard feelings, guys, I promise.

The Johns opened up the show with “Synopsis For Latecomers” off of their newest album release, “BOOK.” An ironic start to the show, the crowd was transfixed. The band started playing suddenly, without warning, and the ornate theater suddenly bathed in sound and light. They Might Be Giants had yet another surprise for the audience, in the middle of the song, out walked a three-piece horn section, composed of a saxophone, trumpet, and trombone. The three players had their own horn solo amidst the other instruments, reminiscent of the band’s recent live sampler album, “Beast of Horns.” The band didn’t speak until after the first song, saying how great it was to be in Brooklyn again and told the audience that they regretted not scheduling two shows at King’s Theatre. 

The band took no time getting right into featuring their next three songs off “John Henry.” “No One Knows My Plan” kept up the horn feature, with a jazzy trumpet solo that the audience couldn’t help but dance to, accompanied by the two other horns taking center stage. Next was “Snail Shell,” a stark genre shift into grungy, growling guitars and a cowbell feature that even SNL would be satisfied with. Then, before playing “Out of Jail,” John Flansburg asked for the house lights to be brought up so they could “see all the beautiful people” in the crowd, saying that “we feel ugly by comparison.”

Of course, the band played songs from other albums as well. They played “Particle Man,” a classic off of “Flood,” and “Let Me Tell You About My Operation,” which was a perfect song to play with the three horns. The lighting was particularly spectacular during this song, the combination of the band’s portable LED lights, along with stage projections, audience blinders, and spotlights. As the horns blared, the lights would intensify, painting the ornate room and audience in different colors. It wasn’t just the horns that got the spotlight in this song though, each instrument was highlighted: drums, keyboard, bass, and electric guitar all had a chance to shine during this song. They Might Be Giants followed it up with “Last Wave,” where the lighting continues to steal the show, saturated pinks, purples, and blues blanketing the band.

John Flansburg stopped the show once again to talk to the audience, making a note of how the sold out theater was packed full of fans, ”We’re mostly in clubs where everyone is standing.” He then briefly discussed the band’s “sleepytime” podcast before asking the audience to take a seat briefly as they played the next song. Fitting, as the voice of John Linnell filled the room, singing “Unrelated Thing,” from “John Henry.” The slower tempo and guitar lead the audience to sway to the beat.

As the band played “The Famous Polka,” which featured a killer accordion section, John Flansburg offered his guitar for a fan to play, the same fan that had been handed a guitar pick earlier on.

The sweet yet unexpected gesture was followed up by something that I couldn’t have predicted going into the show blind. The Johns told the audience that they would be playing their next song backward. That’s right. Backward. They had challenged themselves to learn the next song “sonically backwards.” And that is exactly how the audience heard “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love,” nicknamed “Stellub” during the set. The song would be making a reappearance later on in the show, after the band played “Brontosaurus” off of their “brand new, Grammy losing album, ‘BOOK!’” During the intermission between the two sets, the reversed video of “Stellub” was played for the audience, not before they played Charli XCX’s “Brat,” of course. I will say it sounded as good as a backward cover of Sapphire Bullets could get, so definitely kudos to the Johns there.

They Might Be Giants started off the second set by surprising the audience again, with “Memo to Human Resources” starting without any warning. The slower, melodic song was a nice reintroduction to the concert, before the theatre was suddenly stripped of light and the band began to play “Man, It’s so Loud in Here” in darkness. The electronic, futuristic song was soon joined by flashing strobe lights and perfected synchronized LEDs. 

The band once again addressed the audience, but not before the horns were reintroduced in “Where Your Eyes Don’t Go,” off “Lincoln,” (one of my favorite albums) where the saxophone was traded in for a euphonium. John Flansburg addressed the audience, saying that he had never asked a crowd to sit down before. Jokingly, before introducing the next song Flansburg instructed the audience again, “Feel free to levitate for this next one.”

A drum beat began to reverberate off the walls, followed by the incredible horns as they began to play “The Darlings of Lumberland,” from “Nanobots.” This song was a little more familiar, as a live recording of it had been released in the “Beast of Horns” sampler that I wrote about at the beginning of November. It certainly did not disappoint, with the aforementioned horn showcase, along with the return of the accordion, the song was the perfect mix of different instrumental sounds and even featured some choreography.

We then transitioned into a different type of featurette. John Flansburg departed off stage right and brought out “The Stick.” Featured in They Might Be Giants’ shows since the 80s, the stick is used in the band’s live renditions of “Lie Still, Little Bottle.” Used to create a percussive sound similar to a bass drum, the stick used to have its own dedicated microphone, but now is used to trigger a drum sample. I was enraptured by the minimalist instrumentation of the song and how well it worked together. I mean, it just worked. It was absolutely perfect. The rest of the audience thought so too, all cheering when John highlighted the stick at the end of the song: “The stick, ladies and gentlemen.”

The surprises just kept on coming later into the set, and as “Damn Good Times” reached the guitar solo in the middle, a light suddenly shined on the balcony across from the one we were seated at, and guitarist Dan Miller took the spotlight. Literally. As he performed the solo, an eager photographer took pictures from nearby, (Becca was not so lucky).

As we reached the final song of the second set, Becca and I shared a sad look, as they had yet to play their two most popular songs, the ones that we had known the best and had been excited to hear live. Then, the stage was washed in blue light, and the beginning chords of “Birdhouse in Your Soul” began to play. The singing of the crowd mixed with the vocals from John Linnell. It was a sight and sound truly fit for the final song of the concert. Of course, what would it be if not for a trumpet feature in the middle of the song?

After receiving a standing ovation, the band came back for not one, but two encores. Featuring their second hit, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople),” “The End of the Tour,” “Dead,” and of course, “Doctor Worm.”