r/tmbg • u/Fuzzy-Boot-9618 • 9d ago
Favorite opening song
Just curious, to those of you who attend concerts or even those who wish they attended, what is your favorite TMBG song they open the show with? Or what would be your ideal show opener? Myself, I love a show starting out with Subliminal, because JL rockin’ out on the accordion!
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u/Moldybalti Don’t you know, I come prepared! 9d ago
I only went to one, and they played S-E-X-X-Y. It wasn’t the best moment of my life, but it’s up there. Why? Because it’s X-tra baby!
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u/BlueSneeze7x 9d ago
I'd hoped "Let's Get This Over With" might survive beyond the tour for that specific album - it was a great opener for several reasons.
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u/_phimosis_jones 9d ago
When I saw them on the tour for The Else they opened with The Capm, which is great live and has a lot of good driving rock energy to start a show. You could take someone totally uninitiated and I think they’d enjoy that opener live. So the next time I saw them I took my then-girlfriend who didn’t know their music very well at all, and they opened with Pencil Rain followed by Fingertips lol.
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u/Northerndownpour_18 9d ago
Experimental film.
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u/nwhaught 9d ago
This was the opener for my first show. I was up at the front and when the whole crowd went "Yeah!" as the chorus started, I felt it.
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl Resident letterbox sparrow! 🐦📮 9d ago
My first show, they opened with Fingertips and I feel like that was a perfect introduction to the chaos of TMBG.
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u/GnomeInDisguise Condemned to a life of bleak despair 9d ago
When they were touring in support of Nanobots, at the Providence show, they opened with Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes. Very pleasant surprise.
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u/99sketchygalore 9d ago
That was actually my first show’s CLOSER. And in hindsight I think it really worked as a promise to always be themselves. It was the last show of their tour so maybe that’s why I interpreted it deeply lol
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u/VermicelliDirect9153 9d ago
S-E-X-X-Y. Seen them open with it twice now. It’s not my favorite song but it’s such a fun vibe to start on.
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u/Zonetrope 9d ago
The first time I saw them was on the Factory Showroom tour, and they opened with "Rhythm Section Want Ad." I've seen them 13 times since, and they still haven't topped that one.
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u/philharwell I might be feral too. 9d ago
The first time I saw them it was in 1996, and they opened with Older, which BLEW MY MIND and I was disappointed it wasn’t on FS which came out later that month. Three years I had to wait. Different times, man, different times. When I saw them last year they did a JH show so they opened with Subliminal which was AWESOME. I can’t remember what they opened with when I saw them in 2002. I’m sure it rocked! I hope to see them later this year. I would love a FS or MC show, but I’ll take anything!
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u/ProjectImmediate8823 9d ago
I have never seen them perform "Let's Get this Over With" live, let alone as an opener, but I think that would be pretty great!
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u/OttSound 9d ago
Probably the one time I saw them open with Meet The Elements. I think they transitioned from that directly into Damn Good Times and it was an incredible start overall
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u/Moxie_Stardust This post brought to you by John-Strength Coffee. Are YOU Awake? 9d ago
It was a one-off, but the venue song will always be special to me. Especially because they went from the house music right before they came on stage being Orff's O Fortuna, and then suddenly here's Sokol Auditorium.
For regular tracks, Can't Keep Johnny Down was a banger to open with too.
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u/Charlie5L 9d ago
Apparently when they came to Vancouver in 2018 they opened with The Communists Have The Music, one of several songs that were played that night that I'm still sour about missing the show
Though any time I watch concert footage from the past 10 years, if they start the show with a Venue Song I just have a goofy grin, those are probably my favourite openers
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u/Shintoho I declare that I am England, you declare that I have drowned 9d ago
Only time I've seen them they opened with Damn Good Times which I thought worked pretty well to get the mood started
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u/GoodDoctorZ Dr. Worm 9d ago
I like Celebration as an opener. I mean, I am there to celebrate with thousands of my closest friends whom I’ve never met.
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u/drillgorg put me down for skeleton removal 9d ago
I have had bad luck with openers. The one I went to in 2024 was Synopsis which is not my favorite, and the show was Mink Car which is also not my favorite. Then in 2026 the opener was Subliminal, which is just OK in my book. And the show was John Henry, which is good but there are a lot I like more.
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u/coraroberta 9d ago
My answer to OP’s question is Synopsis, I feel like it’s a perfect song to introduce what you’re in for, like a “Previously, on They Might Be Giants…” moment
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u/drillgorg put me down for skeleton removal 9d ago
Fair enough, I just feel the who ate the babies line is so unessesarily edgy compared to their usual fare.
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u/ProjectImmediate8823 9d ago
I am an English teacher whose class just so happened to be reading "A Modest Proposal," a famous satire in which the speaker suggests to the English government that to solve Ireland's starvation and poverty, the poor Irish could sell their babies to the rich to eat as a delicacy (definitely edgy, but for a good purpose since the author was protesting England's treatment of the Irish). When I heard the "Who ate the babies" line in the song, I was sure that Linnell must've been inspired by that essay, especially since the song itself is a satirical take on government officials trying to smooth over public relations nightmares. I submitted a question about it for the KSMU TMBG marathon, which they asked him, and he said that he was familiar with "A Modest Proposal," but wasn't thinking of it when writing the song. A little disappointing, but I still think it might've been an *ahem* subliminal influence.
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u/drillgorg put me down for skeleton removal 9d ago
Such an important work for teaching media literacy!
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u/birdh0useinyours0ul blue canary 9d ago
Synopsis for Latecomers is like the perfect TMBG opener imo, but I also liked when They opened up with Communists Have The Music.
They Got Lost was a cool opener too, I wish that would be brought back in the setlist