They Might Be Giants
The Regent Theatre DTLA
Los Angeles, CA
May 1st, 2015


"In Lieu Of Flowers"


Taper: mixter_

VG+

Lineage / Equipment:

7' from left stage monitor / fob -> 6.5' h -> at933's (4.7k dt mod) cards -> naiant pipsqueak pre (+4dB)
-> edirol r09 (24/48) -> san disk extreme plus 32gb class 10 - 80mb/s -> reader -> audition 3.0
(minor level adjust +3dB l / +1dB r - fades - normalization - de-clap process) -> har-bal 2.3 (slight e.q.)
-> audition 3.0 (dither to 16/44.1) -> cd wave editor (track split) -> tlh (flac level 8, etc...) -> DIME
-> you -> sense of enjoyment -> sharing is caring -> support the artist (yes) -XX convert to mp3 (no!!!)

K.I.L.L. = Keep It LossLess. Convert to mp3 or shortwave radio for personal use only.
Please do no sell or attempt to profit from this recording. I do ask that any reposts, links
or artwork credit me as the original taper. Thank-you.


Set One:
01. "Introduction 1"
02. Can't Keep Johnny Down
03. Music Jail, Part 1 & 2
04. "Showbusiness Insiders"
05. The Mesopotamians
06. "In Lieu Of Flowers"
07. Answer
08. Number Three
09. "i-Phone 12"
10. Bills, Bills, Bills*
11. When Will You Die
12. Older
13. "Scientology 2"
14. Older (Reprise)
15. "Opening For Ourselves"
16. Madam, I Challenge You To A Duel
17. I Palindrome I
18. Damn Good Times
19. 32 Footsteps
20. "Unbelievably Great"
21. Good To Be Alive
22. Doctor Worm
23. "Never Been On Skid Row Before"
24. Let Me Tell You About My Operation
25. Istanbul (Not Constantinople)+

Set Two:
26. "Introduction 2"
27. You're On Fire
28. New York City=
29. Ana Ng
30. "Happy To Be There"
31. I Can Help the Next In Line
32. "Gonna Spit My Truth"
33. Authenticity Trip
34. Underwater Woman
35. Alphabet Of Nations
36. James K. Polk
37. "Standing Up Simultaneously"
38. Man, It's So Loud In Here
39. Withered Hope
40. "We've Got Microphones"
41. Unpronounceable
42. Robot Parade^ (Includes Band Introductions)
43. "Encore Break 1"
44. Erase
45. "Infinity Machine"
46. Fingertips
47. "Encore Break 2"
48. Dead
49. "This Has Been A Dream"
50. Birdhouse In Your Soul

*Destiny's Child Cover
+The Four Lads Cover
=Cub Cover
^Contains elements of AC/DC's "Hell's Bells"

They Might Be Giants Are...

John Flansburgh - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
John Linnell - Vocals, Keyboards, Piano, Organ, Accordian
Dan Miller - Lead Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Danny Weinkauf - Bass Guitar
Marty Beller - Drums


The Venue, Performance and Recording:

They Might Be Giants return to the City of Angels in support of their latest release "Glean", the first
installment of 15 tracks from their recently re-launched "Dial-A-Song" project in which the band will release
a new composition every Tuesday over the next year.

The capacity crowd of 1000 or so was shoulder to shoulder for the recently renovated 100 year old Regent
Theatre in downtown Los Angeles (dubbed DTLA). It's not nearly as large or prestigious as it's multi-million
dollar refurbished sibling's "The Mayan", "The Million Dollar Theatre", "The Orpheum" nor "The Theatre At The
Ace Hotel". Nevertheless, Spaceland Production's Mitchell Frank has truly poured his heart and soul in bringing
this little old lady from despair and disrepair. The original proscenium arch has been carefully been brought
back to life, the stage rebuilt and extended, and a state of the art JBL sound system installed. It's not
quite Club Nokia with it's no-expense-spared sound system. Still, it's very good. Frank pulled off a budgeting
miracle of sorts with the need to balance historic preservation, seismic and code upgrades, a new sound system
and a respectable if not Spartan lighting rig. A feat that is not lost on me. The venue has installed a U-shaped
balcony to create greater capacity. It has also maintained it's raked (sloped) movie house floor in order
to invariably save costs and to preserve sightlines for the rear attendees. This poses a safety concern as
well as major foot fatigue for the crowds that have to endure nearly four hours of standing on a hill in one
spot. This may have to be addressed later as The Wiltern did when they found it necessary to create flatter
tiers after LG and Live Nation decided to tear out the seats in that historic theatre a dozen years ago.

Another concern is that L.A.'s ever increasing homeless encampment population has overflowed it's Skid Row
and Garment District boundaries and is spilling over to Main, Spring and Broadway. A fact that has not been
lost on the Rockstar game developers (SEE: http://gta.wikia.com/Ten_Cent_Theater). This is the heart of L.A.'s
historic theatre district and at the core of the city's plan to bring a nightlife, club and bar businesses
back to downtown. There's no easy solution to this. Even TMBG's own John Flansburgh remarks that L.A. still
looks like a scene out of Dragnet (60's T.V. show not the Hanks-Akroyd farce from the 80's) and reminds him of
New York in the 70's. This statement is truly troubling and underscores the issue. It's problematic for the
homeless, the business owners, the artists and the fans if people don't feel safe enough to come to a show
here at night. It will serve as a huge blow to the city if people don't venture outside of the AEG / L.A.
Live Comp(ound)lex on the west side. Also, this theatre serves as one of DTLA's only independent venues
(certainly it's largest) for independent music, art and film. I remain optimistic that The Regent will be
successful and is here to stay.

The band poured through ninety-some-odd minutes of music over 2 3/4 hours. The other hour plus was filled by a
25 minute unnecessary intermission, five minutes of obligatory need-to-leave-the-stage encore breaks and a half
hour or so of sharply-pointed-yet-kind-hearted clever anecdotes and witicisms. As such, the story behind the
band's decision to cover Destiny's Child's "Bills, Bills, Bills" for A.V. Undercover is priceless. The staged
phone call interruption of "Older", not so much, as it drags on for nearly five minutes. John and John's pearls
of wisdom have been tracked independently so you can get back to the music in short order if you like. The band
was tight and well rehearsed as evidenced by the remarkable live rendition of "Fingertips" as the band rips
through 21-mini-vignettes in 4 minutes or so.

This recording was made 7' from the left stage monitor (John's side). Settings were pretty well dialed as
their is no clipping. The sound is slightly oversaturated as the speakers are being overdriven at times. That
being said, there is not a lot of bass as the stacks and subs were positioned to the left and right of the
stage. This recording comes off the inward facing left monitor on the lip. Vocals and instrumentation are
decisively clear, but there is an inherent lack of bass due to my relative position. I did a little tweaking
in HarBal to define the bass a bit more. Audience chatter is decent with little in the way of this recording.
Still, I had a rather excited clapper on the rail , two people in front of me. Every effort has been made to
attenuate the peaks while preserving the music. Some whoo-hooing, sing-a-longs and hollering are present. All
thankfully in the background. A very enjoyable show and a solid pull.

Please support the band by purchasing their new album, "Glean" or by attending one of their shows...

http://www.theymightbegiants.com/






Enjoy,


mixter_

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