Archives Part 7 - They Might Be Giants

So here we go, my pics from the They Might Be Giants instore performance on (let me check the booklet: 10-18-1996). I remember a few things about this event. Before I move on I just wanna tell everyone to click on any of the pictures posted to get a better look. I scanned these slides at 1600 dpi and had to reduce them to 750 dpi to fit in the blog's capacity.
So if you didn't know you could I encourage everyone to click these pics to see the details I'm talking about.

I didn't know shit about taking pics nor did I own a camera so I borrowed my father's camera with a fish eye lens on it. This explains some of the odd perspective on some of the shots. I did manage at one point to get up close and snap some pics. They were pretty camera shy and all around shy before the event but they were awesome. I remember Chris Faulkner looking at the crowd and saying something along the line of look at all these geeks!
In this first strip you can see the picture of the stage I already posted, I hope that my attempt to correct the color cast of these pics turned out OK. The other pics show the size of the crowd; keep in mind that these are fish eye shots. The store was packed.

In this strip you can see a few interesting things. In the first frame the band are now on stage, they are barely visible in the pics but you can see them. In the second pic you can see the then girlfriend of an employee that will pop up later with long hair taking pics of the event. She took far better photos than me. You can also see our rolls of price stickers. See the yellows? Those were great deals, a yellow 11.99 costing us 7.00. Great damn deal. In the third frame you can see Jay taking more pics and more importantly you can see all the staff huddled around the CD player watching and listening. I can see the WEA rep leaning up against the promos, Frank Jenks with his hand on his face like someone farted on him and Jason smiling. Also of note in the photo are the lockers and the CASSETTE TAPE CASES!~ On the case front, I had all three models seen here: CP30, CL60 and CL120. They are now clogging the shelves of the Traverse Area Salvation Army. Chris Faulkner's water is on top of the lockers and at this time only two volumes of the Beatles Anthology had been released as there are only two of the cover posters on the wall. You can see the HUGE Johnny Cash poster of Frank's shoulder and a phat Whoomp! There is Is poster underneath the chair in the bottom right of the picture.

Here are two more pics. The first frame is from the front of the store looking back towards the stage. Again these are fish-eye pics but you can see the place is packed. Jason (with long rockstar hair) is talking with Jay in front of the kid on the shoulders. In the second pic I have waded into the fray near the back of the store. I think they were getting close to being done and I wanted to get some more photos.

Here are the two Johns. I thought I had a better photo and may have taken one but cannot find it at this time. I do not remember what was going on with the ballot box in the Accordian John's hand but I do remember that they asked someone out of the crowd to turn to their right and choose a CD and they would play a song from that disc. The kid yelled out Roundabout by Yes and they blanched, in a funny way. They ended up playing some Muddy Waters instead. I was geeked cos they played Ana Ng(slowed down) which is my favorite tune of theirs. You see that white paper near the drummer's foot? That is the set list. After they ran out of the store(see the next frame) I hopped on stage and saw that it was the playlist. I asked Sharon, who set up the stage, if she wanted it and she grabbed it like I was offering a million dollar bill. I wonder if she still has it?

In this final bit of film I have, in the first frame, waded back out into the crowd. YoU can see the band on the stage, trading the ballot box. In the next song they are making like the Beatles and running the hell out of the store. Sharon is to the left, Frank is to the right looking HUGE. That is the fish-eye making her look scrawny and him brawny. Sharon at the time these were developed was super excited cos she was in a picture with the band and the way the picture was printed made it look like her shirt said HELL. You can see Jay, with a flash on her camera, right in the action taking snaps. I tore that Lanois poster down that is over the door and still feel guilty about it. And in the last frame is the aftermath, dig the zoot suit on the one guy. Good Lord.