Stump The Band

--------------------------------------THE SEMI-CANONICAL THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS "STUMP THE BAND" LIST V 1.0 --------------------------------------This list is an attempt to document the many "Stump the Band" songs that were played over the course of the "Don't Tread On the Cut-Up Snake" World Tour 1992. For those who are unaware of what "Stump The band" was, it was a feature of the They Might Be Giants Band (That is, TMBG with Tony Maimone, Jon Feinberg, and Kurt Hoffman behind them) where they would ask members of the audience to shout out song titles, and the band would choose a song and attempt to play it. They insisted on never playing the same song twice, and as a result the unique TMBG sound was adhered to timeless classics. Eventually, of course, the same songs kept being shouted, and eventually TMBG decided to switch to "Spin the Dial", where they would choose a song off the local radio stations. While this was interesting, I personally found the idea of the band performing songs whose titles were being shouted by the audience a much more alluring concept. Here then, is the list, as complete as it could be at the moment. Note that TMBG did not play "Stump the Band" at all their shows, and I'm still trying to track down people who went to all the shows. -----------------------------------------------------------------------DATE LOCATION VENUE SONG -----------------------------------------------------------------------05/06 London, ENGLAND Town & Country Club "Light My Fire" 06/16 Northampton, MA The Iron Horse "Feelings" 06/20 Asbury Park, NJ The Fast Lane "You were Always On My Mind" 06/23 Cleveland, OH Agora Theatre "Disco Inferno" 06/24 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall "I Wanna Be Sedated" 06/26 Pontiac, MI Phoenix Plaza Ampith. "Kung-Fu Fighting" 06/27 Chicago, IL Riviera Theatre "Yellow Submarine" 06/28 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue "My Way" 06/29 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre 07/01 Denver, CO Gothic Theatre "Copa Cabana" 07/02 SLC, UT The Coliseum 07/04 Chicago, IL Grant Park *NO STUMP THE BAND* 07/06 NBC-TV The Tonight Show *NO STUMP THE BAND* 07/07 SF, CA Warfield Theatre "YMCA" 07/08 Ventura Ventura Theatre "Truckin'" 07/09 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern Theatre "You Lost that Lovin' Feeling" 07/11 Up. Marlboro, MD 'HFS-Tival '92 "Stand by Me" 07/11 Washington, DC 9:30 Club "We Are the World" 07/16 San Juan Cap., CA The Coach House "Superfreak" 07/17 Tijuana, MEXICO Iguana's "Horse With No Name" 07/18 Tempe, AZ Hayden Sq. Ampith. "You're So Vain" 07/19 Albuquerque, NM El Rey Theatre "The Beat Goes On" 07/21 Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre "The 1812 Overture" 07/22 Austin, TX Liberty Lunch "Hernando's Hideaway" 07/23 Houston, TX The Vatican *SHOW STOPPED BY MARSHALLS* 07/24 New Orleans, LA Tipitina's 07/26 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse "Don't Fear the Reaper" 07/28 Richmond, VA Flood Zone 07/30 Pittsburgh, PA I.C. Light Tent

07/31 08/01 08/02 08/04 08/05 08/05 08/07 08/08 08/09 08/11 08/12 08/14 08/15

Philadelphia, PA Morgantown, WV Amer. Pub. Radio New Haven, CT New York City, NY New York City, NY Lenox, MA Montreal, CANADA Ottawa, CANADA Toronto, CANADA Buffalo, NY Hanover, NH Boston, MA Boston, MA

Trocadero Nyabinghi Dance Club Mountain Stage Toad's Place Tower Records Beacon Theatre Berkshire Perf. Arts Le Spectrum Porter Hall RPM The Icon Dartmouth College The Avalon The Avalon

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" * NO STUMP THE BAND * "Ring of Fire" "Sounds of Silence" "La Marseillaise" "Black Magic Woman" "Smoke on the Water" "Physical" "Sympathy For the Devil" "The Unicorn" "I will Survive" "We got the Beat"

*** There is a gap here, because I have no tour mailings from TMBG *** 09/02 09/03 09/05 09/06 09/07 09/10 09/12 09/13 09/15 09/16 09/18 09/19 09/20 09/22 09/23 09/25 09/26 09/27 09/28 09/30 10/02 10/03 10/05 10/06 10/08 10/09 10/10

Sacramento, CA San Francisco, CA Portland, OR Vancouver, BC Seattle, WA South Bend, IL Boston, MA Poughkeepsie, NY Trenton, NJ New Britain, CT Binghamton, NY Amherst, MA Baltimore, MD Durham, NC Charlotte, NC Atlanta, GA Gainesville, FL Winter Park, FL Tampa, FL Nashville, TN St. Louis, MO Columbia, MO Milwaukee, WI Minneapolis, MN Athens, OH Wheeling, WV Cincinatti, OH

Crest Theatre Union Square (Free) Melody Lane Ballroom Commodore Ballroom Bumbershoot Festival U. of Notre Dame The HatchShell The Chance City Gardens The Sting SUNY Binghamton Amherst College Johns Hopkins U. Duke University 1313 Emory University Florida Theatre Rollins College Ritz Theatre 328 Performance Hall Mississippi Nights The Blue Note Modjeska Theatre First Avenue University of Ohio Wheeling Jesuit Bogart's

"AquaLung" * NO STUMP THE BAND * "Burning Love" "Billie Jean" "Tainted Love" * NO STUMP THE BAND * * SPIN THE DIAL * "Pictures of Matchbook Men" "People are Strange" "Brown Eyed Girl" "Dancing Queen"

"Love Will Keep Us Together" "Rocky Mountain High" "Electric Avenue"

From this point on, TMBG Stopped doing "Stump the Band", bringing a great era to a close. -----------------------------------------------------------------------A VERY HEARTFELT THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING TMBG-HEADS: -----------------------------------------------------------------------Christina Balacuit, Shannon Finley, Sadiye Guler, John Iacoletti, Emp1, The Mad Fishmonger, Kat, Constantinio Tobio, Chris Camfield, Scott Glenn, Ron Belmarch, NZinga, Permanent Lapse of Reason, Sbrine, Matthew Butcher, Hank Hess, Wade Sherfick, Jason Colton, Jsolon, Darryl Cater, Ka Chun Yi, Adam Kessel, Christopher Mullins, Jemiah Jefferson, Terry Jones, and Jason Specland.

And a EXTREMELY SPECIAL Thanks to murph@athena, who sent me that WONDERFUL compilation of lots of mentions of the dates, and to John Iacoletti, who filled a lot of my gaps. -----------------------------------------------------------------------NOTE: This only the beta version of this list! If you see a gap you can fill in this list, even if it's just dates I missed and/or info of cancelled shows, I'd like to hear from you.