Review: Nerd rock champions They Might Be Giants offer respite from news cycle with musical hijinks

Reigning champions of nerd rock They Might Be Giants returned to their reliable haunt The Vic Theatre on Friday for the first of three consecutive nights. The group promised changing set lists and a deep dive into a different classic album nightly to tempt repeat customers.

During the band’s first set, the crowd was treated to material from 1988 sophomore album “Lincoln” including the irrepressible college rock hit “Ana Ng.” Multi-instrumentalist John Linnell sang the song’s rafter-scaling melody. Guitarist John Flansburgh delivered the wry line, “I don’t want the world, I just want your half.”

Flansburgh broke the ice with his gift for comical, off-the-cuff stage banter. He explained that by splitting the show into two sets, the group was serving as its own opening act. “Treat us like any other opening act,” said Flansburgh. “Please stand with your arms folded. A certain percentage of you could turn and look away from the stage.”

Cheers erupted when Flansburgh said that he’d spent the afternoon watching the Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks. “Cubs are looking great; I think they’re going all the way this year,” he said, receiving a second helping of applause and laughter. Linnell said he’d visited the Field Museum, where he’d seen a taxidermized human like one on “Planet of the Apes.”

When Flansburgh halted mid-anecdote and turned to nervously check his notes, Linnell deadpanned, “We know exactly what we’re doing.”

That statement was actually quite true. Principal songwriters Flansburgh and Linnell have worked since the early ’80s as an inventive do-it-yourself duo, breaking through in 1986 with the jagged yet effervescent alternative pop of “Don’t Let’s Start.” The group’s longstanding five-piece lineup includes guitarist Dan Miller and bassist Danny Weinkauf. Drummer Marty Beller is the relative newcomer at a mere 24 years of service.

Recent tours have also featured three staggeringly good horn players. Reeds player Stan Harrison took bristling saxophone solos and joined Linnell in a clarinet duet during the giddy reel “Cowtown.” Trumpeter Mark Pender played stratospheric notes during the delirious encore performance of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” Dan Levine was featured on euphonium during “Piece of Dirt” and played bold bass trombone elsewhere.

The octet created euphoric energy during “Particle Man.” Linnell led the rock ensemble with zydeco accordion while the brass trio brought New Orleans second line-styled energy and ebullient harmony. The arrangement transitioned mid-song into an off-kilter cover of Dolly Parton’s 1977 single “Here You Come Again.”

The “Lincoln” set experienced a brief diversion. “Ladies and gentlemen, the most loathed words in contemporary legacy act rock music,” Flansburgh said dryly. “We’re gonna play some songs off our new album.”

“Wu Tang” from the band’s 24th album, “The World is to Dig,” delved into Monty Python-esque absurdity. Linnell sang a cartwheeling melody equal to the group’s catchiest fare while Weinkauf played a carnivalesque countermelody reminiscent of XTC. The song entertained the band’s penchant for extrapolating the mundane into the absurd, citing hip-hop mavens the Wu-Tang Clan as the wellspring of all good things. The new album’s harmony-laden cover of Raspberries’ “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)” featured Miller’s buzzy and sublime solos.

The second set was peppered with fan favorites. The Sgt. Pepper-styled psychedelic pomp of “Birdhouse in Your Soul” got the balcony attendees to their feet and singing. The tricky “Fingertips” stitched 21 stylistically unrelated song snippets together. The audience joined the gallows humor of “Older,” gleefully acknowledging that each passing moment is one closer to the end.

Flansburgh paused the concert and requested house lights to survey the Vic’s “beard to glasses” ratio, measuring They Might Be Giants’ hipster contingent against the intellectuals. He lamented that the “glasses” had fallen short. “They guaranteed us this was the highest SAT [scoring] audience this year,” he said.

Conflicting moods inhabited several songs. Propelled by jaunty brass and Beller’s swinging rhythm, Flansburgh sang the buzz-killing “Let Me Tell You About My Operation” with campy showtune energy. Linnell’s grooving new single “Get Down” suggested an invitation to party, but was instead an alien race’s time-sensitive warning for everyone on Earth to duck, immediately.

The evening closed with the intoxicating fervor of the perfectly silly “Doctor Worm.”

A couple of attendees were spotted wearing T-shirts from Wednesday’s politically charged Bruce Springsteen concert at United Center. Flansburgh and Linnell have expressed left-leaning viewpoints offstage, but They Might Be Giants generally perform with no agenda beyond goodwill. Fans attending the band’s ensuing shows in Chicago can enjoy a respite from the tumultuous news cycle while indulging in expertly rendered musical hijinks.

As of writing, tickets for Sunday’s show are still available.

They Might Be Giants set list for May 1, 2026, show at Vic Theatre

Set 1
Santa's Beard
Stand on Your Own Head
Piece of Dirt
Where Your Eyes Don't Go
Pencil Rain
Lie Still, Little Bottle
Cowtown
I'll Sink Manhattan
Shoehorn With Teeth
Wu‐Tang
Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)
Snowball in Hell
They'll Need a Crane
Ana Ng
Particle Man (with "Here You Come Again")

Set 2
Stuff Is Way
Synopsis for Latecomers
Birdhouse in Your Soul
You Probably Get That a Lot
Hit the Ground
Fingertips
Till My Head Falls Off
Older
Moonbeam Rays
Wearing a Raincoat
Brontosaurus
Let Me Tell You About My Operation
The Darlings of Lumberland
Get Down

Encore 1
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Encore 2
She's an Angel
Doctor Worm