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Saturday, May 16, 2026

They Might Be Giants -- The Bigger Show Tour 2026

In an attempt to recapture the magic of seeing They Might Be Giants live in December 2024 when I learned tickets were going on sale for May 2026, I jumped on them. Mid-May is typically insanely busy for us with celebrations between Mother's Day, our wedding anniversary, Ashley's birthday, and now the REI anniversary sale. It is not the ideal time to throw in a concert in Philadelphia. I had to miss out on public archaeology at Newlin Grist Mill to make it happen. I was seeing with my nostalgia lens and not the reality one.

I bought tickets for Chris and I. My brother-in-law and his family are huge fans of TMBG (as they are known). Don is not. Don was my back up if Chris could not go, but the minute I stepped into the venue I was reminded of just how much Don would hate going to something at Union Transfer because there are no seats. Everyone stands packed into a room for the entire show. The balcony looked more sane, and getting there early I probably would have headed upstairs if Don was with me. There was no breathing room downstairs.

Yes, we should have
taken the selfie outside

Each night TMBG likes to shake up the set list. It keeps things interesting for them, and it encourages fans to return for multiple performances. On this tour they played in Philadelphia three nights in a row. The Saturday night show was a quick sell out. They announced there were still 200 tickets available for Sunday's show, half of which sold during the break. 


The May 16th show emphasized their 1994 John Henry album, their first with a full band instead of only synthesizers. Honestly, I should have enjoyed the show more. Niece Aimee came with with Chris and I. Her first big concert. Chris's brother, Dan, and his son, Jonah, showed up ten minutes to go and shared our space with us. Chris prefers to be right in front of the sound crew, on a spot that is slightly elevated, you feel less crowded because your back is abutting the secured tech crew area. The downside is that the space in front of you becomes a passageway for everyone coming and going because the platform is too wide for one row, but not wide enough for two. Even Chris admitted it was much more crowded than last year. I spent much of the first set leaning back over the tech wall (the crew was further back behind their equipment) with Chris and Jonah's shoulders slightly in front of me, and Aimee in the space directly in front of Chris and I. 

During the first set the band performed Stellub, which is Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love backwards doing silly things like spinning around and tossing items. They admit to first timers (like Aimee) it looks odd, but they insist it looks really cool when they play it forward on the video screen. Unfortunately there was a technical issue and they couldn't play it forward. Rather than simply performing it forwards and demonstrating what it would have looked like, they had a conversation with the tech dudes that dragged and moved onto Let Me Tell You About My Operation. I felt slightly gypped, especially when he said it was probably the best they ever performed that song backwards.

The second act was more comfortable than the first. Some people may have left, or the tall people in front of me shifted so I could see the entire stage without have to move my head from one side of Tall Guy #1 to the other side of his head. As a relatively tall person, I get it.

Chris and Aimee's heads
they looked so cute




Aimee was getting tired. The show started a few minutes after 8 pm. An hour later they took a 20 minute break. By 10:15 it looked like they were ending for the night. I looked at setlist.fm and noted they tend to return for two encores, and that the night before they ended at 10:45. I held up two fingers to Aimee, who was looking a bit optimistic that we were heading home. I hated to dash her excitement, but I knew the encore pieces would be ones more familiar as they want to end on a note that encourages us to return. They finished up with Man, It's So Loud in Here, then Twisting, and returned with Birdhouse in Your Soul for the only song in the second encore. The entire set list is on setlist.fm.

Loved the horn section and the accordion playing the most. Dr. Worm and Can't Keep Johnny Down were my favorites, along with Birdhouse in Your Soul. I'm listening to the show on setlist.fm and still not overly impressed with the songs chosen. 

Last year I remember more activity on the screens. There was some, so I know they were functioning. I wasn't loving the vertical lights. I felt their songs were short and choppy.

Though their May 15th show went until 10:45, ours was calling it a night before 10:30. We were all ready to fight the crowd to leave, and then fight the crowd to get out of the parking lot.

The crowd is pleasant and polite. I could have used a little more energy. There were times I felt I was the only one dancing. I don't miss the days when people would have smoked at events like this.

Apologies for sounding like such a downer! The gist of it is, while I loved the December 2024 show in the same venue, I wasn't into this one. Should I see them again and let that be the tie breaker or quit while I am ahead? We'll see. We almost caught a show in Australia, but they changed their dates to a time we did not plan to be in Sydney. Now that would have been something. I heard they played the Flood album -- my favorite TMBG album. The set list looks amazing! Filled with many of my favorite tunes, including Women and Men, the Kappa Sigma Rho theme song.


Set List:





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