Here's my favorite tour shirt. We all know how death is such a prevalent TMBG theme, so why not go all the way? After all, anything worth doing is worth doing right. I don't have nearly enough black TMBG shirts, so I was happy to see this one for sale at the merch stand at the Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival in 2000. This is when I found out that occasionally some old shirts are unearthed at the warehouse and subsequently offered for sale at a New York show. Sweet!
Later on that day, I saw Dan Miller get his own TMBD shirt, and I'm pretty sure that he actually paid for it. He seems to enjoy the shirt so much that he has worn it to several shows, including the performance that was shot for Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns. In the DVD commentary, John Flansburgh mentions that They Might Be Dead is their worst-ever selling t-shirt; I guess a big dead cockroach will do that. This shirt does pop up on eBay from time to time if you're into that kind of thing.. I know I am. Anyway, here's a bonus video from the DVD of TMBG performing TMBG. Watch the left side for Miller in TMBD.
The back of the shirt reads "TMBG'S EXTRA CRISPY WORLD TOUR 1992" followed by a plethora of tour dates and cities. Sadly, I did not start attending shows until the following year and thus did not attend any of the shows listed. It's a good thing that I can't see these dates while I'm wearing them, because if I stare at the seven-NYC-shows-in-eight-nights for more then a few seconds, I start to drool on myself.
I particularly like that nowhere on the shirt does it actually say They Might Be Giants. A little extra ambiguity can go a long way. See you next week!
A short cover of a song originally by 60's Australian folk band The Seekers, performed at Toad's Place in New Haven, CT on 4/16/98.
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