We had a pretty awesome weekend, including the first Gaffney’s patio happy hour of the season; a (daring) stop at the new Liberty Bell Cheesesteak; a girls’ breakfast in the beautiful sunshine Saturday morning (yes, I was invited as an honorary attendee); a walk around downtown on a sunny Sunday afternoon, including lunch at Lillian’s; and a whacky They Might Be Giants concert at the Egg in Albany (the rock show, not to be confused with their kids’ show earlier in the day).
First, there’s the Egg. What the hell? It looks like a giant concrete spaceship about to launch out of downtown Albany. Before Saturday night I’d never been inside. It’s a lot smaller and stranger inside than one might think. It’s even painted yellow like a yolk. And it’s so weird that TMBG even sings a song about it (“The Egg, no corners for you”).
And then there’s TMBG, whose better-known classics include Istanbul (not Constantinople), Birdhouse in Your Soul (see my 20-second clip of it below), and Boss Of Me (from Malcolm In The Middle). The band is in a special class of rock called geek rock (or nerd rock), whose musical “elements include heavy use of synthesizers and electronic keyboards, vocoders, harmonic vocals and idiosyncratic use of instruments not usually associated with alt-rock, such as accordions.” (Hey, know anyone who owns an accordion? My wife’s accordion, bestowed upon her by my father-in-law, who has a band of his own, was last spotted at our 2nd Annual Sangria Social.)
Meanwhile, at the TMBG concert, we had a great time at the show and afterward at the Albany Pump Station. And it was pretty funny to be in an audience of a couple hundred fellow NPR listeners bobbin’ their heads to the nerd rock. Word.
