They Might Be Giants at First Avenue (October 1, 2026)

Once again, Rocktober is upon us. The month when seemingly every band, from arena sized stars to coffee shop openers are out on the road promoting new material and old favorites for audiences across the country. And here in 2026, the gods of rock & roll have granted the Twin Cities an amazing opener to the month, as alt rock icons They Might Be Giants have four consecutive nights, with two in Minneapolis at First Avenue followed by two evenings in Saint Paul at The Fitzgerald Theater. Here at We Heart Music, we plan on covering all four performances each with a different writer. The shows are very much “straight, no chaser”, as the band will play two sets with no opener. And lest you worry that the set of concert reviews will be too similar, the promise is that the shows will feature a significantly different set list. This would be patently ridiculous for most bands to attempt, but as Dan stated in his review of their 2026 album The World Is to Dig, TMBG aren’t most bands. Nearly twenty five studio albums into their career, they have a tremendous backlog. From the spectacular run of albums starting with their self-titled debut in 1986 to 1996’s Factory Showroom, to the 2000’s run of children’s records, to their newest this year, they have consistently created compelling musical earworms with humorous and often cryptic lyrics. We’re reviewed them many times, most recently here at First Avenue in June 2024. Shows two through four were officially sold out, and as we got close to the opening, it looked like night one on a Thursday might also be a sell out, or at least within spitting distance. As the two Johns (Linnell and Flansburgh) and their superb backing band hit the stage, the crowd was raring to go and it felt like a bit of magic was in the air.

Set one started and we were told it would be centered on the album Lincoln, and the crowd cheers were immense. A question to the pit photographers about who was the videographer got a sheepish, “Oh, I was just informed that is tomorrow…” from Flansburgh. They’ll Need a Crane had both Johns on vocals and they still work so well together. Song five finally got the horns section to the stage and we finally had the full eight piece, and it showed as Where Your Eyes Don’t Go simply bloomed in sound layers. We got a weird side convo from the Johns about Shelia E. and a documentary about the making of We Are the World, complete with a joke from Paul Simon. But they got back to it with a “here’s a song from our album…” and Pencil Rain had that military parade sound and let Linnell hold command from behind the keyboards. Flansburgh suddenly had a very large tree branch that he seemed to be using on a drum pad for Lie Still Little Bottle. Linnell was back on accordion again and Snowball in Hell was TMBG at their peak weirdness and musically flawless. If you didn’t know any of their music, I still think you would be wowed by the capability here. But if you know this work, it hit all of the nostalgia notes on top of being musically great. Ana Ng was a great example of that and the audience reveled in loud refrain. A quick giveaway of a couple albums led to Wu Tang off the new album and Linnell was flying on this one as the centerpiece of this giddy goofiness, though drummer Marty Beller got to rock the ending. This led to a mini run from The World Is to Dig, and Get Down has the brass section in full force behind the slightly reverbed dual vocals. It’s a catchy number and They Might Be Giants can still churn out real bangers. Particle Man closed out the first set and was true controlled chaos as the audience nearly went mad with cheers as the band headed off for a break.

Flashing lights and recorded fanfare brought the band (minus brass) back to stage and They Might Be Giants was back at it with Moonbeam Rays, off of 2021’s BOOK. Following with The Communists Have the Music simply slayed with the lyrics “the fascists have the outfits, but I don’t care for the outfits”, which wasn’t as funny as it should have been. Brass was back for Let Me Tell You About My Operation and they were let loose with Flansburgh in lounge singer mode before he left the stage to lead band introductions, with attached solos. Birdhouse in Your Soul was devastatingly good and the crowd nearly out vocalized Linnell at the height of giddiness. The title track from 2026’s EP Eyeball was a great reminder that these guys put out more music than you can easily track, and it let Linnell take over the song on keys. We got one of the kids album songs with Brontosaurus and the joy of the band and crowd was pretty complete as Flansburgh was pure rock and thrash on this one. Twisting was a late number that continued to rip out killer songs, and Flansburgh was excellent on vocals while Linnell had that surf rock keys support for the big outro. The ending of the set with Till My Head Falls Off was stunning, and the crowd never let up the applause until the band was back for the encore. We got the venue song with First Avenue Stage, and When Will You Die? had the horns go big once again. The crowd was uproarious and, in TMBG way, we were treated to a second encore with Linnell on keys and the trombonist returning the notes in a then empty stage sans that trombone on extended solo. Trading off for sax solo, this was one of the more audacious late set songs I have ever experienced. The full band was suddenly there and when Istanbul (Not Constantinople) took flight, it capped the evening brilliantly. They Might Be Giants had thundered through their first show in the Twin Cities and had brought Rocktober in with a fabulous start.