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THE SEMI-CANONICAL THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
"STUMP THE BAND" LIST V 1.0
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This list is an attempt to document the many "Stump the Band" songs that
were played over the course of the "Don't Tread On the Cut-Up Snake"
World Tour 1992.
For those who are unaware of what "Stump The band" was, it was a feature
of the They Might Be Giants Band (That is, TMBG with Tony Maimone, Jon
Feinberg, and Kurt Hoffman behind them) where they would ask members of the
audience to shout out song titles, and the band would choose a song and
attempt to play it. They insisted on never playing the same song twice,
and as a result the unique TMBG sound was adhered to timeless classics.
Eventually, of course, the same songs kept being shouted, and eventually
TMBG decided to switch to "Spin the Dial", where they would choose a song
off the local radio stations. While this was interesting, I personally
found the idea of the band performing songs whose titles were being shouted
by the audience a much more alluring concept.
Here then, is the list, as complete as it could be at the moment.
Note that TMBG did not play "Stump the Band" at all their shows, and
I'm still trying to track down people who went to all the shows.
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DATE LOCATION VENUE SONG
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05/06 London, ENGLAND Town & Country Club "Light My Fire"
06/16 Northampton, MA The Iron Horse "Feelings"
06/20 Asbury Park, NJ The Fast Lane "You were Always On My Mind"
06/23 Cleveland, OH Agora Theatre "Disco Inferno"
06/24 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall "I Wanna Be Sedated"
06/26 Pontiac, MI Phoenix Plaza Ampith. "Kung-Fu Fighting"
06/27 Chicago, IL Riviera Theatre "Yellow Submarine"
06/28 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue "My Way"
06/29 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre
07/01 Denver, CO Gothic Theatre "Copa Cabana"
07/02 SLC, UT The Coliseum
07/04 Chicago, IL Grant Park *NO STUMP THE BAND*
07/06 NBC-TV The Tonight Show *NO STUMP THE BAND*
07/07 SF, CA Warfield Theatre "YMCA"
07/08 Ventura Ventura Theatre "Truckin'"
07/09 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern Theatre "You Lost that Lovin' Feeling"
07/11 Up. Marlboro, MD 'HFS-Tival '92 "Stand by Me"
07/11 Washington, DC 9:30 Club "We Are the World"
07/16 San Juan Cap., CA The Coach House "Superfreak"
07/17 Tijuana, MEXICO Iguana's "Horse With No Name"
07/18 Tempe, AZ Hayden Sq. Ampith. "You're So Vain"
07/19 Albuquerque, NM El Rey Theatre "The Beat Goes On"
07/21 Dallas, TX Majestic Theatre "The 1812 Overture"
07/22 Austin, TX Liberty Lunch "Hernando's Hideaway"
07/23 Houston, TX The Vatican *SHOW STOPPED BY MARSHALLS*
07/24 New Orleans, LA Tipitina's
07/26 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse "Don't Fear the Reaper"
07/28 Richmond, VA Flood Zone
07/30 Pittsburgh, PA I.C. Light Tent
07/31 Philadelphia, PA Trocadero
08/01 Morgantown, WV Nyabinghi Dance Club "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
08/02 Amer. Pub. Radio Mountain Stage * NO STUMP THE BAND *
08/04 New Haven, CT Toad's Place "Ring of Fire"
08/05 New York City, NY Tower Records "Sounds of Silence"
08/05 New York City, NY Beacon Theatre "La Marseillaise"
08/07 Lenox, MA Berkshire Perf. Arts "Black Magic Woman"
08/08 Montreal, CANADA Le Spectrum
08/09 Ottawa, CANADA Porter Hall "Smoke on the Water"
08/11 Toronto, CANADA RPM "Physical"
08/12 Buffalo, NY The Icon "Sympathy For the Devil"
08/14 Hanover, NH Dartmouth College "The Unicorn"
08/15 Boston, MA The Avalon "I will Survive"
Boston, MA The Avalon "We got the Beat"
*** There is a gap here, because I have no tour mailings from TMBG ***
09/02 Sacramento, CA Crest Theatre "AquaLung"
09/03 San Francisco, CA Union Square (Free) * NO STUMP THE BAND *
09/05 Portland, OR Melody Lane Ballroom "Burning Love"
09/06 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom "Billie Jean"
09/07 Seattle, WA Bumbershoot Festival
09/10 South Bend, IL U. of Notre Dame "Tainted Love"
09/12 Boston, MA The HatchShell * NO STUMP THE BAND *
09/13 Poughkeepsie, NY The Chance
09/15 Trenton, NJ City Gardens * SPIN THE DIAL *
09/16 New Britain, CT The Sting
09/18 Binghamton, NY SUNY Binghamton
09/19 Amherst, MA Amherst College "Pictures of Matchbook Men"
09/20 Baltimore, MD Johns Hopkins U. "People are Strange"
09/22 Durham, NC Duke University "Brown Eyed Girl"
09/23 Charlotte, NC 1313
09/25 Atlanta, GA Emory University
09/26 Gainesville, FL Florida Theatre "Dancing Queen"
09/27 Winter Park, FL Rollins College
09/28 Tampa, FL Ritz Theatre
09/30 Nashville, TN 328 Performance Hall
10/02 St. Louis, MO Mississippi Nights
10/03 Columbia, MO The Blue Note
10/05 Milwaukee, WI Modjeska Theatre
10/06 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue "Love Will Keep Us Together"
10/08 Athens, OH University of Ohio
10/09 Wheeling, WV Wheeling Jesuit "Rocky Mountain High"
10/10 Cincinatti, OH Bogart's "Electric Avenue"
From this point on, TMBG Stopped doing "Stump the Band", bringing a great
era to a close.
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A VERY HEARTFELT THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING TMBG-HEADS:
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Christina Balacuit, Shannon Finley, Sadiye Guler, John Iacoletti, Emp1,
The Mad Fishmonger, Kat, Constantinio Tobio, Chris Camfield, Scott Glenn,
Ron Belmarch, NZinga, Permanent Lapse of Reason, Sbrine, Matthew Butcher,
Hank Hess, Wade Sherfick, Jason Colton, Jsolon, Darryl Cater, Ka Chun Yi,
Adam Kessel, Christopher Mullins, Jemiah Jefferson, Terry Jones, and Jason Specland.
And a EXTREMELY SPECIAL Thanks to murph@athena, who sent me that WONDERFUL
compilation of lots of mentions of the dates, and to John Iacoletti, who
filled a lot of my gaps.
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NOTE: This only the beta version of this list! If you see a gap you can
fill in this list, even if it's just dates I missed and/or info
of cancelled shows, I'd like to hear from you.
