We cut the Honfest a little short last weekend in order to do something I've wanted to do since my tender young days back in 1990: See They Might Be Giants... live.

For whatever reason, I'd never gotten around to seeing them in concert despite having been a big enough fan to have played Flood over and over in the car until my cassette tape was ruined. (Yes, you heard me right: cassette. Let us not speak of it again.) Over the years, they would randomly show up on news pieces produced by Robert Krulwich, as the artists for television theme songs, or on the Disney channel. Their unique sound was always instantly recognizable to me and mine. Then when I had kids and heard they'd made a more serious move toward kids' music, but smart kids music, I was thrilled to share them with my own children. I bought Bed, Bed, Bed and gave it as Christmas presents to each and every friend with kids I knew (so... yeah... one) the year it came out. We watched Here Come the ABCs on the morning Disney channel programming and they're one of the main reasons The Dormouse learned her letters. Then the Here Comes Science album came out and I heard they got the Director of The New York Hall of Science to fact-check the lyrics of their songs. That was all I needed to love them for the rest of my life.

So after we took in Honfest last weekend, we headed down to the inner harbor and went to a bar/club in the middle of broad daylight to take in a concert with a thousand other concert goers, most of whom were under the age of ten. It was surreal at best.

Please to enjoy this photo essay of the experience.

We got there early. Way too early, but early enough to find a seat in the one, very small section of seating that existed in the club. It wasn't close to the stage, but it was worth it to have a straight sight line and to not have to stand down by the speakers in the toddler mosh pit.

They handed out these big foam fingers to all the kids. The KingofHearts and I immediately put them on and tried to have a conversation using only words we could cue with this one hand shape.
We came up with:
do pee-pee,
do poo-poo,
pause teeter totter,
duh dude,
poi,
zazoo!

OK, so it wasn't the most stimulating of conversations. TMBG? We could really have used a second hand shape.

The Dormouse enjoyed pointing the way to... pretty much everywhere.

"Why yes, the sky is up there. Why do you ask?"

Every good kids' concert must have either a confetti gun or a bubble machine.
You can see which way they went in this photo.

We met up with some friends who also had tickets once we got there.
Their two boys are just slightly older than each of my girls...

...and both walk around all the time oozing boatloads of adorable.
I'm seriously thinking of arranging marriages between these four.

John Linnell is the one person in the world I know of who does immediately begin to look like a hobo the minute he straps on an accordion. Plus, he gave me a bumper sticker. ♥

Curt Ramm was their brass section and I am now a little in love with him. He actually played solo euphonium. I played euphonium for one semester in my brass skills class in college, so I feel I can say without hesitation that he felt my presence through the crowd and we shared a unique and unspoken connection. He also played the most amazing trumpet solo to Istanbul (not Constantinople) that I have ever heard. Here's a short clip someone posted on YouTube that doesn't even do it justice, but you get the idea.

John Flansburg. One of the subjects of the movie, A Tale of Two Johns.

That broom in the background introduced all the band members... BECAUSE OF COURSE IT DID.

Psssst.... John and John? Possible next album cover??