We Want Cake! Where’s Our Cake?

On Sunday, Benji, Paula, and I went to see They Might Be Giants perform at Town Hall.

I think I’ve mentioned how weird it is when your favorite band from when you were a teenager decides to start recording children’s music late in their careers, and then becomes the favorite band of your preschooler. But it bears mentioning again. Dang, it’s weird!

I actually think I prefer TMBG’s kid’s shows to their adult shows. They start on time, and no one plays “pass the dude,” as Flans has been known to call it. They also don’t play down to the kids. They put on a full-on rock show. They even include a few non-kids songs. This time they did “Whistling in the Dark,” “Stalk of Wheat,” and “Dr. Worm,” which is one of Benji’s favorites, as anyone who follows me on YouTube knows.

Speaking of Benji’s favorites, the set list couldn’t have been better for him if he’d written it himself. They did “Seven,” “High Five,” “The Days of the Week” (complete with their killer horn section, the Tricerichops), “Pirate Girls Nine,” and “I Am a Paleontologist” among others. Benji’s favorite part was shouting, “We want cake! Where’s our cake?” during “Seven.” My favorite part was watching him do that.

Also neat: Robin “Goldie” Goldwasser came out to sing “Don’t Cross the Street in the Middle of the Block” and “Electric Car.” After she left the stage, we saw her just a few rows behind us in the back of the orchestra watching the show from behind the sound board.

At the end of the show we grabbed orange and green TMBG foam fingers to add to Benji’s collection (which, now having three items, is now a collection), and we grabbed some confetti that Benji was delighted to continually drop on my head during the subway ride home.

In other news, on the way home we stopped off for sushi for dinner. Since Benji likes breaded chicken generally, I thought he might enjoy chicken katsu. What I did not anticipate, however, was the relish with which he devoured the katsu sauce! He ate that chicken like a boy possessed. Good to have another world cuisine available to us when we go out to dinner.