Shows/1986-11-22

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They Might Be Giants
— with Crowded House, Tom Elias, OK Savant, Golden Dawn opening —
CBGB in New York, NY
November 22, 1986

Photo by Elisa Casas

Fan Recaps and Comments:

A photograph by Elisa Casas, possibly taken at this show, was used on the back cover of the 1987 Don't Let's Start EP (and the front cover of EP's CD release). John Flansburgh and John Linnell discussed the photo in a 1999 radio interview:

Linnell: "This picture was probably taken way before this record came out, actually. That is CBGB. That's from about 1985, I think."

Flansburgh: "That guy right there [in the audience] is the reviewer from The Village Voice. His name is Glenn Kenny and he wrote a rave about this show. It's so odd that you can see his face kind of leering at us."

One of the opening acts for this show was Crowded House, who were performing one of their earliest gigs in the United States. A recording of their set was later released on the band's 1999 album Live at CBGB. John Flansburgh recalled the show in a 2010 interview with Iain Lee:

We had a very strange experience right when things were taking off for us in New York City. We were playing at CBGB's and we were headlining. CB's, back then, you had to work your way up. It was very democratic, in a way — you did an audition night on a Sunday or a Monday, and you worked your way through the week till you finally got [booked on] the weekend. Meanwhile we were playing cooler clubs in the East Village, but we had finally graduated to headlining a weekend. It was selling out and our record was doing really well in New York, and Hilly Kristal, the guy who ran CB's, always one for putting his hand in the works... basically, he saw a show that was selling out, and there were some record company people who wanted to do on a showcase show for a band from Australia that was just signed to Capitol. And he said, "I want to put these guys on right before you, no big thing." It's like, "Hilly! Four bands instead of three bands, c'mon, this is our headlining show." He was like, "No, no, it'll be fine, they're supposed to be good." And it was the band Crowded House!
They had just come to the United States on a promotional tour. Nobody knew who they were — we knew them from Split Enz, we were actually Split Enz fans. They came in, they were all wearing the jackets that are on their first album, and they seemed so tired, so beaten down. I thought, man, what a bad deal, they're the guys from Split Enz, they were big stars. It was like, "oh, this is what you get, the whole thing is just a cruel joke." They did their show, they were actually really pretty sharp, but they couldn't hide that they'd traveled across the entire world. They were just kinda weary and looked kinda shaggy. And then of course, six months later they had a worldwide number one hit and have probably been living in mansions, laughing ever since.