Like many smart, original shows before it, McSweeney’s vs. They Might Be Giants opted to skip Georgetown University on its national tour, and instead head straight to The George Washington University. Yet this might be the only way it has followed in the footsteps of others. Last Friday night, GW’s Lisner Auditorium hosted an evening of literature and music led by Dave Eggers, the smart, talented witty, and truth-be-told, rather handsome editor of McSweeney’s magazine. The idea was to combine the works of several of the most gifted, clever and hilarious writers of the moment, and set their words to the quirky music of They Might Be Giants.
The icing on this already fun and bizarre cake was that each act lasted only long enough to wildly entertain audience members, never dragging on for the sake of performers’ egos. Just as the audience startd to tire of the act, he or she would gradually bring it to a close?and the magic of the moment was preserved. This was best seen with the opening act, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, who performed a rock opera in under five minutes. What might have been pretentious and irritating turned out to be delightful as the audience watched the Trachtenburg family (father, mother, and elementary school-age daughter) put silly lyrics to slides ranging from family reunion snapshots to the slideshow-equivalent of corporate PowerPoint presentations.
The evening only got better as Arthur Bradford, a regular contributor to McSweeney’s, started off the literary portion of the night with his short story, “Roslyn’s Dog.” Strumming an acoustic guitar throughout his reading, They Might Be Giants joined him on stage for two climactic points in which the narrative was disrupted as the otherwise calm Bradford violently smashed his guitar for dramatic effect. Another gem was Sarah Vowell’s reading of her essay “God Will Give You Blood to Drink in a Souvenir Shot Glass.” Amid unceasing laughter, she explained in her unique, squeaky voice that history provides the best examples to support her outlook on life, best summed up in four words: “It could be worse.” Accompanied by members of They Might Be Giants, Vowell sang lyrics like, “You could be one of the prisoners of war dying of disease and malnutrition in the worst Confederate prison, so just calm down about the movie you wanted to go to being sold out,” followed by the chorus, “Gallows Hill and Andersonville / It could be, could be worse!” Eggers took a turn and read a passage from his new novel, You Shall Know Our Velocity. His work was warm, genuine and rich with the type of humor that makes one laugh, but not necessarily out loud, where the only thing that betrays laughter is happily shaking shoulders and occasional tears of joy.
After a short intermission two hours later, They Might Be Giants took the stage, this time without the authors. The band proved itself the perfect choice to continue the inventive, unusual, fun atmosphere of the evening and performed a short set including many audience favorites such as “James K. Polk” and “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” The group even succeeded in getting some of the older audience members?members that had clearly come for Eggers rather than the Giants?to stand up and clap their hands.
The evening’s events proved to be an unlikely yet entertaining combination, as literature and music combined to provide an unconventional yet entertaining show. While some Georgetown students might be put off that the show chose GW’s Lisner over our own lightning rod of cultural and countercultural happenings (McDonough Gymnasium), the program proved that art can transcend genre or medium with hilarious results.
