Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns, Los Angeles Premiere, 7/9/02 Jul 10 '02 (Updated Feb 04 '03)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line http://www.giganticfilm.com , http://groups.yahoo.com/group/giganticfilm , They Might Be Giants would totally kick Weens ass. I just got back from the Los Angeles premiere of the long awaited They Might Be Giants documentary: Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns. If you're a fan of this New York based 2 piece, let me be the first to say "You won't be disappointed by this film!" Assuming that most people reading this are probably familiar with TMBG, I'll keep the obligatory introductory stuff brief. John Linnel and John Flansburgh (aka They Might Be Giants, aka The Johns) have been doing their thing since the 80's, and doing it well enough to build up an extremely loyal and ever growing fan base that spans the generational divide. They have over 10 full-length releases, including a b-side collection, a double disc "early work" cd, and a really fun live album. They hold some kind of record as the highest selling band on the internet due to the internet-only release of "Long Tall Weekend". It's no surprise then that a feature length documentary on the boys is finally about to arrive in theaters near you. (Well... honestly, you'll have to be patient. It's not gonna be on the big screen anytime next month, but it is coming. Start holding your breath folks.) The last time I wrote about TMBG was 9 months ago when I reviewed an in-store performance I attended in New York City just hours before the attack on the twin towers. I mentioned in that review how some dude with a camera was filming the show for a documentary on the band. That "dude" was director AJ Schnack, and the documentary is Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns. Shortly after posting that review, I received an email from AJ explaining how he'd read it and wanted to know if I'd be interested in sharing some of my thoughts on camera. Not for the film version (which he was feverishly editing down for it's film fest debut) but for some supplemental stuff on the dvd version. I agreed, but 9 months later we still haven't shot anything. To be honest, I don't fully believe it'll ever happen, despite his assurance that he still wants to do it. I'm being cautiously optimistic! During one of these email exchanges, AJ pointed me to the Gigantic message board that keeps people updated on the film. You can check it out here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/giganticfilm/ Through the message board, I was informed that the non festival premiere was to occur at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Scheduled after the show would be an audience Q&A with AJ Schnack, Shirley Moyers (producer) and John Flansburgh. I made sure to buy my tickets EARLY, and it's a damn good thing I did. The show sold out and there was quite a line of people hoping to get in. I had one extra ticket so I sold it to a lucky young woman at the back of the line. My friends and I entered the theater and got great seats in the mid-left side. They were taped off as reserved, but opened up to normal ticket holders just as we reached them. Later, the other reserved seats filled up and Frank Black (The Pixies) and Michael McKean (Best in Show) sat directly behind us! After a short delay, a man from the Egyptian came out and explained a little bit of what we were about to see. He kinda rambled on to be honest, even explaining what trailers were before the film, (The Decline of Western Civilization III and Spriggan) but eventually he introduced AJ to the crowd. After a brief series of "thank you's" and "I hope you enjoy's" the lights dimmed and film began. (Well... actually the trailers first!) Gigantic opened with Senator Paul Simon giving a history lesson on Abraham Lincoln. Any TMBG fan will appreciate this absurd bit of historical sillyness, totally in keeping with the bands unique brand of wry humor. Moments later, the title came up and a blasting medley of some of TMBG's most recognizable tunes hit the audience. If you've ever seen a rock-umentary before, you know the basic format this film follows. It mostly alternates between concert footage, behind-the-scenes stuff, and interviews featuring the Johns, the Dans (the additional TMBG touring band members) and a varied collection of musicians, artists, and insiders who "knew them when". There is some guest show footage from the Jon Stewart Show, some behind the scenes moments with Conan O'brien, and an awesome clip of the Johns playing "Birdhouse in Your Soul" with Doc Severensen and the Tonight Show Band! One of my favorite aspects of Gigantic are the guests who pop up throughout the film with spoken word interpretations of TMBG lyrics. Andy Richter is hilarious interpreting "I Should Be Allowed to Think" while Michael McKean admirably tackles "The End of the Tour". Harry Shearer and Janine Garafalo get in the action as well, but I'll let you be surprised by their pieces. Some of the interviewed characters include Frank Black, Ira Glass, Mark Hoppus (Blink 182), Dave Eggers (McSweeneys literary journal), Sarah Vowel, and Syd Straw (who, let me warn you, goes a little bit nuts but kills a mean Joey Ramone impression!). There are only a couple of complete concert song performances. "Don't Let's Start" and "James K. Polk" among them. The rest of the concert scenes offer just mere glimpses of the band's incredible live presence. To those who've never seen TMBG live, the film only hints at what you're missing. A very brief segment of the film takes place at the NYC in-store performance I attended. I must say, I was so lost in my enjoyment of the film that I had forgotten it was coming, and I wasn't prepared to be taken back to New York so suddenly. (Despite all the progress I've made since that traumatic event, I still have moments where I don't do so well and "flash back" to that day. Usually it manifests itself as an elevated sort of alertness... I tense up and feel electric, scared and very alert. It used to happen every time I drove near tall buildings in LA or when an airplane flew close over head. Now it happens very rarely and I was surprised it kicked in during this film.) Nothing was actually said about 9/11, but the mere sight of the show I had attended caused my heart to race and my body to tense up. Wanna play "where's Ryan"? Look in the far back left when the camera shows the audience and look for an arm jutting from the crowd and resting against a rack of cds. That's my arm! Or maybe it's not... but that's about the general area where I was standing! Anyway, Gigantic depicts a tiny part of that show when they performed "New York City". It was midnight of the 10th, technically already September 11th. Some of the other songs you'll catch in this film include "Anna N G", "She's An Angel", "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", "Particle Man","Older", "Till My Head Falls Off", "Meet James Ensor", "Subliminal", "The Guitar", "Lie Still Little Bottle", "Cowtown", "Cyclops Rock", and of course a ton more. The only truly glaring omissions I noticed were "Spy" and "Doctor Worm". I would have liked to have seen concert footage of those tunes, but considering TMBG's body of work, it would be nearly impossible to please every fan and still keep the film under 3 hours! Besides, I think I at least heard "Doctor Worm" someplace in the film, even if I don't recall any footage of it being performed in concert. Actually, I also would have liked to have seen M Doughty interviewed within the film, but that's me just looking for my Soul Coughing fix again. Other highlights include John F playing an early demo of "Man, It's So Loud In Here" to John L for the first time, John F recording a message for dial a song (718-387-6962) after showing us the one bedroom apartment he currently uses for his studio, John L jokingly referring to themselves as the "shitty Beatles" (and other moments of wit and levity), an entire section of the film dedicated to coffee, a high school debate team arguing the meaning and importance of "Partical Man", numerous "early" photos and video clips of the band in their struggling days, and some great promo stuff they did during the early days of MTV and their stint for Elektra. The film was so entertaining, it felt as though it ended too soon. I actually have no idea how long Gigantic is because it started late and then the Q&A part of the evening was an undefined length. I do know that we arrived shortly before 7:30 and left shortly before 11:00. It sure didn't feel like 3 plus hours had gone by. After the credits ended, our emcee returned and re-introduced the audience to AJ Schnack, Shirley Moyers and John Flansburgh. They brought out a young fan who was being honored for being the "first" fan to buy a ticket for the show! They gave him an autographed poster for his troubles and there was some humorous interplay between him and John F when he accepted his reward. After that, the panel talked a bit about how AJ became involved with the band and why he decided to film a documentary on them in the first place. Turns out AJ and the Johns have been friends since collaborating on some music video projects together. AJ first got the idea for the film after noticing a particular phenomenon of the TMBG fan base: While many fans have "grown up" with the band over the years, the median age at shows seems to have consistently remained below 18. This was the impetus that resulted in the final film! Many of the questions asked were not very memorable, but here are a few of the more interesting revelations: When asked if there were any plans to collaborate with M Doughty again any time soon, John replied that he'd recently had a wonderful discussion with Mike and there was some talk of doing something together in August. When asked who would win if TMBG battled with Ween, John took the opportunity to dispel a rumor that they don't get along with Ween. He says they actually like Ween and wish no ill will upon them at all. To which AJ chimed in "But you'd still kick their ass." I had been raising my hand to ask a question, and after being passed up quite a few times, Frank Black actually patted me on the back and yelled "Over Here!" (or something to that effect) to get their attention! I first thanked AJ for the Message board since I wouldn't have known about the screening without it, and then asked them when they thought the film might be available on video and dvd. They told me they'd cover that at the end of the talk, but then they never did! Sorry folks... no word on when you can buy this for your home viewing enjoyment. After the Q&A wrapped, I went up and shook AJs hand and introduced myself. Again, he assured me he still wants to shoot an interview, but... we'll see! Before preparing to leave, I headed to the bathroom and ran into Seamus Kenney, lead singer of my favorite LA based geek rock band SNMNMNM! I've met him once before, introduced by a mutual friend, and so I took advantage of the moment to hand him a flyer for an upcoming party I'm throwing. We had an awkward conversation in the john that, quite simply, I'd sooner forget occurred! But it was an added bonus for me that I ran into him at the premiere. After leaving the Egyptian, my friends, 2 of which were unfamiliar with TMBG going into the screening, all agreed it was a great movie and a fun evening. I asked the 2 who had never heard of the Giants what they thought, and they both said they really enjoyed it. One said the film made her a fan, so AJ, you have reached the proverbial ONE PERSON! I highly recommend Gigantic to anyone who likes TMBG, and anyone else who may not really know the band but enjoys a good, fun film. If you know the band and absolutely can't stand them, you might gain a new perspective, or you might just drive yourself batty. Of course, if you hate TMBG, you're probably a raging asshole too, so maybe it'll be karmically cleansing for you! Thanks to everyone who read this thing to the end! I know it was long, but I wanted to share as many details as I could remember. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks again!

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