Not your average double Grammy winners, They Might Be Giants have a lot in common with the average Cornell student: They seem cool at first, but are really just plain geeky. Kicking off a 40-city tour last Thursday night at the State Theatre, the band played a solid two-hour set to a nearly packed crowd.

Opening act Peter and Zoe Stempfel set the mood early. The two made up with humor what they lacked in talent. At times, Peter’s singing sounded like a dying pigeon, and I found myself agreeing when he croaked, “I’m dumb and I’m lame and I ain’t got a brain.” But the duo ended up being wildly entertaining with such humorous, folksy verses as “Stick your ass in the air” and “Birdie, birdie, birdie please take me away.” Following a 30-minute set that reduced the crowd to hysterics, the duo exited to a standing ovation.

Nobody's Business But the Turks: Beloved quirksters They Might Be Giants rocked the State Theatre on Thursday.Upon taking the stage, main act They Might Be Giants invited the audience to leave their seats and dance in the aisles, which turned out to be the beginning to a very non-traditional concert. From periodic launchings of confetti to starting songs over after messing them up, the concert had an experimental vibe to it, and guitarist / vocalist John Flansburgh even jokingly welcomed the audience to their practice recording session.

Attesting to the eclectic interests of the band, the show covered a wide range of genres. Childhood favorites even got the crowd singing “You can’t go back to Constantinople” and “The sun is a mass of incandescent gas.” Always open with the audience and willing to admit their mistakes, the band announced that the lyrics to the former were not scientifically accurate before launching into a similar, more accurate version: “The sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma.”

In the Land of GiantsThough Flansburgh joked about the “failed” combination of kiddie music with more serious songs, the crowd showed their appreciation throughout by screaming out song requests and dancing in the aisles. When it was announced that the band’s new and more adult album Here Comes Science (which, being aimed at an adult audience, uses “words with five syllables”) would acknowledge both evolution and the big bang theory, the band received much applause.

Really though, more Cornell students should have attended. The numerous songs about animals and chemical elements would have made any animal science or chemistry major proud to attend. From the shouts of “We want cake! Where’s our cake?” to the “non-cautionary song about drinking,” complete with the advice to “Drink, drink, ’cuz it’s never too late,” Cornell students would have felt right at home.