This weekend I saw the following bands (!): The Birthday Massacre, Soul Asylum, Elephant in the Room, The Bravery, and OK Go.
Unfortunately, I missed my opportunity to see Suzanne Vega, but I digress.
All of the bands were pretty awesome. Bday Massacre rocked, as did Soul Asylum, complete with lead singer Dave's cheezy jokes and comments (what does Snoop Dogg call rain not caught by an umbrella? Fadrizzle.).
Elephant is a local band who changes tempo like 10 times for every song. I was calling them ADD rock. Plus, they had matching cut off shorts which was interesting (bunch 'o' dudes - should have called themselves Dude's in Duke's or something).
Then there was The Bravery who really one me over. At some point the hipster Jaggeresque lead singer switched places with the young Johnny Cash/Ian Curtis bass player --> they swapped instruments and the bass player sang, just like that! You don't see that level of talent and musicality quite often. All the guys in the band one over everyone and it was amazing.
As day took cover into night, we saw Ok Go. That was really the biggest surprise. They too are insanely talented people but their ease on stage and the little touches they have in their show really excited everyone. They had a hand-cranked confetti blower that blew red, white, and blue confetti at different stages throughout the show. Then the lead singer held a couple contraptions up to the mic that he manipulated to make cool noises. After that, I kept yelling "gadgetry" cuz I wanted more. Lol.
At one point all four men dragged out a table and performed an amazing song to handbells in honor of 9/11. It was pro, and I hadn't seen anything with handbells since grade school. They even wore the little gloves. Even more coolness, the lead singer asked if anyone played guitar during the next song and he pulled this teen girl on stage. During the song he instructed her and she played the guitar right on his body while he sang! Pretty freakin' cool! On top of all this, I loved one song more than the next and then all varied quite a bit as well. Awesomeness!
I'm feeling kind of sore throatish today (maybe it's belated grief from screaming this wknd) and I'm off to have a fresh fruit 'n' veggie juice. We are both committed to drinking this for 3 days (or more) just to clear things out. I think it's the best thing I've done in a while.
I'll update ya on our progress. ;)
