st. louis: building rome cd release and the noise fm at play:STL fest

what a whirlwind of a weekend! i left columbia at around three thirty, got home two hours later, and turned around and left my house again just an hour or so later to head downtown. it was so weird to be home. it had been five weeks; this was my first time coming home since move-in, a crazy feat for me. last year i was home almost every weekend, if not at least every other. at first i wasn't even all that excited to go home, but once i got there it felt really good. i had really missed my hometown. the familiar faces and "regular" treatment at starbucks, my house and the way it smells, my kitty, my bed... and of course my dad, although he was hardly home all weekend either. but it felt really good to be home, and i'm glad i went.

friday marked the long-awaited cd release show of building rome, one of the only bands that st. louis has left who hasn't gotten huge and run away to other parts of the country yet. i've known them for quite a few years, and have seen them undergo many changes in line-up, style, and pretty much everything under the sun. i was losing hope for a while, but they're definitely back in action, and things are going strong. as always, i was dreading going alone to yet another show. but it seems these days, with the more shows i go to, the more familiar faces i see. so after crawling my way down to the loop and spending a good half hour looking for parking, i finally made my way to the pageant. play:STL fest was going on and in full swing, hence the terrible amounts of traffic. but i finally made it, about a half hour late. i missed most of without a face, but i did get there in time to see tim ferrell from ludo make an appearance. (woo!) i was only there for a few minutes when a girl turned around and squealed my name... but the stage lights were super bright making it impossible to see who it was. i inched forward and realized it was julia, the girl that i met at warped tour! she was one of the girls i worked with for fueled by ramen, and i remembered her saying she was a big building rome fan. so we chatted in between sets and ended up having really good time together. it wasn't long before i spotted drew and stacy, and later on tabitha. cavashawn fans are everywhere... ha.

if i remember correctly, our last summer played next. not too fond of their music, it sounded like every other nasally pop-rock band out there. i'm a little fuzzy on details, but i think after them was last night's vice. oh my. they were interesting to say the least. i felt like i was at pointfest watching a cross between seether and nickelback or something. ugh, not too fond of them. but julia and i made the best of it. there weren't too many people down in the pit at the time, so we noticed the guy behind us very obviously dancing around like an idiot. well we decided to join him and did some pretty bad ass interpretive dancing. i believe the macarena was started, and we even slow danced together for a bit. good times. this is energy was up next. they were nasally pop band number two of the night, but were a little better than the first. we waited through the set and FINALLY building rome was up next.

they opened with the first song on the album 'what are we fighting for?' and it was a pretty kick-ass opener. they played a good mix of both new, really old, and semi-old. notable songs i remember include nightmare, dr. doctor, last time again, streetlights, choking on eggshells, gangster baby, one in a million, panting dog, and belly dancer girl. even more notable was the cover... they played poker face! and it was fantastic, the crowd really loved it. they got called back for an encore, and eventually called it a night. overall, i was really impressed. with the crowd they drew, and the performance. this was only my sixth time seeing them, so i don't have quite the extensive knowledge of their growth and progression as a band, but i was pleasantly surprised by the crowd. the pit wasn't super crowded per se, but it was definitely full. and although the balcony was closed, the entire first floor's worth of seating was full as well. by no means was it sold out or anything, but for a predominantly local show, i thought it was a pretty good draw. ludo was helping out and really pushing the show, which i'm sure helped. the band itself sounded really great too. it's been almost a year since i've seen them play, and they'd added two new members since way back then. the combination of two talented new members (formerly from a local band from waaaay back in the say, centerpointe), writing an entirely new concept album, recording, and lots of hard work, promotion, and practice, the band really sounds good. i've only listened to the album all the way through maybe three times, but it's growing on me. this definitely isn't the "gangster baby" bulding rome, but regardless i like it. they're a lot darker and somewhat harder than previous albums, but it's a natural progression for them i think. overall, i like it, and i'm happy for them in what seems to be the direction they're headed. i talked to both jon (of building rome) and alex (of the noise fm) and both have mentioned trying to hook up some shows together in the near future.

so that was day one of my music-filled weekend. day two involved the noise fm, dear future, eikon, ellee ven, owen, and finally copperview. once again, by myself. but i made a friend whose name i didn't even get, but she was there alone too so we hit it off great and talked about all the shows we'd both been to. longest show of my lifeeeee though, oh my goodness. it got started earlier than expected, probably because there were six bands to squeeze into the night. but the noise fm opened, and rather unfortunately only got to play for about twenty-five minutes. i've said it before, but i can't stress enough how much band order at cicero's can lead to either a huge success or epic failure. well in my opinion, the noise got screwed. granted, there was a good crowd there to see them [a lot better than the last time they were here], but people were still coming in and even still in line at the door when they were finishing up their set. and compared to the crowd the entire rest of the night, it was pretty shitty luck. sonja and veronica, friends and music crazies like myself from chicago, came and missed their set because they played so early. now i'm not saying their set sucked or anything by any means. it was great, as always. and the crowd was definitely better than last time; progress was made which is great. but it just sucked to see how much more potential there was for such a kick ass show, compared to the rest of the night.

so after them was dear future, who i'd never heard of, but i really liked. they reminded me a lot of barcelona. it was a little low-key, apparently because they had just lost two members of the band. but they didn't want to cancel the show and played anyway. well i didn't notice much lacking and still really enjoyed their music. next up was eikon, who i was really stoked to see. i believe it was me, michele and possibly amanda too, who had seen them open for state and madison quite a few months ago. we were all blown away and sad to hear it was their last show since everyone was leaving for college. well apparently this little band from st. louis relocated to nashville and was back in action. and holy shit did they kick some ass. they'd improved ten-fold and i was totally digging their sound. it reminded me of a mix between paper route, maybe a little circa survive and mutemath, with some killer thom yorke-like falsettos. long story short, they were great and are apparently releasing a new ep in early october. next was ellee ven. total shit show. not worth mentioning and i'm shuddering just trying to bring up any memories. next up was owen, who seemed to be a pretty big deal, and the reason my nameless friend was there. well owen is apparently a full band; this was just one guy and his guitar. mike kinsella? maybe you recognize the name? it sounded vaguely familiar to me, and apparently he used to be in a band called american football. but his guy melted my heart. to quote a tweet from that night "Lumberjack hipster from Chicago. Acoustic guitar. Fully bearded. I am melting." that pretty much sums him up. the majority of the crowd left after that, and what was left was copperview, a hinder-esque growly metal band that i was NOT enjoying one bit. i made my way to the back to sit with sonja, veronica and alex, and we talked/hand signalled/laughed our way through the set. i also noticed about three fourths of the bands from the previous nights show at the bar, and chatted briefly with some of them. they were probably too drunk to even remember, but whatever.

long story short, us girls plus the noise boys got some jimmy johns and had many LOST related conversations, and finally left around two in the am. the guys stayed with a friend, and the girls followed me back to my house and i think we all passed out pretty quick. they had planned to leave at ten, but i definitely woke up at noon and saw that there car was still in the driveway... ha. they came in to say their goodbyes at two, but we promptly sat around for another good hour or so talking about shows, local bands, mutual friends, and other general gossip not worth repeating. overall, a fantastic and music-filled weekend. i was sad to be heading back to school so soon.