st. louis: good old war and circa survive

finally. it's spring break so i can get caught up on all these bad ass show reviews. sorry i've been slacking, friends. the good old war/circa survive show was a week ago and i'm just now getting around to writing about it. better late than never, though.

so after a totally crazy weekend in chicago seeing we the living, i had but one more show to drag my tired self to in roder to complete the "best week ever' sequence of events. monday was a long ass day and by the time five rolled around and it was time to trek back east to st. louis, i didn't even want to go. but i knew i'd kick myself if i didn't. so i bought a red bull and everything was okay. the show was at the firebird; it was so weird seeing the venue sold out. the only other shows i've ever seen there have always been smaller local shows. very cool to see so many people packed in there. i got a fairly decent spot right in the middle of the crowd, but still couldn't see much. tall guys always manage to stand directly in front of me. the opening bands were so-so; obviously nothing amazing because it's a mere week later and i remember nothing spectacular about them. can't say i even remember their names. but good old war was amaaaazing! i bought their album with my chirstmas itunes money a few months ago and in a few short months, they've become one of my top played artists. LOVE them. the majority of the crowd seemed to know them too, which i was surprised about. i always feel like i'm ahead of the game when it comes to discovering the next indie-chic band, but i'm always wrong. i suck at being a hipster.

circa took forever and a day to get set up and i was already suffering from a severe case of concert back. so by two or three songs in, i decided to leave my middle-of-the-crowd spot for the back wall to lean against. the firebird's pretty small so i still had a great view of the stage. man, let me tell you. circa survive knows how to put on a SHOW. anthony green is probably the coolest person ever. maybe it's because he was most likely on four different kinds of drugs. but regardless, his vocals were flawless, which is pretty amazing considering the range at which he sings. i met up with a bunch of my friends who'd also driven in from columbia after the show, and we noticed a crowd forming around some dude palying an acoustic guitar outside. upon investigation, i realized i was standing five feet away from anthony himself, strumming away and singing some songs. anthony green, just chillin on the sidewalk. so freakin cool. i didn't stick around too long though; i had a two hour drive back to school and my energy level was in the negatives. but all in all, a totally rad monday. so happy i can finally say that i've seen circa in concert now.