st. louis: aunt martha and civil twilight

i love civil twilight. to be honest, i have a big fat crush on civil twilight. i gush about them to pretty much anyone who will listen, and my heart flutters when i listen to their music. it's true love, you guys. a romance for the ages. maybe it's because there's a certain air of mystery in them being from south africa. or maybe it's because they've since moved to nashville, and i have a big soft spot for bands from nashville. regardless, it had been close to a year since they'd made it back through st. louis. the last time i saw them was with am taxi and company of thieves at cicero's (i'm so partial to my dear chicago bands), and i was a little leery that anything could ever top that first time i saw them. but hot damn. they truly out did themselves this time around.

i decided to make a weekend of it, so my roommate and i packed up our things for a mini visit back home. i force all of my favorite bands onto my friends and most of the time they're resistant or brush me off. every once in a while though, something sticks. and this time civil twilight stuck to abby, so i was pretty stoked to have a show buddy. neither one of us had heard of the opener, so we weren't too worried about getting there at doors and shot for show time instead. we caught some of aunt martha, and from the three or so songs we heard, they were pretty great. a solid folk trio hailing from new york. they really suckered me in with the violin that came out for a couple songs. i didn't have any cash on me, but made a promise to myself to check out their music once i got home and have since been glad that i did.

off broadway is a decent sized venue. i'm not sure of the capacity and i'm awful with guestimating sizes and numbers. but it's about the size of the firebird and i think their capacity is somewhere around 200. we'll go with the same for off broadway. abby and i were shocked when we got there though. everyone was lining the bar, yes, but that was about it for the crowd. so often i get it in my head that the bands i think are awesome are also awesome in everyone else's eyes. so when i show up to a venue and expect it to be close to sold out, i'm always really surprised (and kind of letdown) when there are only thirty or so people there. (this band fucking rocks! where the fuck is everyone?!) the crowd steadily grew as the night progressed though, and once civil twilight started (and convinced the crowd to actually move closer than twenty feel from the stage) we were all nestled quite nicely into our respective places.

i'm trying my best to put into words how amazing the show was. and i just can't. at the time i tweeted something about it being a simultaneously transcendent and sexual experience. it was some type of enlightenment most definitely. the had cool videos being projected onto their amps. they had cool lights. they dress well. and to be frank, they're all really attractive musicians. which, whether you agree with me or not, that has a lot to do with a live show. of course i'm all about the music, but if i'm going to see a live show it helps if you have a good stage presence, dress to impress, are not bad to look at,  and have at least some sense of 'togetherness' as a band performing as a united entity. and civil twilight had all of the above. i don't remember what they opened with and i don't remember what they closed with. the minute they started playing i was sucked into some sort of vortex where all i could do was stare in awe with open ears, eyes and mouth and just take in the awesomeness that was their show. lead singer steven has absolutely flawless vocals and a falsetto that easily competes with jonsi of sigur ros. guitar player (and brother of steven) andrew has a pedalboard that would make any musician jealous, and man does he know how to work it. pretty sure he turned that guitar sound into an organ sound at one point. overall, they're flawless musicians and put on one hell of a show. they're meant for arenas. and as much as i secretly want to keep them all for myself, in tiny midwest venues with capacities under 200, they are destined for so much more than that. their south african accents don't hurt either! their songs human, letters from the sky, and quiet in my town have been featured on all kinds of shows from one tree hill, to without a trace, house, and in the trailer for the movie i am number four. this band's about to blow up. mark my words.

check them out for goodness sake: www.civiltwilightband.com