kansas city: an horse and manchester orchestra

i made the drive to kansas city on a monday. if that isn't dedication to music, i don't know what is. the tour played st. louis the following night, but logistic-wise, and workload-wise, kansas city made better sense. plus i finally got to meet some of the popwreckoning people that i work with and had yet to meet in person. success!

i unfortunately missed the first opener (a nap was of more importance, okay? don't judge me.) but i made it in time to see australian duet an horse hailing from australia. i've heard there name tossed around before but had never given them much of a chance. they played a good set, but when it comes down to personal opinion, they're not my cup of tea. solid band though, give em a listen and make your own assessments.

up next was my one and only. there's been a lot of hype surrounding manchester orchestra's new album simple math. i had the great opportunity to get a copy early and review it and IT. IS. AMAZING. and did i mention i get to interview the band as well? yeah, i'm pretty freakin excited. but anyways. the show. i'll preface by saying that one: this was the first night of tour and two: andy was really fucking drunk. so while the show probably wasn't one of their best from a musical standpoint, it was hilarious and a lot of fun. i had originally decided not to worry about keeping track of the setlist but then changed my mind halfway through since there was so much stage banter in between songs. so while this list isn't exactly  in the right order, it's pretty accurate. we're all pretty sure that andy mentioned popwreckoning as an kansas city blog that loved them , too. pretty sweet.

pride
i can barely breathe
colly strings
april fool
wolves at night
everything to nothing
my friend marcus
the only one
shake it out
i've got friends
where have you been

and then there was some random song that i think was improvised
it is well with my soul*
built upon the rock*

*yeah, two church hymns. you read that right. and it was fucking awesome when the whole crowd started singing along

all in all, it was a really fun show and i'm glad i went. it was wonderful to finally meet some of the people i've been working with in person finally, and andy's on-stage banter was wildly entertaining.

album review: manchester orchestra - simple math

manchester orchestra holds a spot in the top three list of my favorite bands. so when i was asked to review the album, i almost peed myself. the album has been on non-stop rotation and i just can't. get. enough. check it:

"Andy Hull and the company he keeps are gods. Five stars. Album of the year. The end. (Just kidding, sort of.)Words can't explain how long I'd waited for this album. Manchester Orchestra is one of those bands I can't get enough of. Like a Virgin Losing a Child, their first album, debuted in 2006 and the three year wait for sophomore release Mean Everything to Nothing was brutal. I was more than ready for Simple Math and it's finally here. Read more...

kansas city: manchester orchestra

it was a miracle i didn't lose my sanity last week. by the time friday rolled around, i was in severe sleep deprivation mode, yet somehow managed to make it through all my classes. somewhere within that week, my laptop crashed as well. nothing like a little stress on top of a week full of roadtrips with NO time whatsoever to deal with any problems that would arise. brianna found me on the floor holding my poor computer screaming expletives and on the verge of tears. i was three weeks away from getting an external hard drive for my birthday, and my laptop just HAD to crash. fortunately, my hard drive ended up being just fine, i [my dad] bought a new laptop and an external, and successfully transferred all my data over to the new laptop. so as sad as i was to see the old one go, i'm trying my best to embrace change and get used to the new one [complete with windows seven!] i'm now stuck with. but enough about my addiction to the cyber world.

by the time three o clock on friday rolled around, all i wanted to do was crash into bed. and that's precisely what i decided to do. there were four bands playing [o'brother, biffy clyro, the features and finally manchester orchestra.] and i'm only a fan of the last one. so i made up my mind to catch a few zzz's over hearing the opening bands. this is something i very rarely do - i'm all about staying for the whole show and giving each band my full attention. my own personal show morals, i guess you could call them. but i was more concerned for my health at this point, so naptime it was. i headed west to kansas city around seven and got to the beaumont club at nine on the dot. i caught the very end of the features and manchester was up next. absolutely perfect. i also secured a great spot. the pit was INTENSE and although i usually enjoy getting a little crazy and sweaty, this was not my night for it. so i stayed right behind all the crazy moshers and had myself a pretty good view and lots of pesonal space. manchester absolutely killed it, and i couldn't have been more happy with everything about their set. andy hull is such a beast; he's huge and burly with this totally amazing beard. you'd probably be scared to run into him on the street, and if you saw him in a gas station you'd think he was a trucker. but hand him a guitar and throw him on stage and he makes godly music. yumba. i left with warm fuzzies in my mind. that is, until i walked outside. it was raining and fifty degrees on my drive over. and it was twenty degrees and BLIZZARDING with two inches of snow already on the ground when i left. what. the. hell. by the time i got back to my car, i was literally covered in snow and drove home rather scantily clad... ha. it was a scary drive home and took way longer than it should have. nobody was ready for a random dumping of snow and the highways were terrible. but i made it home unscathed and literally crashed into bed the minute i walked in the door. insanity, i tell you. utter insanity.

st. louis: manchester orchestra and brand new

i'm sitting here staring at my cursor blink, blink, blink. because i have no idea how to start a blog about one of the most monumental days of my life. but alas, i guess i'll just dive in. as we all know by now, i'm fucking insane. so when i found out a week or so ago that brand new was scheduled to play a rare acoustic set at vintage vinyl before the pageant show, i knew i had to be there. so i called vintage vinyl monday night to see if they had any wristbands left. to my utter surprise, they did. so what did this fucking lunatic do, you ask? she drove to fucking st. louis. right then and there. bam. two hours there. and i got one of the last five wristbands. two hours back. called it a night. WIN.

next day, tuesday. skipped my last class of the day and booked it back to st. louis. again. because as mentioned before, i'm insane. i got to vintage vinyl around three thirty and was definitely one of the last people to get there. i was pretty far back in the crowd, but considering it was only a crowd of maybe two hundred, i still had a bad ass spot to see mother fucking BRAND NEW. they were late of course, and didn't start til close to four thirty, but whatever. i was just trying to hold back tears of joy. they played a small set, including bought a bride, bed, okay i believe you but my tommy gun don't, jesus christ, and at the bottom. there were lots of false starts, playing of wrong chords, and forgetting of lyrics, which i found to be hysterical. then they declared they would be signing in the front of the store, which worked out in my favor since i was standing so far back. so i merely turned around and didn't have to wait long at all. i handed over my cd with shaking hands and proceeded to get it signed by everyone. fan girl moment to the max!

*cool side note*
the couple standing in front of me were making small talk with jesse while waiting, and they mentioned how bummed they were that they didn't get tickets in time to see the show at the pageant later. and what did jesse do? he said that was a shame, got their names, and straight put them on the guest list. and i can totally vouch for the fact that jesse lacey is a man of his word. i saw the couple at the show a few hours later. so all the bad press out there about him being a dick, totally false. he was completely down to earth.

but to continue...
i decided it would be faster to merely walk down to the pageant instead of drive and try and re-park my car. so i made my way down there and got in line, which was surprisingly short. doors opened about forty-five minutes later, we went in and proceeded to wait for another hour. in that hour, i made friends with the group standing next to me. three of the five of them were named jordan, and i ended up befriending all of them on facebook. talk about professional creeper skills. gotta love meeting people at shows! sybris, a chicago native band was up first and i was pleasantly surprised. they were pretty good for being an opening act. they reminded me of a darker and harder company of thieves. manchester orchestra was next and oooooh myyyy gawwwwddd were they spectacular. and... i've gotta be honest, they kinda stole the show. music-wise; vocally and instrumentally, i must say that they were far superior to brand new. i haven't been a long-time fan, but their two records have indeed been on heavy rotation the past few months and i can easily say that i know both records by heart. i was a little disappointed though, it felt like they played such a short set - it was only around forty minutes. they played pride, shake it out, now that you're home, my friends marcus, i've got friends, everything to nothing, the river, and lastly a mixture that jumped back and forth from colly strings to the only one. totally epic. totally bad ass. they left me craving way more than i was given, which means i am anxiously awaiting their next tour.

and finally brand new. after standing for what felt like ages, and enduring the freezing cold air-conditioning aching back and feet, and severe hunger and thirst, brand new came out and quenched it all. they played for a good hour and a half. the set included you won't know as the opener. everyone immediately FREAKED OUT and pushed with all their might to get closer. so i quickly took off my shoes [i was an idiot and wore my flats] and put them in my bag and pushed up with everyone else. i ended up getting to about the second row, pretty sweet. lots of elbows and hands and arms in my face and other places that i didn't so much like, and lots of full grown men crying on my shoulder. it was quite the experience, let me tell you. next was degausser, okay i believe you but my tommy gun don't, sic transit gloria and jaws theme swimming. they then decided to introduce themselves. "we're brand new". no shit you guys. it's not like the crowd is singing louder than jesse or anything. for real though, there were times when it was annoying because you couldn't even hear them singing or playing because the crowd was so loud. next was the no seatbelt song and after that jesse telling us "i don't think i have enough air in my lungs for this, but what the hell" and proceeded to scare the shit out of everyone with vices. next was gasoline, in a jar, you stole, luca, sowing season, archers, jesus christ, bought a bride, sink, at the bottom, and finally play crack the sky, which was acoustic with andy hull from manchester. there was surprisingly no encore, which people seemed to be pretty upset about. but i was dying at the point so i didn't really care. i put my shoes on, found my friends joanna and kory, and shuffled my way all the way back to where my car was.

so overall, i can't lie. manchester orchestra was, musically at least, my favorite band of the night. but i'm so sentimental when it comes to brand new, and their music as a whole means so much to me. it's to the point where i don't even care how awful or great they sound, i'll love them unconditionally, regardless. so that was tuesday. what a day. seriously, what a fucking day. i could go on for ages, but this blog is already a mile long. i commend you if you've gotten this far. i really don't care if you have or not though, this is mainly so i can remember the epic night when i'm old and senile.