featuring paper route, work drugs, maps & atlases, and two door cinema club
let me preface this by saying that it truly was a fantastic show; my circumstances surrounding it were less than fortunate so i apologize if i sound bitter.
seeing as this little midwest festival was going on in kansas city, i had a two hour drive from columbia to work into my schedule. i was finished with class by two, and was planning on buying mumford and sons tickets when they went on sale at five. this was
supposed to give me plenty of time to get my stuff together and head to kansas city, putting me at the beaumont club right around seven-thirty, right when the show was supposed to start. according to beaumont's website, a band i'd never heard of was opening so cutting it close seemed like an okay option. well five o'clock rolled around and i feverishly tried to get mumford tickets
for a solid 28 minutes to no avail. i was crushed. not only had i tried and failed at presale, i tried and failed at general admission as well. i didn't realize it would take a half an hour to get tickets and i was flustered. it was closer to six by the time i got gas and hit the road. i called the venue to double check times but no one answered, though i still wasn't too worried when i arrived at eight. i exchanged my paper print out for a wristband and headed inside to a surprisingly empty club. but that's when i saw paper route loading out.
WHAT.
first of all, i blame the venue for listing the bands in the wrong order. second of all, i've had the WORST luck seeing paper route. this makes three times i've attempted to see them and failed. i was literally fighting back tears of anger and it didn't help that work drugs, the second band who was
supposedly playing first was just
okay. but whatever. at least i had a solid spot for maps & atlases and two door cinema club. i'll hand it to maps & atlases; they played a fantastic set to a very excited crowd. i'd never seen them live before, but i had seen dave davison, the lead singer's side project cast spells play at play:stl fest in st. louis and it was lovely. next up was two door cinema club, and the crowd was beginning to pack itself tightly together. i had a great spot, no tall people in front of me, when all of the sudden three rather large men shoved their way through and booted me out of my spot. it's a show, things like this happen, i was by myself and i'm pretty small, i get it. not a huge deal. but the events that transpired
were a huge deal. i won't hash out details here, but let's just say there was sexual harassment, i got these three gentlemen escorted out of the venue, and declined to press charges, because after all, i'd paid twenty bucks for a ticket, thirty round trip for gas, and just wanted to get back to the two door cinema club performance i was missing. if you're curious, you can read my extremely heated rant about it
here, but this is a music review blog, so reviewing the music is what i shall stick to!
so anyway.
two door put on the most fantastic show i've seen in a while and it definitely made up for all of the shenanigans that had happened earlier in the night. i somehow made it to the very front and danced my heart out. i don't know how those irishmen do it, but they expel some serious energy on stage and still sound great up until the last song and throughout the encore. i highly recommend seeing them live if you get the chance, and at the very least buy their album. i promise you won't be disappointed. in fact, i almost guarantee it'll be your album of the summer.
for the love of all things, check out these bands:
paper route - indie rock with a tinge of electronic vibe, from nashville, putting out a new record soon and touring in the summer/fall 2011
paperrouteonline.com
maps & atlases - chicago natives, indie, prog-ish, mathy rock, striking vocals; side project cast spells is worth a listen as well
mapsandatlases.org
two door cinema club - sexy european men hailing from ireland (yeah gingers!), high-energy, electronic pop rock
twodoorcinemaclub.com
