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

st. louis: the noise fm

you've heard me wax both poetic and not so poetic about this former-lawrence, now chicago-based threesome. this time around i'll keep it short and sweet, just like the band members. (love you guys.) it was a thursday night show in my good ole hometown of st. louis. i only have one class on fridays... and it's not until one. SCORE. a drive home for the evening to watch my good friends tear shit up was definitely on the list. as you've all heard by now, st. louis is completely hit or miss for mid-level indie, touring bands. there aren't many locals that have a solid draw, so the traveling bands are usually on their own at bringing out people to the show. cicero's, although small and dark, is one of my favorite small venues in the city. the door guy has worked there for ages; he knows me by name, and also knows my birthday. he offered to buy me a drink the next time i'm there since i'll FINALLY be 21. yesss. and it's become a a bit of a nostalgic place. all of "my bands" play cicero's, and the soundboard, which is covered in stickers, boasts names of all of them. some are still around and going strong while others have since broken up, gone separate ways, or formed new bands completely. but i always enjoy cicero's, even when i'm one of the only people there. yes. literally. if i remember correctly, there were three other bands besides the noise boys and they brought no one. i thought i was going to have the privilege of a private noise fm show, but a group of about five or six people showed up just in time for their set.

and to be honest, i feel bad that people missed out. i know how hard it must be as a band to put on a happy face and play to an empty club. but this was a fucking amazing show. i'm not one to dole out compliments to bands. you have to earn my respect and work to keep it. i've seen plenty of shitty bands to notice when a good one comes along and really brings it to the table. this show with an audience of probably fifteen or twenty was one of the best i've ever seen the noise fm play. maybe it was the sound. maybe it's where i was standing. maybe i was just in a really awesome mood. whatever you wanna call it, it was a flawless set and i was really glad i made the drive to see it.

www.thenoisefm.net
check their twitter too, it's hilarious: twitter.com/thenoisefm

worth your listening time: chicago's model stranger

download their album here!

ryan silver: the dakota sessions -- FREE EP!

my friend ryan just released his brand new ep, the dakota sessions, for FREE! what have you got to lose? go download it HERE!

look for my two cents on it in the next couple of days.

march (and april and may) madness!

we’ll just pretend that i have an endless supply of money and gas, and will never have homework or need sleep. the ideal calendar:

wed 3/9 – menomena/maps & atlases @ mojo’s

thurs 3/10 – the noise fm/squid the whale @ cicero’s

mon 3/14 – ra ra riot/pomegranates @ mojo’s 

tues 3/15 – daniel and the lion @ cicero’s

fri  3/18 – civil twilight @ off broadway

sat 3/19 – building rome @ the firebird

wed 3/23 - the heyday @ cicero's

fri 3/25 – margot and the nuclear so & so’s @ the firebird

thurs 4/7 – gold motel @ the firebird

wed 4/20 – ari herstand @ off broadway

fri 4/22 – ha ha tonka @ off broadway

sat 4/23 – foals/freelance whales @ the firebird

sat 4/30 - ha ha tonka @ mojo's

sun 5/1 – william fitzsimmons @ the firebird

tues 5/3 - fake problems @ off broadway

tues 5/3 – strand of oaks @ off broadway

thurs 5/19 – urbanites @ cicero’s

saturday: the letdown of all letdowns

barcelona was supposed to be playing a show in springfield, missouri. it's been about a year and a half since i've seen them. a year and a half since anyone's seen or heard from them, really. they haven't toured since then, and i presume they've been holed up in the studio ever since. so imagine my excitement when they had a few random dates posted, and one was in a close proximity to me! i was planning on making it a day trip and buying my ticket in advance. good thing i didn't... they had to cancel last minute friday evening due to "unfortunate circumstances," which could mean anything from "booking screwed us over" or "we don't have enough gas money to get there." regardless, i was crushed and thus tweeted about it. a reply from them made me feel a little better, and what was in the reply was nonetheless exciting.

"we're so sorry to do this last minute. we will for sure come back this summer when the record is out."

a. they'll be back.
b. NEW RECORD THIS SUMMER!

i guess i can live with that. and hey, at least it saved me some gas money this weekend.

st. louis: state & madison

my favorite people in the whole world came to visit. yay! it had been a whole two months since i'd seen them, but even that was way too long. things have certainly changed for the band over the course of two months, too. tony, bass player, decided to pursue his own musical endeavors and left the band. pretty much broke my heart, because i had no idea i wouldn't be seeing him again for a while the last time i was in chicago. this was quite the abrupt decision, he played his last set with them on new year's eve opening for local h, and that was that. so once again, state and madison was back to three members and are still in search of a bassist. alex ward of the noise fm stepped in this time around though, so it was great to see him as well last weekend. it's always neat to see friends step up for their friends' bands and help out when needed. just goes to show how supportive the chicago music scene is of each other.

the show went well and there was quite the large crowd at the firebird last saturday evening. it was an early show - the firebird is starting to host two shows on saturdays, so doors were around 5:30. i was home in st. louis for the weekend, so my drive wasn't too bad. i had agreed to pick up the lovely molly cowan though, who didn't get off work until 5. so i picked her up around 5:30 and we got there in time to see the opening band. i hadn't heard much about either the opener or the headliner (state and madison played second of three) but they were some youngsters. average crowd age was probably around 14 or 15 and there were lots of parental units floating around the outskirts of the venue. molly and i made our rounds catching up with everyone. ran into my friend matt who goes to school at slu. and in general readied oourselves for the party that was to come next. the boys played a great set - although it always feels so short. played the usuals,  (molly and i made sure to sing all of tony's vocals, tee hee) played a "new" song called come back from the sea (that i've actually heard a couple times already, and then a real new one that they played for the first time that night. and it sounded great! i remember it being catchy, but that's about it. i'm sure i'll be hearing it again sometime soon.

we sang and danced to the headlining band. they weren't terrible, i probably would have loved the pop-punkish set from them in my pre-teen years. but we had a good time belting out hearts of to fall out boy and the starting line covers. shenanigans were had, and we eventually shipped out to cicero's for dinner, where more shenanigans were had, including the mindblowing tricks of matt's phone, which IS WATERPROOF. bad. ass.

if you haven't checked out state and madison yet, shame on you first of all. second of all, check out their website: http://stateandmadison.net and their twitter: http://twitter.com/stateandmadison

and check out the noise fm while you're at it, since alex is a dear to fill in for them: http://thenoisefm.net.