Mates of State @ Southgate, 6/17/08
Mates of State / Headlights
Last night I went and saw Mates of State and Headlights at the Southgate House, without having heard much of either band ahead of time. Actually, I hadn't heard Headlights at all, but I was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. Headlights seemed to have a bunch of fans there just for them, at least judging from the kids standing next to me in line to get tickets. I think the band said they were from Urbana, but I might have made that up. In any case, they played with rampant enthusiasm and a plethora of guitar pedals, ending up with a sound somewhere between Death Cab For Cutie (the boy singer) and Camera Obscura (the girl singer), but on some sort of really good uppers.
I've been told that Mates of State usually play as a two piece, just the married couple with him playing drums and her playing organ and them both singing. Well, there was plenty of that, but the disturbingly cute duo was joined for several songs by two boys who looked even younger than the opening band (who, did I mention, looked like college kids) and played, respectively, violin/guitar and cello/trombone. It's sort of hard to comprehend the amount of energy that came out of those two bands. Not to mention that they both had really amazing drummers, and girls who sang and played some sort of keyboard. It was a veritable celebration of happiness, upbeat-ness, and summer fun. I would say love, but I have no idea what most of the songs were about and I would hate to write that only to find out that actually all of the songs were about, like, washing cars or something. They might have been, but that was some damn happy car washing, let me tell you.
Ok, I realize this review is not really helpful, but the whole thing was sort of a blur of major chords and complicated drum beats and co-ed singing in harmony. And tambourines. Lots of tambourines. So if you're into that sort of thing you should totally, you know, check them out.
Last night I went and saw Mates of State and Headlights at the Southgate House, without having heard much of either band ahead of time. Actually, I hadn't heard Headlights at all, but I was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. Headlights seemed to have a bunch of fans there just for them, at least judging from the kids standing next to me in line to get tickets. I think the band said they were from Urbana, but I might have made that up. In any case, they played with rampant enthusiasm and a plethora of guitar pedals, ending up with a sound somewhere between Death Cab For Cutie (the boy singer) and Camera Obscura (the girl singer), but on some sort of really good uppers.
I've been told that Mates of State usually play as a two piece, just the married couple with him playing drums and her playing organ and them both singing. Well, there was plenty of that, but the disturbingly cute duo was joined for several songs by two boys who looked even younger than the opening band (who, did I mention, looked like college kids) and played, respectively, violin/guitar and cello/trombone. It's sort of hard to comprehend the amount of energy that came out of those two bands. Not to mention that they both had really amazing drummers, and girls who sang and played some sort of keyboard. It was a veritable celebration of happiness, upbeat-ness, and summer fun. I would say love, but I have no idea what most of the songs were about and I would hate to write that only to find out that actually all of the songs were about, like, washing cars or something. They might have been, but that was some damn happy car washing, let me tell you.
Ok, I realize this review is not really helpful, but the whole thing was sort of a blur of major chords and complicated drum beats and co-ed singing in harmony. And tambourines. Lots of tambourines. So if you're into that sort of thing you should totally, you know, check them out.