saw them last night live for the first time ever after them being one of my favorite bands for 5-6 years now and I must say, I have an uncontested new favorite live band. The set was nearly flawless (the single mark against the set being the lack of guest vocals on "O, Porcupine" which wasnt there fault heh).

-The set list was fantastic, spanning all of their albums (huge surprised that they played some stuff from A->B Life).

-The venue was TINY and the stage was even smaller. They could barely fit all 5 of them on the stage, let alone the trumpets and accordions and extra instruments and extra guitars they had, yet their stage presence was still amazing. I have no idea how they didnt run into each other.

-The crowd couldn't have been better despite the small size, I think everyone in the building new every word to every song and didnt stop singing the entire time.

-the band brought tubs of ice cream that they passed out with spoons into the crowd

-i was completely surprised that the Aaron was so timid and almost awkwardly shy (though extremely nice...the most humble frontman ive ever met) despite having some of the most powerful vocals and stage presence in a frontman that ive seen live.

i highly recommend if anyone is a fan and hasnt seen them live, make the drive to do so! Ive missed them so many times over the years because of my own band or bad timing so I decided to make the drive last night and it was WELL worth it.


oh and PS I saw a band open for them called Maps & Atlases that really blew me away. Having only heard the name, I felt stupid for not checking them out earlier after watching their live set.
http://www.myspace.com/mapsandatlases

[Edited on June 28, 2008 at 1:17 PM. Reason : ]

6/28/2008 1:13:47 PM

where'd you see them?

the only food they passed out at the cat's cradle show was a loaf of bread, which never made it back to me

6/28/2008 4:45:38 PM

new brookland tavern in columbia, sc. if you've never been there the area where you can actually stand to see the band is about half the size of the brewery And the stage is smaller too. But I think they fed off of that intimate crowd REALLY well.

and yea I would have eaten bread but I didnt go after the ice cream by the time it got to me heh.

6/28/2008 5:03:41 PM

mewithoutyou is one of the best bands to ever see live. i saw them back in 2002 at the brewery with norma when no one knew who they were. it’s funny that so many hated on them because they weren’t a stereotypical hardcore band...but I thought they were amazing then. i’ve seen them three times so far…and they are still one of the few bands I refuse not to miss seeing live.

at the brew-ha-ha’s show they brought in expired food from the local grocery store to give out and I shared a donut with aaron…a not-amusing-fact to anyone other than me and jamie.

6/29/2008 4:16:36 AM

haha thats awesome. yea i definitely will make sure I do not miss them again. Ive had the worst luck trying to be free for them when they have come through in the past so when I had the opportunity friday to see them a couple hours away, I jumped at it. And Im VERY glad I did.

6/29/2008 8:31:38 AM

^^ i saw them at that show too. mewithoutyou had just come out with their first full length and i remember listening to them briefly before the show and not being a big fan. then when i saw them at that show my opinion immediately changed. i've witnessed them live several times, but it's been a while since i've last seen them, which is a shame.

6/29/2008 12:25:48 PM

oh yeah and at that show back in the day aaron got on stage and did his part for 'memphis will be laid to waste'...it was one of the greatest moments in music for me.

6/29/2008 2:56:14 PM

oh thats pretty sick.

and yea i didnt like mewithoutYou the first time I heard them either. on a solid state sampler I believe. I didnt really get into them until friends in college got me into them.

6/29/2008 4:56:25 PM

5x^

that was a great show, I remember when Aaron came through the crowd with the cat flag

6/29/2008 6:38:10 PM

ha yeah that was great. i also recall them all wearing huge winter coats while playing. they must have been hot...

6/30/2008 8:31:16 AM