The first opener was The Colourist. The name sounded kind of familiar, but not really. While I was not impressed by their outfits (the male guitarists wore floral blouses), the music (i.e. the important part) was amazing! I was super-impressed. Plus, when was the last time you saw a drummer who sings (besides Phil Collins)? AND when was the last time you saw a female percussionist who was NOT in an all-girl band? She (Maya Tuttle) was definitely my favorite part of the whole night!
You can't really see Maya through her long brown hair, but she's there!
Find some songs by The Colourist here: https://www.google.com/search?q=the+colourist+songs&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-beta
Next was Hellogoodbye. I really liked their songs "Here" and "Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn" in high school, so I was excited to see them live. But, they were REALLY late (I don't care if you hit snow or traffic or whatever. I'd rather you cancel and I get some money back then wait around for you to get here). Once they were on stage, they took FOREVER to get their s**t together, tuning their guitars, setting up the drums just right, etc. So by the time they started performing, I was already unimpressed. On the keyboard to the very far left in the pictures was Michael Garzon, who was throwing things on stage at other band members and generally acting mischievous all night. The other keyboardist, Augustine Rampolla, reminded me of Prince Harry: he's the younger brother who's never going to be king, so he can act like a complete fool and get away with it. The lead singer, Forrest Kline, danced like an epileptic and made some scathing remarks about Panic! having all the money in the world (Hellogoodbye, you're pretty famous, and therefore rich, yourselves). And the drummer, Andy Reitz, looked completely out of place with the rest of the group, like the high school football star trying to become friends with the emo kids. The only good thing about the visual performance was the cute guitarist, Andrew Richards. The music was good, but their tardiness and the fact that they didn't seem to take the performance seriously left a bad taste in my mouth.
And then it was time for the main act. Panic! also took a VERY long time to finally make it on stage, which is simply rude. It was hard to enjoy their show because of all the annoying high school students surrounding us (which is not the band's fault). I had 16-year-old girls telling me to move away from them because our shoulders were touching (Um, you realize you're at a concert, right?), or pushing my friend to try to get closer to the stage when THERE WAS NOWHERE TO GO. So I really couldn't enjoy myself at this point. It was a huge turn-off when Panic!'s lead singer, Brendon Urie, came on stage with a bottle of wine and promoted smoking pot; clearly he doesn't care about being a terrible role model (or having a terrible haircut. Why on earth would you want to look like a funky chicken as you're dancing around on stage?!).
So, having to deal with the late shows and the pushy teenagers, here are my final points:
1. Rams Head: Only do 21+ shows. If you think a band will only attract a younger demographic, guess what? Don't book that band! I had such a bad experience with this crowd that I'm not sure I'll come back to your venue.
2. Hellogoodbye and Panic!: You were NOT worth the money. Although I was never a hardcore fan, I don't think I'll be listening to your music anymore.
3. The Colourist: I want a CD! Thank you for the great show!
Note: Thanks to Alexandra Grant for the photos!
No comments:
Post a Comment