Of course, I was interested. I'm always up to seeing new bands -- unless they're some death metal band or the like.
First off, the tickets were sold via Ticketmaster. It was interesting how the tickets were $13, but doubled with all the added fees that Ticketmaster applies. Oh well, that is life.
Three of us headed off to the El Rey. We got there around 7:30 p.m. There was already a decent line outside the El Rey. I had to stand in the will call line while my friends stood in the ticket line. I kind of got irritated, because the venue wasn't allowing anyone to pick up their tickets. I was sort of thinking it wasn't all that fair if people that came by at 8:00 p.m. (let's say), but had tickets in hand got to go inside the venue before those having to stand in the will call line. Ah, in the end, that didn't happen. In fact, will call people were allowed inside the El Rey first. Actually, I'm not sure that is all that fair either. Of course, it isn't like there were 2,000 people waiting in line to get into a first come first serve spot so it only really mattered to the 30 or so folks who might have wanted to be right up against the stage. In fact, most of the early entry people took to the chairs that line the walls of the El Rey.
The doors opened up a little past 8 p.m. The first band, Bear Colony started at 9 p.m. -- probably on the dot, actually. I enjoyed their set. My friends weren't as convinced about them. (Funny, we thought they called themselves Bear Claw. We started making jokes that we just saw a donut and now we were going to see a movie.) The next band was Dear Hunter. By the end of their set, folks were demanding an encore. I think there was temporary thought on Dear Hunter's end to do an encore, but I think they were told that the night was a bit behind schedule. An interesting note on this band is that three of the musicians had keyboards -- now not all three would play the keyboards at the same time, two of the musicians also played the guitar. I think that note just shows how unique this band is.
When Dear Hunter finished their set, crowds started to squeeze towards the stage. People were obviously there to see mewithoutYou. When they went on stage the crowd went wild. During the set, it was fun just watching the crowd. Many were singing along. Others seemed in pure ecstasy. This being the first time seeing this band, I couldn't help but feel that mewithoutYou to a large extent was rock combined with the spoken word. I am pleased to say that when I looked up the band on wikipedia, that it was mentioned that the band is inspired by the spoken word. From watching, it seemed that they were having some technical difficulties during the set, but it didn't sound like it. An interesting note on the band is that it is a 6 piece band, but usually they played with five musicians -- two of the musicians rotating out depending on the song. Interesting note about the lead singer: he's a freegan -- people who eat discarded food from restaurants and grocery stores.
Over-all, a very enjoyable night. And when I walked out I couldn't help but notice that a favorite band, Spider Problem, is playing at the El Rey in the near future. Cheers to them.
Final note: The photos aren't the best. I was rather far back and with my camera I need to be within a few feet to get really good photos.
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