one hundred and twenty seven

August 15th at Chain Reaction - Close But Not Quite, A Cursive Memory and Eye Alaska.

Being the fashionably late people that we are, Ashley and I showed up as CBNQ was starting (no idea who opened before them) but caught their whole set. Despite hearing some unpleasant things about certain members, their music is quite enjoyable. They have a sort of eclectic rap-rock sound, not in the vein of mainstream rap-rock though, because most of that is terrible. Im no good at describing genres, but for a bunch of kids in high school, they're not bad.

As it was extremely hot inside the venue and neither of us really knew anything about A Cursive Memory, Ashley and I stood outside for their set. We went back in while Eye Alaska was setting up. It always awes me to see local bands gain notoriety. I've been watching Brandon and Cameron play shows with Ashley for a few years now, since they were still Dead Letter Diaries, and it really is such a cool thing to see a local band succeed like they have. It seemed to happen so fast after they became Eye Alaska that they got signed and started touring, and now they're huge. I'm being slightly redundant, but it's just a really neat thing to see happen.

Their set was great, as usual. They're so energetic and everyone (especially at the home shows) gets so into it. It's practically impossible not to enjoy their sets. I was particularly excited to hear "Miles Don't Mean Anything" again, but slightly disappointed that they didn't play "Divorce." It was still a sweet show either way.

one hundred and twenty two

Thursday, May 28th at Chain.

Brave Citizens, Playradioplay, Eye Alaska and Lydia.

I arrived too late to see Brave Citizens, but early enough to see the three bands I was really interested in. PRP played some really good new stuff that I'm looking forward to hearing finalized versions of. It was just Dan and a drummer, but I was pretty impressed with their set. As were the many squealing girls in the crowd. lol.

Eye Alaska killed it, of course. I'm glad I get to see their hometown shows still because, especially with Brandon, you an always tell what a great time they're having. I'm sure he always puts a hundred and ten percent into his performance but you can just see how much he absolutely loves it at Chain. They played some new stuff as well, and a really pretty acoustic song with just Brandon and Mindy from Lydia. It was called "Miles Don't Mean Anything" and I kind of loved it a lot. They ended with "Walk Like a Gentleman" and didn't play "Divorce." :( Still a great set though.

Lydia blew me away. I knew they were gonna be great because they're music is entirely beautiful and just ridiculous, but they were ten thousand times better than I'd expected. Somehow they took music that I'm already in love with and made it even more incredible. I was really hoping to hear "All I See," and I really thought they were going to play it during their encore, but no such luck. Still a spectacular set. Great show.