American FootballWed 9 Sep – The Honorary Title, Good Old War and Cory Branan
The Show kicked off with a surprise. Look Mexico wasn't on the list of performers but when they took stage and I figured out they were replacing Carter Hulsey I let out a sigh of relief. These guys were awesome. The best way I could describe them is a slightly less electronic American Football or Minus the Bear, and with a slide guitar. Their music was fast but sensitive, and at times took on a Post Rock grandeur. At one point in a long and epic song the band sat down in a campfire circle on stage and it was actually very cool looking. I definitely loved this band.
On stage next was Cory Branan, this man was cool as fuck. He talked in a quick southern voice and played in a strange sort of way. I knew from listening to his music he knew how to play guitar, and he knew what he was doing, I don't know if he was drunk or not, but he sort of played guitar badly on a couple of his songs, forgot some words, and cracked shitty jokes. Now if you really knew me, you'd know that I NEVER smile with my teeth, but this man had me grinning my nastiest toothy grin from ear to ear, his entire set. Which is something that has never happened. The songs I could pick out were
Tall Green Grass, Crush, and The Prettiest Waitress in Memphis which was the highlight of HIS songs. On top of all that, after he was done with his material he called up the Good Old War boys to do a song with him, and he started off with an Irish Hymn that led into a song I remember from my childhood, that went something like "a bird in a nest, and a nest in a tree, and a tree by a pond, and a pond by a valley" that went on for about six minutes, but was FANTASTICALLY fun. When he was done he thanked us for our "low standards". Next to Good Old War he was the best thing there that night.
Good Old War was basically set up already and took the stage pretty quickly, and they easily blew everything there that night out of the water. They played most of their new album, except for one or two songs. I was really surprised how good Dan Schwartz was at playing guitar, he did a bluesy intro toWeak Man on the electric guitar that was stunningly good. I had actually got the chance to meet Keith Goodwin and his wife before the show, they were really nice people, and talked about how much they had missed New Mexico. They sounded fantastic live, vocals, drums, everything. At one point in their show, they told us that they were coming down to play in the crowd. They hopped off stage, and with nothing more than an unplugged acoustic they moved into the middle of all of us, and started to play Coney Island. I was ecstatic because not only did I get to sing along with the band in a situation I hadn't experienced, but I was also so close to the band I was bumping up against Mr.Schwartz to his request, as he asked us to "move in closer, closer! It will feel like we're a family!" After Coney, they played Tell Me down with us, which was more fun than Coney Island seeing as how there was a harmonizing that was just so much fun to do with the band. Really fun guys, great attitude, and I REALLY hope they come around again.
And finally, I'll mention the "main" act, The Honorary Title. Boring "emotional" music that read off like something a high school misfit would write. Which makes sense now that so much of the crowd were teenage girls, screaming out the shitty lyrics. The guys were kind of smug and unhappy looking, which doesn't surprise me, most of their band wasn't there and they had been playing songs off their "new" album that was more than two years old. The fan base was terrible, shouting stupid things at the band, and the band shouting even more stupid things back. PRO TIP: Just because you make a 5 minute long joke about Golden Showers and "Semen Spritzers" it doesn't make you edgy or funny. Only saving grace was Good Old War jumping on stage to help fill out the boredom with some drums, base and background vocals. That helped, but not much. Good Old War easily stole the show, and I hope they headline their OWN tour.
The Show kicked off with a surprise. Look Mexico wasn't on the list of performers but when they took stage and I figured out they were replacing Carter Hulsey I let out a sigh of relief. These guys were awesome. The best way I could describe them is a slightly less electronic American Football or Minus the Bear, and with a slide guitar. Their music was fast but sensitive, and at times took on a Post Rock grandeur. At one point in a long and epic song the band sat down in a campfire circle on stage and it was actually very cool looking. I definitely loved this band.
On stage next was Cory Branan, this man was cool as fuck. He talked in a quick southern voice and played in a strange sort of way. I knew from listening to his music he knew how to play guitar, and he knew what he was doing, I don't know if he was drunk or not, but he sort of played guitar badly on a couple of his songs, forgot some words, and cracked shitty jokes. Now if you really knew me, you'd know that I NEVER smile with my teeth, but this man had me grinning my nastiest toothy grin from ear to ear, his entire set. Which is something that has never happened. The songs I could pick out were
Tall Green Grass, Crush, and The Prettiest Waitress in Memphis which was the highlight of HIS songs. On top of all that, after he was done with his material he called up the Good Old War boys to do a song with him, and he started off with an Irish Hymn that led into a song I remember from my childhood, that went something like "a bird in a nest, and a nest in a tree, and a tree by a pond, and a pond by a valley" that went on for about six minutes, but was FANTASTICALLY fun. When he was done he thanked us for our "low standards". Next to Good Old War he was the best thing there that night.Good Old War was basically set up already and took the stage pretty quickly, and they easily blew everything there that night out of the water. They played most of their new album, except for one or two songs. I was really surprised how good Dan Schwartz was at playing guitar, he did a bluesy intro to
Weak Man on the electric guitar that was stunningly good. I had actually got the chance to meet Keith Goodwin and his wife before the show, they were really nice people, and talked about how much they had missed New Mexico. They sounded fantastic live, vocals, drums, everything. At one point in their show, they told us that they were coming down to play in the crowd. They hopped off stage, and with nothing more than an unplugged acoustic they moved into the middle of all of us, and started to play Coney Island. I was ecstatic because not only did I get to sing along with the band in a situation I hadn't experienced, but I was also so close to the band I was bumping up against Mr.Schwartz to his request, as he asked us to "move in closer, closer! It will feel like we're a family!" After Coney, they played Tell Me down with us, which was more fun than Coney Island seeing as how there was a harmonizing that was just so much fun to do with the band. Really fun guys, great attitude, and I REALLY hope they come around again. And finally, I'll mention the "main" act, The Honorary Title. Boring "emotional" music that read off like something a high school misfit would write. Which makes sense now that so much of the crowd were teenage girls, screaming out the shitty lyrics. The guys were kind of smug and unhappy looking, which doesn't surprise me, most of their band wasn't there and they had been playing songs off their "new" album that was more than two years old. The fan base was terrible, shouting stupid things at the band, and the band shouting even more stupid things back. PRO TIP: Just because you make a 5 minute long joke about Golden Showers and "Semen Spritzers" it doesn't make you edgy or funny. Only saving grace was Good Old War jumping on stage to help fill out the boredom with some drums, base and background vocals. That helped, but not much. Good Old War easily stole the show, and I hope they headline their OWN tour.
