NOTE: Sorry for the delay of this review. I went home early and had a lot of homework over the weekend.

Total gig rating: 7

  Hey you guys, guess who won show tickets again? It’s really not that hard, but I’m going to let you figure out how to do it yourselves. Don’t want to give away all of my secrets, now do I?

Because it’s always the first and most important order of business, no, I did not attend this gig with my mom because The Cedar is all-ages which makes me happy. She did however pick me up after the show. 

After a while of talking to the ACTUAL FRIEND I was with, Mystery Palace started up their show. They all seemed like nice people, but I wasn’t impressed by their show. The first issue I had was that their vocals were turned way down. I like bands without vocals if they have enough substance to them, but this band did not intend to be without vocals and could not stand up without them. I found their songs to be repetitive and rather boring. The only good thing was that their drummer had a pretty driving beat, yet it was still repetitive. Also, they seemed like nice guys. Trust me, I would love to give every local band I see a glowing review, but I simply cannot if it is not deserved. They seemed like nice guys though.

Next up! CD release show for Peter Wolf Crier, so the setlist was naturally full of Garden of Arms. I do believe they played solely that album and in order, with the exception of one song from Inter-Be. As a whole, they put on a really great show. Some of the highlights were “Beach” and “Hard Heart”. I do think I’ve been depriving myself of good rock shows, because those songs were absolutely wonderful. Beach got really intense towards the end, and the whole band is so talented at what they do. Brian Moen was drumming so hard and fast that two shards of drumstick flung themselves across the stage right at Peter. It was pretty amusing, allowing that both pieces landed without causing harm. Peter got really into his guitar playing as well, which was only a bit weird looking because he was sitting down. I don’t really care if you think you look like a maniac on stage. That translates, that makes the whole performance exciting and fun. It’s the best when a song can make me smile simply because of the energy it’s performed with. There were a few small points when the excitement level of the performance dipped, but it was otherwise an overall really solid show. A couple issues with mics had us waiting for 10 minutes or so altogether, but they didn’t matter in the end. During on specific song, Peter was having a bit of trouble reaching his high notes, but it wasn’t nails-on-chalkboard, certainly. I’m really glad I won tickets, and I hope to see Peter Wolf Crier rise in success with this coming tour.

Quotes from the evening, as remembered:

“Buy our t shirt… We have a t shirt…. There’s a rabbit on our t shirt, I like Rabbits” -Mystery Palace

“This next song’s for the only radio station that matters, eighty-nine three The Current *plays a song* ….and also, Radio K matters. Wow, that could’ve been bad if I didn’t say anything” -Peter Pisano

“I’m taking pictures because I want to remind Peter that people actually came out to see us. So when we’re on tour and there’s ten people in the audience I can show him them and say “See, people came out to see us.”” -Brian Moen