Let’s just start of and say that the deck was stacked for Friday night. It had the potential to be a hell of an evening. Personally speaking (who am I kidding, this whole blog is supposed to be personal) it lived up to that potential. At its most basic and fundamental existence, Friday night was a Meeting of Important People’s all ages CD release party at The Andy Warhol Museum with Good Night, States in support. Sounds standard enough right? Wrong.

Lets get down to it. Meeting of Important People are making some serious music and people are taking notice – as they should. Their new EP is out, they’re playing the songs live, Andy Mulkerin gave ‘em the what’s up in the CP, we got actually physical copies of the EP for free at the show, and their digital label Authentik will be behind the reigns in the next few weeks. That’s some serious shit. Meanwhile, Good Night, States is a great local band with a stellar back catalog, but hasn’t played a live show since January of this year and has lost a band member in that time period. To the point, Good Night, States played their first live show of this year on Friday to support their pals Meeting of Important People… and it was good. It was great. It was a whole hell of a lot of fun. Now that we got the business details out of the way, lets get the personal details set aside. Here they are:

1. It was a Friday after a long week of work
2. Two friends (Chris and Mike) were in town visiting, snagged tickets to the show, and were down for some good music. We ate at D’s Six Pack and Dogs before hand. Killer.
3. It was the first show for Blake and me as new baby bloggers on the scene. We were excited. We got to meet Hugh from HughShows and Brian from BNac’s Blog. We weren’t going to leave until we had spread our name out there, met some people, and made some friends.
4. I was sweaty, anxious, wearing an orange hat, and Budweiser Select was $3.00. Definitely could have been worse.

Ok. All done with that. What the above paragraph and subsequent list are trying to convey is that I was really looking forward to Friday night.. Now, the good stuff.

Good Night, States is a great band. You know that, I know that, Luke Ravenstahl knows that. Personally, that was my first time seeing them live. You can throw stones and tomatoes at me all you want and I’ll apologize all I can. It’s a damn shame, but at the same time, I feel lucky. Some things have changed within the band, they’re working on new material, and I get to judge the band on a fresh and squeaky-clean level. I wasn’t disappointed. Steven Gretz has the ability to write some seriously beautiful pop melodies and with band members like Dan Harding, Megan Lindsey, and Trevor Baker surrounding him, he’s a pretty lucky songwriter at that. Their old songs have stood the test of time and Friday night they showed their ability to play the old material sans a guitar player. Baker and Lindsay are more than capable of filling in the space behind Gretz’s reedy vocals and sharp guitar lines. I actually like the fact there is only one guitar in the band now. It gives Gretz more freedom to play the way he wants to. He definitely has the chops to do it. A few songs in and we get the honor of hearing an exciting distorted guitar solo paired with a smile on Gretz’s face. Baker and Lindsey added great backing harmonies, full bass lines, and synth parts that define that poppy Good Night, States sound. As a final note, Dan Harding was a pleasure to watch behind the drums. He’s a great percussionist, and you’d be a fool to think otherwise, but it’s the intensity that he plays with that kept me transfixed. The man plays like he’s bound in a box, straining to get free. I like that. I found myself waiting and wanting him to flourish, to exaggerate, to step outside his constraints, and he did it a few times, and it was exciting. It was a joy to watch.

Actually, “joy” is a good word to describe Good Night, States set as a whole. It was evident. It was palpable. It was hard not to notice the childish grins and flushing cheeks of every band member’s face. You know when someone compliments you in a sincere and honest way and you try to hide that smile behind teeth and gums and “thank yous”? It was all there. They looked at each other constantly with bewildered and wild looks that said, “Hey – I remember this feeling. I missed it, I love it. I’m so glad we are here”. It was contagious and fun. Maybe they weren’t perfect, maybe they were a bit rusty, they were probably nervous, but goddamn was it fun, and impressive, and I was happy to be part of it. Now they just need to hurry up with the new material and more shows. You heard me.

Phew. So, yeah Meeting of Important People. Damn are they good.

I’d never seen MOIP live before and was only recently acquainted with their new EP, Quit Music. We’d talked to lead guy Josh Verbanets, via Twitter, a few times and an interview is on the horizon. I was more than excited so see how their Kink-esque tunes would translate in a live setting.

They did more than translate. They were shoved in our faces.

Verbanets is a hell of a guitar player and I respect him on so many levels. From observing him live, Verbanets approaches the guitar knowing full well that he is the one guitar player in a 3 piece band, so “Holy shit, I gotta make a lot of noise and it better sound interesting”. He achieves this, oh boy, does he achieve this. Fuzzed out guitar from a miniature amp, Verbanets drove every single song with his band mates Matt Miller and Aaron Bubbenhiem keeping watchful eyes on him. Was he just fun to listen to? Nope. He was just as fun to watch. Leg kicks, half windmills, and discarded tennis shoes, Verbanets let everyone know he was there to rock out, have a good time, and we better be ready or he was going to leave us in the dust. I think that sentence right there sums it all up – MOIP have great songs, are great musicians, and they have a great time playing them. I can totally support a band like that. What I was witnessing from the first row was three friends having a blast and playing their heart out for friends and family who came to see them, but something tells me that it doesn’t matter where they are playing or who they are playing for, these guys love what they are doing and aren’t going to hide it. The audience was treated to their old hits and the majority of the Quit Music EP along with a few covers (an awesome Nirvana and Animals cover quickly come to mind). Highlights include “Training Song” and “Leap-the-Dips” (“This song is about having an imaginary girlfriend”) They even treated the audience to a small acoustic setlist with the highlight being “Jesus Song” (“It sounds like shit when we play it electric”). My favorite moment, as a fan, was getting to see the incredibly strange song “Big Muscles” performed live. Off the wall lyrics about a back rub combined with grunge guiar riffs, I wasn’t exactly sold on this song on the record. They killed it live though and I’d have to say it’s one of my new favorites on the disk. At the end of day, MOIP let me, as a fan, know that they have a great ability to write catchy, unique songs and have a way of delivering them in a live setting that makes it more than worth the ticket price to go and see them. You can’t ask for anything more than that.

And can we talk about the weather that night? Cripes! That’s what summer nights should be like. Great job with the weather guys. You nailed that one, too.

I’m a’gonna give the evening a rating of 17 out of 18 blaze orange ball caps worn by yours truly. (Respect the cap).

Check out these links for more information on each band, and be sure to keep an eye on ‘em. We need more shows and music from these two bands. Great job guys.
Good Night, States
Meeting of Important People

Filed under: Concert Reviews, Homegrown Goodness, Live Music