This past weekend I took a small vacation to one of my favorite cities Phillidelphia, and being a music minded town, it was impossible for me not to do some “field reporting” on the music while i was there.

I attended two concerts while up north the first was of Montreal, (which you can read a review of by James Monaco linked below) and the second was the mewithoutYou and Sparta tour. This event took place at the Trocadero Theater in the Chinatown district of Philly, and proved to be a fantastic night of music despite it’s slow start.

The opening band was a group by the name of Aloha (on Polyvinyl Records). I had not heard them before and arrived about 2 songs into their set. The sound they produce is neither blandly common nor distinctly original, it falls somewhere in between. It is familiar enough for everyone to like but not yet different enough to stand out among their peers. I will say that Aloha is on the right track to developing a big following and i think once they find the sound that they are going for they will make bigs waves in the music scene.

Next up was one of two headliners for the night, Sparta. In case you do not know the history of this band i can sum it up in one run on sentence. There used to be a band called At the Drive In from Texas, At the Drive In became one of the most well known groups in the “Emo-Punk” scene of the 90’s, due to creative differences the band split up and formed two separate bands, one called The Mars Volta, the other… Sparta. Being a fan of the Mars Volta so much, it has always been hard for me to give Sparta the time of day, compared to what the other ex-ATDI members were doing they seemed boring to me. Well, live they confirmed this suspicion. While their music and sound was very solid and very tight, the showmanship of the performers went as far as a cool light show. I will say that the emotional drive that they present onstage was impressive (translation: no one in the crowd was into the band, but they were still giving it there all).

Next was mewithoutYou. Sparta had a really hard room to play for, mwY is from (literally) a few blocks down from the Trocadero in Philly, so there was no question who everyone came to see. I have seen this band four times now and am continually amazed by everything that they do. This was by far the happiest and most sincere i had ever seen them (it helps when the crowd is mostly friends and family). The stage itself was more than a pleasant sight to admire: fluffy white clouds randomly placed as peaceful stage props, flowers adorning every mic stand and drum, and handmade Sun and Moon pieces hanging from the rafters behind the band. It reminded me of a backdrop from a Michael Gondry film. The setlist was top notch, featuring a mix of there two most recent albums (sadly we will probably never see material from A->B Life live again). Opening with the first of a 3 part “Spider” sequence and playing the other two randomly throughout the set, there were flowers thrown to the audience, joyful speeches of homecoming made, and even leftover backstage food passed around to the audience. mewithoutYou might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Aaron Weiss and Co. sure know how to make their audience feel welcomed. The encore was easily my favorite moment of seeing this band ever. Aaron who normally sticks to shouting or yelling in his songs came out alone on stage with an acoustic guitar and without addressing the crowd broke into a cover of “It Ain’t Me Babe” which quickly brought out lighters and cell phones and became a big happy sing along for everyone to enjoy. Followed by the most powerful performances of “Torches Together” and “January 1979″ that i have ever witnessed. If you are a fan of mwY and have not seen them live, this is the tour to see them on, if you are a casual listener of mwY then go see them this year and you will become a fan.

Internal Links

Interview with Mike Weiss of mewithoutYou
of Montreal Review

Links

mewithoutYou
mwY on Myspace
Sparta
Sparta Myspace
Aloha
Aloha Myspace

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 11:56 am and is filed under SHOWS/EVENTS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.