I really want to spend an entire post bashing In the Venue as one of the worst places to see live music. Ever. Instead, I’ll give it a few sentences and then dive into the music of City and Colour. In the Venue is full of smelly teenagers, has awful sound, and there is a terrible cage that blocks the over 21 crowd from seeing the band, but thankfully this cage keeps the youth from interacting with the older crowd. It is truly one of the worst places to see a show.
Now back to the show, City and Colour opened with “Of Space and Time,” and right from the beginning it was hard for me to hear Dallas Green’s vocals, granted this song repeats the same lyrics throughout the song, but I couldn’t understand anything that Green was singing and for me his voice is essentially the main reason I listen to this band. I couldn’t tell you what song they played directly after that because their kick drum was so loud that I felt like it was bursting my chest open and I was too busy trying to wrangle through teenagers to find a better spot to hopefully capture a better sound.
When the band started playing “The Grand Optimist” things slightly started to turn around. The mix was still off though, so whenever Green sang at the same time the band was playing he became drowned out once again, but when the music was just instrumental it was absolutely stunning. The lyrics in this song are really fantastic and I wish the blend would have been better so that I could have soaked it in.
The harmonies on “Bring me your Love” were worth sticking around for. Before this song hit, I was about ready to leave the show because the mix was just really too much to handle (I was also getting tired of watching people makeout). I just wish the sound guy would have stopped checking out the teeny-boppers for a moment to adjust the levels so you could really hear the talent that the band had.
At one point, Green asked everyone to take out their phone; he then preceded to ask the audience to put their phones in their pockets, stop tweeting, taking photos, and to just share a moment together. He then asked the audience to sing along with him and if they didn’t like not having their phones out for three minutes, they could return to their “social updates” after the song. I absolutely loved this part of the show. Part of the magic of a live show is immersing yourself in the music, but it is extremely hard to do that when the person in front of you spends the entire concert Snapchatting footage of the show. Green also stated that it was weird as an artist to look out into the audience and see people watching from a screen.
“The Golden State” was the best song of the evening- really showing off Green’s vocals. One of my favorite songs, “The Girl” typically is a pretty emotional song for me, but the band played it during the encore and added a lot of “twang” to the recorded version, which turned it into a foot-stomping jam rather than a slower paced ballad. A huge disappointment.
This show overall was a let down for me. I think with a different venue and a better mix this band could have really shined. Green’s crooning is a fantastic listen, but I just didn’t feel like the majority of the show captured the emotion of City and Colour’s songs. It likely didn’t help that as part of the “drinking” crowd, I was sequestered behind a cage as to not corrupt the youth, but regardless of that – I just didn’t feel it.