I would like to start off by stating that I am a fairly big Band of Horses fan, I own all their records, I know the majority of their songs, and I listen to them on a fairly regular basis. So I was excited to be seeing them live for this first time, but not in this setting.
In case you don’t know, The Twilight Concert Series is basically a free concert set in in downtown Salt Lake City (they started charging a $5 dollar entry fee this year, but it’s not helping). Which means that people just show up to the park regardless of whether they like the band playing or even enjoy music in general. So the crowd at these shows is essentially a bunch of high school kids looking to get laid, along with a people in their mid to late forties looking to get drunk, mixed with maybe about 200 hundred people that actually like the band performing. Which essentially makes it a difficult and annoying experience for those 200 hundred people.
We (Isaac, myself and my wife) arrived at the beginning of the Lower Dens’ set and the park was already a mad house, I had never listened to the band before and from what I could hear, their music was actually rather cool. They seemed to have nice indie / experimental type of sound, something along the line of Hospitality mixed with Grizzly Bear and while their music was intriguing, we thought it best to conserve or energy and avoid the stage and the main part of the crowd until Band of Horses (upon further research Lower Dens is actually really good and you should check them out). http://lowerdens.com/
Instead of trying to bury ourselves in the sweaty dirt-covered crowd who were more interested in talking and partying then watching the show, we decided to wander around the park and get drunk (therefore contributing to problem of disengaged concert goers).
When Band of Horses did start we finally tried to make our way to the stage in hopes of catching a glimpse of the performance. We immediately realized that this was a bad idea and retreated to a more open area towards the back of the park.
The new location actually made for an enjoyable experience
because we were able to hear the music, see the stage, and continue to get our party on; while not being mauled by the crowd. Which in my mind was okay, we had only paid $5 a ticket and at that point I had decided to just enjoy the overall experience and not concentrate on the performance of the band.
Now I understand that this isn’t much of live review and doesn’t really mention the bands performance at all. But, I was out of it and could barley see anything. I will say though, that they sounded pretty solid and they played a lot of the songs I wanted them to including; “Infinite Arms”, “No One’s Gonna Love You” and “Detlef Schrempf”. Also, I am pretty sure they kept introducing every song as “The Great Salt Lake” over and over, I’m not positive on this, but that’s what this video footage and my sources tell me.
Even though I had a really great time that night, I still would have preferred to pay more for my ticket and been able to see Band of Horses in a more intimate setting where I could have enjoyed their set more. The band does have a new album called Mirage Rock that’s coming out in September so hopefully I can give them my full atention when they come around next time.
Shout out: To Isaac for braving the monstrous crowd long enough to film a couple of sweet live clips. He’s my hero.
Top photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mportanda/