OK, last wrapup. I’ll make this a quick one so we can all get back to listening to music.
I had never seen the Watson Twins before, and had expected them to be countryish, but it looks like I missed the boat on that part of their career, because they’ve segued into a sort of soulful rock sound that would have fit perfectly on early-70s radio alongside Carole King. I tried not to be sad about how quality mainstream music doesn’t even have a place in the mainstream anymore.
It’s been gratifying to watch Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros gain an audience, because I can’t get enough of their gloriously joyous shambles of a show. The dance floor was packed, jumping, and singing along, and I saw something I’ve never seen before: during “Home,” the figure of a crowdsurfer appeared, being passed towards the stage. He was playing the fiddle, dear hearts — playing along to the song, and riding a sea of hands. He was pulled up on stage, and singer Alex Ebert had the band play the chorus one more time so the fiddler could play again, this time into a microphone. Then the band played an extended version of the song to make room for a fiddle solo. I still feel all snuggly inside.
Other show highlights included me tearing up (again) when Jade sang “Fiya Wata,” and an encore of “Brother” for which Ebert had the entire audience sit down (bonus points to the audience members pulled on stage for this for mostly paying attention instead of trying to take a phone video of what they were missing while they were trying to take a video).
Check the Owl’s flickr for photos, and while we’re at it let’s all enjoy this video of “Fiya Wata” taken at Electric Fetus in Minneapolis last year:
