Some friends recently mentioned my tendency to get excited about stuff all the time and it happened again at last night’s Mates of State show.
I’ll start from the beginning: Kris’s wife Lisa bailed on the show so I got a Facebook post asking if I was interested in joining. So I met up with Kris and Matt at the Morrissey but the bar decided to screen a gay softcore porn UFC match instead of the Calgary game so we went over to another place on Granville. Unfortunately Calgary gave up 3 goals in the second period and lost the game 3-2. Looks like Vancouver is Canada’s best hope in the playoffs this year.
After the game we wandered into the Commodore. It’s a good thing I don’t drink much anymore. The Commodore is charging an outrageous $7.50 for bottled Stella beer! Even GM Place charges less ($7.25) at a hockey game.
The first band, Judgement Day, was an interesting set up since they were playing a violin, a cello, and drums. They were pretty heavy. Matt remarked they sounded like Primus on speed without any vocals.
Black Kids rolled on stage soon after and busted out an 80′s disco dance party which spread to the entire bar. The crowd that night was mostly early 20′s people who looked as though they’d escaped from one of the Granville clubs. The Black Kids were impressed with everyone’s enthusiasm and kept saying what a great time they were having.
The guy spinning music between the Black Kids and Mates of State decided to keep the dance party going and everyone kept rocking out to old hip hop tunes, Michael Jackson, and even Miss You by the Rolling Stones. This girl who looked like a young Kathleen Hanna started bouncing around and soon had a whole pack of indie kids join her in a goofy group dance.
Mates of State set up with a drum kit and a rack of keyboards at the front of the stage with the two string guys in Judgement Day at the back. I did some reading this morning and discovered that Mates of State is a husband and wife team who started jamming together on keyboards and drums one day when the rest of their previous band didn’t show up for rehearsal. They’ve been around since 2000, when their first album came out and have gained a devoted little following over the past 8 years.The girl, Kori, plays the keyboards while Jason handles the drums. The both sing and their voices mix in kind of an interesting way. Not sure I can describe it but I thought they sounded pretty cool.
Their show was amazing! The first couple of songs slowly grew on me and then I found myself saying, “this band is awesome” to myself. I could see how well they connected musically which was emphasised by the grins they kept giving each other throught the show.
I’m definitely going to see them if they come though Vancouver again.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)
