The Eulogies/Great Northern/The Dears Show

Last night I went to The Eulogies/Great Northern/The Dears show. I’d been a fan of The Dears for a while so I knew that would be exciting. But honestly, I was going to the show mainly to see The Great Northern. I was introduced to them this year. I’ve actually posted about them already here. I don’t think I described them very well in that post. When I was watching them live, it struck me who they reminded me of. Imagine a band like Metric but less pop and darker sounding.

The entire show was good. I was bummed out that more people didn’t show up. All three of the bands were very relaxed, it seemed. I guess that came from the fact that there wasn’t anybody in the audience to get excited about. The Eulogies were a good opening band. I’ve been to a lot of shows and always seem to run into these terrible opening bands that I have to leave the club to get away from. They weren’t like that. The band fit in with the other two bands really well.

Great Northern put on a solid performance as well. When they were setting up Rachel Stolte, the lead singer, was setting things up with her guitar. It looked like she was a little nervous around it. I guess I was right with that assumption, a few songs into the set she made the comment that it was her first time playing the guitar on stage. I think she did pretty good for the first time. Great Northern played a lot of songs from their latest album, Remind Me Where The Light Is, which I was happy to see since I didn’t have their first album yet. I was also glad to see that there were a few people at the show cheering for Great Northern and not just politely clapping. I was afraid I would be the only one there for them. I guess I wasn’t.

The Dears came on after Great Northern. They set up their gear then walked “backstage”, which was really just at the back where we could all see them. I was ready for them to try to do some exciting entrance but if we could see them waiting to go on how exciting could it be right? I was definitely wrong. The sound guy turned off the 60’s Motown music and started a cd of one of The Dears songs. It was a slower song from them. Then you started to hear Murray singing, but he wasn’t on stage. So I turned around. Murray was at the back of the venue by the soundboard singing. As the song progressed, he took short steps closer to the stage. By the time we were halfway into the song, he was standing in the middle of the crowd singing to us. I’ve never felt such an intimate moment with a band than I did then. At one point he was a foot away from me singing. It was really neat. By the time he was on stage, the rest of the band had made their way up there and were doing backing vocals. The crowd was very appreciative for that moment, and then The Dears started their great set. I’m not incredibly familiar with all of The Dears’ stuff but I knew enough of them to enjoy the show.

If the show sounds like it was pretty good, then go to the show. They still have a few more on the tour. It was one of the better shows I’ve been to where every single band was enjoyable. I don’t go to too many shows like that. Usually I’ll have one band that just isn’t good. That’s not the case with this tour. Check them out guys.

The Eulogies – Bad Connection

Great Northern – Story
Great Northern – Snakes

The Dears – Ticket To Immortality

The Eulogies Myspace
Great Northern Myspace
The Dears Myspace

~ by Doug on May 17, 2009.