The other night (more like a week ago now, but I fell asleep when I originally started writing and never finished) I got to pondering, as I often do, and on this particular night I was thinking about the concept of "the one" or "the girl/guy of someone's dreams". I opted not to go down the logic brain "that's such a futile pursuit, statistically" path, and instead pondered the human element of it. The why of it isn't hard to figure out. People are dreamers, by and large. We have these ideals, these conceptualizations of what each of us defines as perfect. No matter how unrealistic, we often cling to these as though life could not continue without them. What I was more thinking about was how those desires change over time. How would you characterize it? As my mid twenties will be turning to my late twenties sooner rather than later, it's easy to succumb to anxiety over such matters from time to time. While I am at a good place in my life right now, and I firmly believe that if nothing in my life changed that I could continue on with the status quo and still be quite content, there's still the white elephant in the room, the "don't you want a Bonnie for your Clyde?" Sure, wouldn't we all? But what I think varies from individual to individual is how strong that desire to find "the one" is, how shaken one's belief becomes that the person exists, and, ultimately, how much is a person going to temper his/her expectations and standards to satiate that desire and to fill whatever void feels like it needs to be filled?
The biggest element to this is, of course, time. We all are steadily inching closer to our deaths with each passing second. We all have aspirations and things we want to experience and achieve before that moment comes. For many folks, whether it be a true desire or simply a biological instinct, that includes having and rearing offspring. That, of course, has the greatest time element to it of all things. Taking that out of the equation, though, life really isn't so short. In fact, it's quite long, and we have a tremendous amount of time to pursue all of our desires with far fewer restrictions than we think have, as I believe many of those are self-imposed. Yes, we change as we age, but to say that "things won't be the same" or "I won't feel the same way" are really just weak excuses. Of course things would be different; we exist in an environment that is constantly evolving around us. That does not mean that different is bad or that it prohibits continued enjoyment out of one's pursuits just because some arbitrary age milestone was attained. Even as physical limitations begin to play a role, we have the flexibility to shape how our lives change and mold that change in a manner that best suits what we feel is optimal. The more you really start to assess where these time constraints come from and where the barriers are forged, the more you tend to discover they come from within.
Now, the above is probably almost universally applicable, but it doesn't mean that it solves anything for most people. That's why people ultimately do temper their expectations with what they look for in a partner. Perhaps at the beginning of this crusade "the one" looks a certain way, shares from a list of interests, has certain personality characteristics, is at a certain point in his/her academic or professional career, etc. In time, maybe the suitable age range to date widens a little bit, and that PhD in particle physics who also competes in triathlons, shares the same favorite movies, and also wants to retire to the Swiss Alps morphs into someone who merely has a job and is pleasant. It's a bit different for everyone on how much they will compromise on and how long they are willing to stare father time in the face without blinking. Is it worse to be alone or to settle? Where's the balance? What's the best shade of grey?
Well, let's go completely outside of the box and throw away "the one" and replace it with "the all". The answer to the "either or" question is not the "either" nor the "or". It's impossible to meet one person that fulfills every single aspect of perfection through one's self's eyes. Knowing that, why try? Why set yourself up for disappointment? Why project impossible expectations onto the people you come into contact with? What good reason is there for doing that? It can't be found in one person, but I believe it can be found in all people. It can be found in a lifetime. It can be found if we are willing to open our eyes, but more importantly, open our minds to the possibility. Learning to love globally, to cherish the best in folks, to not project one person's characteristics onto another, to find the good qualities, the qualities we feel are best in a person, and to store it and take it to heart, that is where the ability to do this lies. It's a state of pure appreciation, unhindered by jealousy, immune to so many of the other pitfalls associated the more conventional approach of singular passion. My feeling is it is a much more positive approach to living, not only in the manner it can help foster positive relationships with others, but also in the sense of fulfillment and appreciation within. I think it's a wonderful thing to be able to admire individual characteristics in all sorts of different individuals without looking for all of those things in one person. While I'd never name names in this, you can believe there are people's characteristics that I deeply love or admire, and I could rattle them off. I can sit here and say "Jane Doe has absolutely beautiful lips", "Sarah Doe has the most wonderful and inspiring outlook on life", "John Doe has remarkable artistic ability", "Doris Doe is a truly wonderful parent", "I love Debra Doe's hair", "Joseph Doe's work ethic and dedication is admirable", etc. I can do that and honestly feel very fortunate that I have shared pieces of my life with these people, and I can collect all of those things that I love and commit them to that lifetime collection. It's something that I don't think I would have ever imagined myself doing, but now that I look at it like that, I find it an interesting exercise.
Here's the thing that I realized, though. I was not the first person to think this in some sort of incarnation. In the car, it dawned on me that another individual did something like this in a song. When Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack was asked about his song Antonia, he revealed that the song was not about a person, but a collection of people, although many of the items were inspired by then drummer Tony (appropriate given the name of the song). That Pierre takes these quirks, traits, and interests of actual people, attributes them to one individual, and then presents it in a manner such that listeners probably believe that the song is based on an actual person goes to show that the exercise that I discussed above is one that is not out of the realm of possibility. This is why Motion City Soundtrack is a band that has kept me a fan over the past 10 years, despite me not necessarily listening to them much anymore or enjoying their latest album. Justin manages to capture a lot of beauty and emotion in unconventional ways. Below is the song Antonia, which is off their third full length album, Even If It Kills Me, which I think is easily their most underappreciated album. I think you could make a pretty strong argument that it's the best album of their discography lyrically, and the music is still in line enough with their signature sound from their first two albums. Ultimately, it's my second favorite album of theirs, which it probably took me three or four years to get to that point. I'm glad I did develop a further and further appreciation for the album and for Justin Pierre on EIIKM, and perhaps you could say I may have even filed away something for my own personal Antonia in the process.
While I need to finish off some work this evening, my need for catharsis has trumped my need for finishing the task at hand and getting a good night's sleep. Autumn is upon us, evidenced by the abundance of pumpkin everything and myriad of comments about the weather. It's the most polarizing season for me - I very much feel it is the greatest time of year while simultaneously fighting off the psychological ghosts and ghouls that accompany me this time of the year. By definition, one would call this seasonal affective disorder, but this... this is different (as most people with seasonal affective disorder would probably claim, I am well aware). I assert this is not a case of denial because I am so forthright with my emotions, and over the past couple of years, I have developed a far greater awareness as it relates to my moods and how they are connected with the feeling side of me instead of the thinking side of me. For years I have known why autumn impacts me so; the problem extends far beyond five years ago, but five autumns ago saw the catalyst that brought everything to the forefront, and each subsequent autumn has further contributed to the difficulty waiting to confront me anew each September.
Why is it that autumn impacts me so? Well, it's the season that evokes the most emotion from me by far, which is always very trying for me. It is the time of year that coincides with all of my most vivid memories. Very nearly all of my greatest emotional occurrences fall within this timeframe, both positive and negative, and when you combine that with the changing weather and very distinct imagery, it's a sensory assault only further accelerating the journey into yet another period of days turning to weeks turning to months trying to stave off negativity and subscribe to the "this year will be different" line of thinking. In an attempt to condense the explosion of emotions into a nice, succinct package to at least partially explain the background psychology of the season for me, I'll say that all of my best and worst memories call autumn its home. This starts from childhood, where the memories more center around unadulterated joy - tag in the backyard was most fun in the cooler weather, the World Series was the height of my sports excitement each year as I rooted on my Yankees, and as I got a bit older, my own baseball season commenced this time of year. Halloween was the time of year you could be anyone in the whole world, a truly wondrous proposition for a child. And while we feel sorrow as children, I believe we don't have the intellectual capacity to have comprehend the depth of sorrow in our youthful years. It's actually quite interesting to think about: joy is often associated with something that is pure and simple, whereas sadness is one of the most complex emotions we can try to describe.
Later on in life is where the complexity came along, and all the notable timestamps fall within this pesky three month time period of the year. The numbers on the calendar could be any numbers, but we're wired to notice trends, and when the trend is that these experiences all occur within a certain window, it can be difficult to try and convince the brain that the window is not to blame. It was autumn where I found out what was wrong with me had a name, the day that I could no longer run away from the fact that the way I felt wasn't going away on its own. Relationships in my life have been few and far between, but they have commenced and ceased in or very very close to autumn. The greatest joy and the most excruciating pain have occurred in these months. Having your heart become consumed by the deluge of love violently cascading without any regard to what is in its path is unlike any other feeling, as is the feeling when that tide sweeps back out to sea, taking far more back with it in the process. I have seen my identity lost and found in this season. I have had my hope renewed, my confidence shattered, my emotions boil and freeze, I've hurt so badly because of things that I've had happen, things that I've seen, and perhaps most of all because of decisions I had to make. I've had my heart broken and I have broken someone else's heart. I've fought and fought, and I've also been so exhausted that I felt like giving up. I've found some of my greatest friends in the entire world in this time of year, including my dearest friend of all. I've discovered the music that has shaped much of the more recent past of my life. These memories all come rushing back along with the cool air. They force their ways to the forefront of my awareness with the playback of a song or the sound of a child's gleeful scream. As humans, we all have to deal with these sensations, but it's each individual's ability to cope with the sensations that define how much of an impact and what sort of impact they have on us, and unfortunately, for me, I was never endowed with much of a mechanism for tackling such issues.
I think heading into this autumn I had more conviction around the belief that this year would be different. Things in my life have been going pretty well, and I am happier than I have been in years, all things considered. Now, whether it be coincidence or if there's truly something to this "season of change", it of course has to happen that life would just throw some curveballs out there just to get me thinking. I think I have maneuvered that path okay so far, but that seed of doubt has been planted, the cool weather has rolled back in, and I have felt the anxiety rising within me, particularly having spent a week out of town from work in a place that houses some of the most vivid memories of mine (as fate would have it, the route from the hotel I was staying at to the office took me down a road that was the same route taken to go to a Halloween bonfire back on someone's farmland back in 2008). In contemplating this all, though, and thinking about my desire to try and make this autumn a great one to "break the cycle", it occurred to me that maybe that wasn't the best course of action, and perhaps a futile one, in all actuality. The more I thought, and the more I listened to some music, the more I felt that I had it all wrong. So often I think we have such black and white approaches to dealing with sorrow: either run from it or embrace it as our identity. Now, maybe what I was proposing was not to run from it, more to try and shove it aside and replace it with something else. Other times we wallow in our gloom because it identifies us. What I thought about, though, is to try and do neither of those things, to just try to see and understand the beauty in sorrow. I don't know that there is ever any "conquering" it, but some form of coexistence where it makes you appreciate and understand the role sorrow plays in the broader gamut of all human emotion is perhaps the best way to try and approach it. We don't try to appreciate that we feel sad, but we appreciate that we feel, period.
All in all, I don't know if this approach will be a beneficial one or not. It's certainly well-intentioned, and it seems to make sense to me (now), but I could just be digging myself a hole and no one would ever think to tell me as I could be just any other grave digger this spooky time of year, right? I do believe it's worth a shot, though. I cannot run from the seasons, rather than trying to run against the current, perhaps this is a way of riding with the current. Autumn is the season of change, so I may as well try something new!
I'm back posting yet another music related entry in what's been a pretty good string of few weeks for me as it pertains to music. While I've been following along with the U.S. Open on the sports side of things and edited a few photos from Europe, music has been the topic I am most driven to write about (along with some really long, philosophical e-mails, but you don't get to see those). Sabaton Open Air, otherwise known as Rockstad: Falun, is a metal festival held in the hometown of Sabaton, a small city of less than 40,000 in Sweden. This was my third festival in Europe, smaller than Amphi festival, and about the same size, perhaps marginally larger than Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum. I actually quite enjoyed the size of the festival: it was big enough so that there was enough energy pulsing around the festival grounds later in the day and into the evening, but it was small enough that you would leave one day, then come back the next day and run into the new friends you made the day prior. This is probably the greatest aspect of the event for me, personally, as I met some absolutely wonderful people, and had I only talked to them for several minutes only to never see them again, I would have missed out on some friendships and social interaction.
The festival is a three day event primarily focused on power metal, although there were other genres represented at the event. Admittedly, this was a festival that, band-wise, probably could have been consolidated into a two day event; there are other festivals out there with a much deeper ticket in two days than this festival had in all three. The positive element to this is it was less pressure to constantly be trying to see one band or another on different stages or running around the grounds constantly; it allowed you to socialize a bit more freely, which I think was definitely positive. The festival grounds were very easy to navigate, and I can say that the event definitely sort of built up with each day. All three days had spectacular headlining performances, but the lineups just got a bit deeper later in the week. I would say there is probably a small bit of bias resulting from the particular type of metal I enjoy most, but my sentiments were generally echoed by the folks I met at the event, so I don't feel like I am stepping too far out of line.
In terms of the actual performances, I'll go over the bands that were the highlights for me by day. While it's becoming nearly impossible to rank live performances I've seen given the ever increasing list of bands I've seen and the different elements said bands bring to the table in different settings, I think if I was forced to pick a top 10, 3 of them would be from this festival, and Arkona is already cemented in my top 5, so they're a fourth that performed at this event.
Day 1: Eternal of Sweden got the event off to a good start; I was pleased with their performance as an opening band. These guys were heavy metal throwback, like they'd been playing for a couple of decades, or they wanted to recapture the glory days of yesteryear and formed a band playing that style of music. Probably not something I'd listen to all of the time, but I thought they were just fine for the beginning of the event. After what I felt was a bit of lull, I got re-engaged once Revamp came on. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties and a long delay that set their start time back a good 20 minutes, which maybe killed the atmosphere in the crowd a bit, but after a somewhat flat first couple of songs, they really brought the energy back in a big way as they progressed through the set. Floor Jansen sounded great, and the band was pretty nice when I saw them signing autographs, too. I actually got to chat with Henk a little bit after the festivities were done for the evening, too. He's a funny guy. Following Revamp was Arkona, whom I never have enough good things to say about. Arkona had never performed in Sweden before, and leading up to the event, I was quite surprised to hear how many people had never heard of them. I was wearing the shirt I purchased on their 2011 North American tour and talking them up the entire day. Some might say this is a bad move, because in the event others don't like them as much as I do, you make your recommendations look bad, but this is Arkona, and they never disappoint. Surely enough, the crowd went wild for them. They played a great mix of songs, starting of with some new material from Yav and throwing in many of their popular staples such as "Slavsia, Rus", "Stenka na Stenku", and "Yarilo". You haven't really lived until you've participated in a Wall of Death to Stenka na Stenku, to be quite honest. I'll cut short gushing about my favorite Russians and their amazing music, though. I was thrilled to see them make the front page of the local Swedish newspaper, though, and was quick to post it online for all to see. I'll write an artist spotlight on them some day, I'm sure. Finntroll was the last big highlight of the evening for me. I was pleasantly surprised with their performance, as I was underwhelmed when I saw them in the U.S. It seems to me that was more a reflection of some poor sound that night, though, as they sounded great at Rockstad. They definitely had the most raucous fans of the entire festival, too, which was a bit annoying in the 30 minutes leading up to the show, as I literally could not hear people next to me, but made for a fun show while they were playing. The last band of the night, Amaranthe, was not my thing, but they were decent, catchy, and I met two friends that I spent the most time with in Falun before that show, so they were a highlight due to that, if not the music.
Day 2: Admittedly, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon up at the beer tent socializing and staying out of the rain, as it rained quite a bit the first two days, but I can definitely say that as background music went, the opening few bands definitely surpassed the opening few bands from Thursday. The three highlights of the day for me, though, were definitely Amorphis, Masterplan, and Rhapsody of Fire. Amorphis I had never really listened to prior to coming to Rockstad, as I don't listen to a whole lot of progressive, but they definitely put on a good performance and made me interested in listening to them more following the festival. Masterplan is a band that I listened to sparingly in the past, admittedly. I do enjoy their music, but the vocals are just underwhelming to me. I just always felt I'd rather listen to other power metal bands where I thought the vocals added more, other things equal. That said, I do love me some Crimson Rider, and their live performance was definitely enjoyable. I left Amorphis on the mainstage early to be up front for Masterplan, which was really more just to be very proactive to ensure I'd be up front for Rhapsody of Fire. Ironically enough, after waiting through almost all of Testament's 90 minute set, which I wasn't too disappointed in not seeing since I'm not a fan of thrash, it was just too cold and wet, and I was too hungry, so I relinquished my front and center spot for food and temporary warmth. The outcome suited me just fine, as I both filled my belly and ran into my friends, so we shared a beer and still got a good spot for Rhapsody of Fire. Now, if you haven't listened to Rhapsody of Fire, prepare for an epic journey (don't worry, I didn't go too hard on this one). As symphonic power metal goes, it doesn't get much better than these Italian metal gods. Fabio Lione is on the short list of best male vocalists I have seen. He sounds great on their albums and was even better live. The atmosphere was electric during their performance. The crowd engagement was good with Fabio pulling a page out of Freddie Mercury's book to see if the crowd could hang with him on vocals. We got everything from the most fast, melodic, epic songs all the way down to a sweet ballad. Top 10 band performance + awesome friends = perfect night cap.
Day 3: The big day got off to an auspicious start by virtue of the fact that it wasn't overcast from the get-go. Similar to day 2, the first few bands were spent more socializing and less being attentive to the actual music, but I had to ensure that we saw Twilight Force. I had listened to them in advance of coming to Europe and was looking forward to seeing them live. There's no such thing as too much cheesy power metal, after all. Complete with tales of adventure, abundant chorus, melodic riffs, the good old high range metal vocals (although sometimes far too forced to the point they don't come off well at all), and nifty elf outfits, Twilight Force was definitely higher at the top of the list of my favorites of the entire festival. You could tell they were having fun up there, too. They're a local act from Borlänge, just 20 minutes away by train, so it had to be a great moment for them. Following Twilight Force was Battle Beast, another band I hadn't listened to prior to arriving. I really enjoyed their set. Noora Louhimo has a bit of a throwback, raspy heavy metal vocal style, but as a female vocalist, it served as a very nice contrast to the more prevalent operatic type vocals in the power and symphonic metal scenes. That's not to say she doesn't have the voice for the cleaner vocals, because she flaunts those as well. Her variety and uniqueness complement an excellent instrumental group to create a great band overall. Later in the evening, I had to make a decision; ultimately I decided to hold my spot on the rail for Van Canto and forego being able to watch Týr and having a less than optimal spot for Sabaton. I knew that I may never see Van Canto again, and no one out there is like Van Canto whatsoever. I'll see Týr open for Eluveitie, and Sabaton, while not having seen them at their grandest event, I have seen twice already and will again in October, so I decided to stay up front for the a capella metal band from Germany. It's almost hard to even try and comment on their set because it is so one of a kind. Anything you try to come up with words for to relate to other folks is almost futile because unless they've seen Van Canto, there's nothing else in their bank of experience you can tap into to try and relate it to. What I enjoyed about their set was that they played a lot of original material; obviously their cover songs are what people probably discover and know them for, but for them to come up with original material and go through the creative process like any other band, only without any actual instruments (drums aside), that's pretty neat. Like just think about a jam session with these guys just getting creative with their vocal chords. It's an interesting prospect to ponder on. So, truly, this was a great performance, and I managed to catch a Red Bull can that was thrown into the crowd at the conclusion of their set, which I still have presently (need to decide what to do with it).
Following Van Canto was the apex of the show, and the second of three new performances to make it into my top 10 all time performances I have seen. Of course, because it's their event, Sabaton are going to pull out all the stops and have resources that the other bands won't have access to. I wouldn't try to slight other bands simply because they didn't have fancy firework turrets, pyrotechnics, Caroleans, and the works, but I can't dismiss what Sabaton has done with this event overall. Like I mentioned in the opening, Falun is a very small town, so the fact that Sabaton is a world famous band that came from the tiny, historically mining town, and the fact that they return to their roots every single year and put on their best performance is positively wonderful. It is just one of many ways that Sabaton show what thoughtful, high character guys they really are. As a band that composes lyrics primarily in English, as do many bands because of the ability to reach out to a much wider audience, for Sabaton to be able to come home, interact with the home crowd in Swedish, and to play Carolus Rex, considered by many to be the crown jewel in their discography, entirely in Swedish was a beautiful thing to witness. The Swedes deserve that moment, and it is incredible for Sabaton to give it to them while also accommodating all of the non-Swedish speaking individuals as well. It's all done in true Joakim style, too, good humored, humble, and ever so generous to the fans. They always give back to the fans in some way: bringing folks on stage, Joakim trading his vest with another in the crowd, fan interaction, it's all so kind, and more importantly, it's genuine. I truly do believe there are no nicer guys in all of music. To me, what truly, above all, made this set were the events that transpired in this video:
To witness this was so touching. I have seen so many incredible shows, bands, and performances in the past five years, but there are far, far fewer in number the times where an event is so moving on a much deeper, more profound level. This was one of those select moments for me, something I will never forget, something that will be just as powerful each time I watch it. To me, watching an incredible music performance is second to watching an incredible human performance, which is what I saw that wonderful evening. Furthermore, I really feel that Sabaton are really a good representation and embodiment of Sweden as a whole. I have made the remark, "the only person nicer than a Swede is a drunk Swede". It's a joke, but there is certainly some truth in the statement. Sweden and the folks there were so incredibly friendly, welcoming, and provided such an absolutely incredible environment for me that is beyond words. This is an event, a band, and a country full of people that I will forever cherish.
Ending the blog post on that note seems like a logical stopping point, but the numbers folks in the group have noticed that there's still a third top ten performance I haven't mentioned. Well, Brothers of Metal had the tall order of following Sabaton. People might wonder why Sabaton isn't the last to perform. Well, if they were, they'd never be able to get off the stage. No one expects the last band to top Sabaton, of course, but the only downside is that the lion's share (use of lion in the context of Sweden was intentional) of the crowd leave after Sabaton. That didn't stop Brothers of Metal from putting on a positively killer show. I do want to save a blog post for them, as for a local band to put on the performance they did, it was positively remarkable, and they deserve additional recognition for that. It's unfathomable for me to think about walking down the street to a bar and seeing a band put on the type of performance they did, yet they did it despite having only a fraction of the number of followers as the majority of the bands performing this event. So stay tuned for a post on them in the near future.
To close, I really just have to once more emphasize what an incredible event and experience this was. The music, the atmosphere, the new friends from all over the world, there's nothing else in the world like going to a festival like this, and I am eternally grateful that I had this opportunity and hat Sabaton make an event like this happen. The world is such a vast place with so much to see, I can't say that I know I will ever return to this particular event again because there are only so many vacations one can take in a lifetime, but Sweden is absolutely a country I would love to return to again to be able to see some of the truly lovely people I have met both there and elsewhere in Europe. Jag älskar Sverige!
For this spotlight, I am going to detail a group that I alluded to in my previous post on Orlando Nerd Fest, The Returners. The Returners are a five piece group from Austin that positively blew me away; this was due in part to many factors. To organize my thoughts, I feel it will be more interesting to convey my chronological thought process rather than structure by topic.
My initial reaction right from sound check was that this band was going to bring something big to the table. I was instantly filled with anticipation sheerly by virtue of keyboards and a flute! Given my music tastes, this should come as no surprise. The next thing that caught my eye was the double bass drums. This is where I really started to get excited. Keys and flute suggest some sort of folk or orchestral type arrangements, but double bass can only mean one thing: metal. Following that, I noticed the fretless bass, so my assumption there is that the bassist is going to be quite talented. And, to cap it all off, the guitarist is wielding a seven string guitar. For those of you counting at home, that's five out of five on band members that have me amped up for the performance, and this all before even a single note has emanated from any of the speakers.
After all of this initial anticipation, the event itself didn't disappoint, in fact, it met and exceeded any and all expectations I could have had. If you were to take this band out of this convention room and drop them onto a stage with thousands of people watching, they'd fit perfectly. It was unbelievable. I thought they excelled in so many aspects of their performance, particularly for a group that just formed last year. The musical talent is evident; they can flat out shred. It's the little things, though, the attention to detail, that I felt really made them stand out and created that much more of a lasting impression. There are many bands with a great deal of talent and who can perform in front of an audience, but creating a cohesive setlist with a good flow so that it guides the crowd through a vast gamut of experience and emotion is something that is not quite as easy to do, but the The Returners did a very good job of that, in my estimation. They went loud, they went soft, they picked up the pace and brought it back down, they mixed in vocals with instrumentals, and they did it all with transitions that produced a very good ebb and flow for the entire set (and also within their songs and medleys given the arrangements they created). Staying on the subject of the setlist, too, it was a very diverse, well thought out, and well executed blend of tracks. They hit on crowd favorites, but they really went with some less widely known tracks that I definitely appreciated, Ecco being one of the games that I was really pleasantly surprised to hear. My second favorite song of the set (I'll get to the favorite in a second) was their Star Ocean 2 Medley. I think this song really summarizes all I've commented on quite well, both in terms of musical talent and the thoughtful arrangements. The video doesn't do them justice, as the sound really mutes the bass, but you get the general idea of what they bring to the table.
So, back to my favorite song. All this time I have spoken very little about the vocals of this band, which are perhaps the greatest of their many strengths. Lauren, "The Flute", in addition to being a talented flutist and knowledgable video game enthusiast is a phenomenal opera vocalist. This surprise was spoiled given she opened with a vocal intro for Random Encounter earlier in the day, which is probably a good thing because if I had discovered that along with all of the other astounding revelations about this band all at once, I'd probably have to watch the show from the floor because I wouldn't be able to pick my jaw up off of it. While much of their performance is purely instrumental, Lauren definitely has her moments where she puts the pipes on display, none more so than their cover of Phantom of the Opera. Now, here's the thing, right from the instant I heard the first organ note, my thought is "you don't do Phantom of the Opera unless you know you're going to nail it". I knew Lauren could nail it from her vocals in other songs, but here's where they left the crowd in awe: John, the drummer, absolutely killed it on male vocals. His vocals alone are incredible, but the fact that he can sing like that while playing drums is pretty remarkable. Here's a guy who could never pick up a drumstick again and focus solely on singing if he wanted to, and he'd probably be very successful doing it. If I had to guess, though, he's probably in like 10 different bands because he's a drummer, and that's what drummers do, right? Supply and demand :) Don't take my word for it, though, below is a video. While the song is also in the video of their set linked above, the vocals are barely audible in that video, and in this video you can hear them pretty clearly (albeit with video from the opposite side of the room).
Music aside, the band members were all so incredibly friendly. While I didn't spend an incredibly long time talking to everyone, it was long enough to see how humble they were and very gracious of the support they'd received. I also don't think it would be a stretch to declare Lauren as the nicest person ever. She really is so sweet. So here's a proposition for everyone (yes, all my legions of readers, haha): go to the Facebook Page of The Returners and "Like" them. Let me know in the comments, and I will do a drawing at random for one person that I will give a digital download pre-order for their upcoming album, Immune to Silence (what an awesome name, by the way). Who can argue with free music? Plus, when you factor in the lack of readers, poor distribution of posts on Facebook, and the general laziness of people, you're probably going to end up with like a 50/50 shot to win, so take advantage of the easy numbers game you'll be getting into. Worth a shot, right? The Returners, to me, are a band with limitless potential. They already have talent and performance beyond that of so many acts, and as they spend more and more time together, they will only continue to become more polished, have tighter performances, and expand their repertoire of songs. I am very excited to see what the next chapter holds in their story.
