Rock 'n' roll nowadays

Why is it that the sweet tea from McDonald's comes in styrofoam cups while all their other large beverages come in plastic cups? I've never understood this. Earlier today my friend and I stopped at a McDonald's and he purchased a sweet tea. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, the cup, which was in the cupholder, fell over and landed on the end of the straw, which then punctured the side of the cup, rendering the tea undrinkable and making a mess all over the car. If it had been in a plastic cup this would not have happened.

But anyway, this happened as we were on our way to a concert at Jammin Java, a small venue in Vienna played by mostly local acts. The opening band, Storm the Beaches, came from the Baltimore area, but the rest of the bands were not anywhere close to local.

We arrived in time to catch the last two songs of the opening set. Neither of us had heard of this band previously. They were alright; the two songs I heard sounded kinda the same, but it was a nice 90s emo kind of a sound. Like back when "emo" was good music, before Dashboard Confessional killed the respectability of the term.

Next up was Steve Brodsky of the band Cave In playing a solo set. It was just him, his voice, and a guitar. The first song he played brought to mind images of some kind of medieval troubador with an electric guitar on acid. He played a number of Cave In songs after that. I'm not sure how many, because I don't really listen to that band. I know I've seen them live before, opening for some other band. I forget who. The didn't strike me as particularly rememberable though. I think their songs sounded better with Steve playing alone.

The third band of the night, Annuals, was the reason my friend and I went to the show to begin with. The first time either of us had heard them was last year at the 9:30 club when they opened for Minus the Bear. MTB is spectacular live, but Annuals might have stolen the show. They are amazingly fun in a live setting. And they were no less than mind-blowing tonight. I don't even know how I'd describe their sound. Kind of experimental indie pop I suppose. I've been having a harder and harder time describing the music I like lately. I think this is because none of the bands I love really sound quite like any other bands. Annuals is so great though. In fact, I think it'd be hard to dislike them. The first time we saw them we didn't know any of their songs (because we'd never even heard of them before) but that was about a year ago. In that time we've grown quite fond of their sound, so it was nice hearing some familiar tunes. I was playing one of their songs for my mom last week and even she, a 54-year-old white lady, agreed that they are quite groovy. She said that it just sounded like they were having fun (please excuse my use of the J word). This is even more clear watching them live. There's no doubt that everyone in this band is having the time of their life on stage, doing what they love most. The band is composed of two guitarists who also contribute vocals, a sexy female keyboardist who also sings, a bassist who grooves out like no one is looking, a drummer who rocks with an intensity rarely matched, and a sixth guy who moved between a second drumset and a third guitar. The use of a second drumset multiplied the band's intensity exponentially, and at times both of the guitarists picked up some drumsticks and rocked out on individual drums as well. I really can't see any reason why this band is not incredibly famous. I think they'll be huge soon, and that if that never happens there is something seriously wrong with society. Here's a link to one of their videos, in case anyone actually reads this and is too lazy to look them up themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMjIQFU9nbg

The Dear Hunter (not to be confused with Deerhunter, a somewhat similar band) was the night's headlining act. This band is the current project of Casey Crescenzo, formerly of post-hardcore band The Receiving End of Sirens. I never really listened to TREOS very much before they broke up. Or now, for that matter. I hadn't listened to The Dear Hunter much either, although I'd downloaded a couple of their albums a while back. After a couple listens they seemed pretty good, although not remarkable. Their live show was certainly more intense though. They are definitely heavier and more somber live than on their albums, which sound more quirky and almost fairytale-ish. They played a pretty long set. One of Casey's effects pedals broke right before they began though, so he was in a bit of a bad mood. It was still evident that the band was enjoying themselves though, as it was their first headlining show in a while so they'd gotten accustomed to playing shorter sets.

In conclusion, this was an excellent show. Among the best I've attended, for sure. I'd write more about it, but I really shouldn't even be writing this because I have a lot of important homework assignments that I should be working on instead. This show was so inspiring though. It inspired me moreso as a musician than a writer though, as the friend I went to the show with is also my drummer. I say "my" drummer because another buddy and I write songs on the guitar and this dude plays the drums. So we are kind of a band. We need a bass player and singer though. And a keyboardist. And maybe another percussionist. But the show also inspired me to write this. I'm gonna stop now before I ramble any further.