Tonight we saw Fair to Midland at The Fuel Room in Libertyville (part of Austin's Saloon & Eatery). It wasn't a packed show but the crowd was full of die-hard fans. We got there a couple hours early and shared a chicken pretzel sandwich; or was it a pretzel chicken sandwich? Which 'wich was it? Who cares it tasted good either way.
The first band on stage was 18 Speed Tranny. The drummer had a beard that reached all the way down to hell. These guys were heavy metal to the core! We enjoyed their performance, but after awhile the songs all started to sound the same. The next band was Munroe. Their set, musically, was a little more interesting than Tranny, but by now I was impatient to see Fair to Midland: I've really been into FTM's new album Fables from a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times Is True.
Munroe had some issues. To begin with, they came out much later than expected, and the singer just couldn't seem to get his guitar tuned. The other guitarist was odd in that he sometimes "fondled" the bass player's strings. What the heck was that about?
Then. Fair to Midland. Within the first 30 seconds they had displayed more energy, more experience, than the other two bands combined (although Mr. Beard from Tranny tried his best to get the crowd going via hand gestures and flying/twirling drumsticks). I knew FTM had energy, but I wasn't expecting the lead singer to 
be so crazy, and he was obviously drunk. He was jumping, kneeling, falling, and pacing all across the stage. His voice went up, then down, then everywhere in-between, his facial expressions going from pensive to crazy as he bared his soul for the audience. And while the musical message seemed to be getting 
through fine, his attempts at speaking to the crowd were barely comprehensible. However, the band was magnetic and most of the songs were played pretty well. Truth be told, I loved every minute of it!
All the pictures, by the way, were taken by a photographer at the venue, including this one of me and Kelly.Video from the show at YouTube:
1 comment:
Great! Thank you, love! I shall add that we were definitely hard core because we didn't get back until 2 AM on a worknight! FTM didn't take teh stage until almost midnight. And ... Jason got complimented on his Tea Party shirt by a dude with a White Sox shirt.
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