I hope the guy who was waving his recently purchased vinyl around during And So I Watch You From Afar‘s set has learned his lesson – when attending a show where the chances of a moshpit breaking out are pretty good, you visit the merch table after the show lest your record gets a bit beat up a few songs in.
Yes, a show by the Belfast post-rockers can get kind of rowdy. Their riff laden, mostly instrumental numbers are pretty upbeat and anthemic so it’s easy to see how people can get swept up by it all, but the band themselves seemed a bit surprised at the energy levels, which may have spurred them to take things to the next level. Guitarist Rory Friers seemed particularly taken with the enthusiastic crowd response, thanking the crowd for “making us feel especially welcome tonight.”
Also thanked throughout the night by all three of the acts on the bill was the guy doing sound, which was nice. The people doing all of the work behind the scenes are not always acknowledged and are probably more likely to be mentioned onstage if something is going wrong with the sound. And it did all sound good, which is an important factor since all of the bands have some degree of virtuosity involved in their performance. Aside from some musical similarities, all three acts seemed to share a close kinship as opener Mylets (aka Henry Kohen) was invited up on stage with both the headliners and TTNG, whose frontman Henry Tremain also joined ASIWYFA onstage for a couple of numbers, thus making this one of the most Henry-heavy shows I have attended in awhile.
Speaking of “the Henrys,” both of the opening acts also put on enjoyable sets. TTNG did the obligatory mention of local news to get the crowd on your side when Tremain mentioned how he had recently learned about our mayor. “He seems like an interesting fellow. How did that happen? Which one of you is responsible?” he joked. They had a nice sound full of intricate interlocking guitar parts that brought to mind the various offshoots of Cap’n Jazz (American Football, Joan Of Arc, etc.) or Ottawa’s The Wooden Stars at times. And even though I only caught the tail end of Mylets’ set, Kohen’s musicianship as well as his youthful energy (it was announced during TTNG’s set that he was 4 days shy of his 19th birthday, meaning he wasn’t allowed in the venue when not onstage) impressed, even if he did claim before playing his final song that it was the only one he’d played that night that he actually liked.
And as for that fellow who bought an album before ASIWYFA’s set, I hope it made it out intact, though even if it didn’t, I’m sure he had a good time regardless.