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corbaeHey, here's my super-late concert report! I went to the 8/19 Dance Across the Country show at the Greene Street Club in Greensboro, NC. The Hush Sound headlined, preceded by The Cab, Steel Train, and The Morning Light.
A bit of background: I heard about the tour over the summer, and promptly bought my ticket. My thought process was something like "oh, a Tuesday, I'll have the day off work! how awesome!" Unfortunately, August 19th was the first day of classes at my university, which does not happen to be UNC Greensboro. I don't have a car on campus, and my family lives 30 to 40 minutes away from school. Thankfully, I had a friend (K) in my hometown who's a huge Hush Sound fan, and my campus is on the way to Greensboro from our town. She agreed to drive me, but had an early entry-type ticket that let her in to hear sound check. So I had a ride! Great! Next problem: she needed to be there by 3, and I had a class that started at 3:30. So I skipped the first day of Japanese! Screw first impressions, I have a concert to go to! I had also volunteered to do promo for the fbr streetteam at the show, and was sent TAI stickers and TAI, GCH, THS, and TC posters. It would be my first time doing something for streetteam (I'm actually really shy and awkward about this stuff, especially about putting up posters, cause I don't want to fuck up any public property &c.).
K picked me up around 12 and we arrived (minus a few parking mishaps) around 1. We greeted some friends she had there from sweettangerine.net (at the time, the first and only people in line) and then went to get lunch at a diner on the corner. The Hush Sound bus was parked at the curb in front of the club, but there was no sign of the vans for the other bands. K's friends said that no one had left the bus yet.
After lunch, we returned to the line to wait. There was still no one else in line, but there had been 2 girls who would soon join us in the diner. While I waited, I handed out TAI stickers to everyone who joined the line. I probably got a little annoying. Oh, well. After a while, THS departed the bus and went to explore Greensboro. Some of K's friends wandered off and ran into one or two of them (Chris, maybe?), and helped them find a good coffee shop (they were locals).
Now, the special sound check thing was supposed to start at 3, and a sound check certainly started at 3. We could hear it from where we continued to wait outside. While everyone was waiting, all antsy, to be taken in, some other (experienced) streetteamers showed up. They showed me how it was supposed to be done, just waltzing in to put up posters. After a short while they came out and asked me if I had any more posters. I did, in K's car. So we ran and got those. I then went to help them put them up. THS was sound checking. While I was in there, they started letting the early entry people inside. I didn't have an ee ticket, but I was able to stay inside after I finished with the posters. Some of The Cab (and the other openers, although I couldn't recognize them at that point) was hanging out inside. I especially remember seeing Johnson.
Here's what they played at sound check, in an approximate order:
Break the Sky
Not Your Concern
Love Fool (cover)
Smooth Criminal (cover)
The Boys Are Too Refined
Reeling in the Years (cover)
Mike is responsible for most of the covers--the band would trail off and he would take it in a new and awesome direction. After Smooth Criminal, someone (Greta, I think) said that all Michael Jackson covers sucked by comparison, and all the boys jumped in to defend the Alien Ant Farm cover. After sound check, we wandered back out. Disappointingly, there had been no provision made for us in the line, so we sort of clumped awkwardly at its front. One of K's friends started having all sorts of people sign her belly--fellow fans, roadies, band members.
At this point, the vans had pulled up to the curb as well, and equipment was being unloaded. The Cab were sort of milling about, although they did carry in their own equipment (maybe not all of it, though. fuzzy memory, here). Johnson, especially, carried in a lot. He seemed very work-oriented. He was wearing his superman bookbag, saggy pants, and a skeleton belt. They were almost all wearing white shirts. Singer was totally sleeping in the van while all the rest of them were out and about.
Ian and Johnson played around a little:
The show started at 6:30, and they probably let us in around 6:00 or 6:15. There was no control over the line (which we were at the front of). An employee of the club started checking ID and giving out Xs at the door, and at least 10 people went through before K and I (4th and 5th in line, respectively). It didn't matter in the end, however, as I got the center mic position at the stage. K was a little behind me, but by THS's set I had worked over to the right enough to let her stand under the mic with me. One of her friends had some THS balloons from a previous show he'd done streetteam for, so we blew them up and batted them around the crowd while we waited for The Morning Light to start.
The Morning Light were pretty awesome, although their singer was occasionally hard to understand. The drummer definitely rocked out. I ended up buying their EP after the show. They seemed like nice guys.
Pictures!
Next was Steel Train. They were pretty awesome, too, especially when they sang Road Song (mostly) a capella.
Pictures!
Yay The Cab! This show is what converted me to being a Cab fan. They're just so ridiculously adorkable, really, I couldn't resist. They had all changed out of the white shirts for the show (except Singer, who had on a white tank top). Early in the show I saw a real true rare Johnson smile, and it was amazing. Cash sort of made weird faces throughout (his guitar had a cfob sticker, not that I caught on then). Singer's crotch was in my face. No, really. Here's a video some other fan took of his crotch in my face.
Don't know me? I'm the bouncy girl standing by the centerstage mic with short hair and Singer's crotch in my face. It was sort of awkward. I mean, if I looked straight forward it was hello! There was a small child standing kind of behind me (she was 11, I believe) who Singer kept trying to engage. He asked her name and if she wanted to move closer to the stage. She did not. All she wanted to do was text her friends, apparently, and wait for THS to come on. He also stole some girl's pink glasses for a song. They were all sort of awesomely energetic, playing to each other and such. Singer moved all over the stage, Ian did strange guitar things, Marshall was awesome on both keyboard and guitar, Johnson was a mess of flying hair. Cash was actually the least energetic, which I found strange. Does this match other reports? I was especially impressed with Ian's performance, as one of his friends had apparently passed away, and he was still mostly smiles and energy.
Pictures!
While we were waiting for The Hush Sound, I took a picture of their set list and Chris' pedals. Both are kind of ridiculously amusing.
Adam is their tour manager (I'm pretty sure, at least).
I got lots of awesome eye contact (or so it seemed) with Bob, which kind of made my night. Greta was gorgeous, as per usual. Darren was repping Chicago, which was funny to me. He rapped as promised during the Obama song. In addition to the stuff on the set list, they played Honey and the Obama song (and maybe a few more? I don't recall). They didn't play an encore, just tacked the extra songs onto the end of their set.
pictures...
Ian came out to play with them
So did the guys from The Morning Light and Steel Train, but those pictures are pretty bad (and not up here).
After the show, all the musicians hung out by the stage and merch area. I met and posed with all the hushies minus Greta, who had disappeared somewhere. I went outside to see if she was out there for my friend (they weren't allowing reentry). Out there, I met most of The Cab, minus Singer and Marshall. Marshall came out, went to clean his face, and then started eating, and I didn't want to disturb him.
The major bummer of the night was that my camera battery was dying, and apparently failed to record my pictures with Chris, Cash, and Ian (my second favorite of The Cab!). Thankfully, it saved the one with Johnson, my absolute favorite. He's so awesome! And snarky! Awesome snarky sparkly smiles &c!
A bit of background: I heard about the tour over the summer, and promptly bought my ticket. My thought process was something like "oh, a Tuesday, I'll have the day off work! how awesome!" Unfortunately, August 19th was the first day of classes at my university, which does not happen to be UNC Greensboro. I don't have a car on campus, and my family lives 30 to 40 minutes away from school. Thankfully, I had a friend (K) in my hometown who's a huge Hush Sound fan, and my campus is on the way to Greensboro from our town. She agreed to drive me, but had an early entry-type ticket that let her in to hear sound check. So I had a ride! Great! Next problem: she needed to be there by 3, and I had a class that started at 3:30. So I skipped the first day of Japanese! Screw first impressions, I have a concert to go to! I had also volunteered to do promo for the fbr streetteam at the show, and was sent TAI stickers and TAI, GCH, THS, and TC posters. It would be my first time doing something for streetteam (I'm actually really shy and awkward about this stuff, especially about putting up posters, cause I don't want to fuck up any public property &c.).
K picked me up around 12 and we arrived (minus a few parking mishaps) around 1. We greeted some friends she had there from sweettangerine.net (at the time, the first and only people in line) and then went to get lunch at a diner on the corner. The Hush Sound bus was parked at the curb in front of the club, but there was no sign of the vans for the other bands. K's friends said that no one had left the bus yet.
After lunch, we returned to the line to wait. There was still no one else in line, but there had been 2 girls who would soon join us in the diner. While I waited, I handed out TAI stickers to everyone who joined the line. I probably got a little annoying. Oh, well. After a while, THS departed the bus and went to explore Greensboro. Some of K's friends wandered off and ran into one or two of them (Chris, maybe?), and helped them find a good coffee shop (they were locals).
Now, the special sound check thing was supposed to start at 3, and a sound check certainly started at 3. We could hear it from where we continued to wait outside. While everyone was waiting, all antsy, to be taken in, some other (experienced) streetteamers showed up. They showed me how it was supposed to be done, just waltzing in to put up posters. After a short while they came out and asked me if I had any more posters. I did, in K's car. So we ran and got those. I then went to help them put them up. THS was sound checking. While I was in there, they started letting the early entry people inside. I didn't have an ee ticket, but I was able to stay inside after I finished with the posters. Some of The Cab (and the other openers, although I couldn't recognize them at that point) was hanging out inside. I especially remember seeing Johnson.
Here's what they played at sound check, in an approximate order:
Break the Sky
Not Your Concern
Love Fool (cover)
Smooth Criminal (cover)
The Boys Are Too Refined
Reeling in the Years (cover)
Mike is responsible for most of the covers--the band would trail off and he would take it in a new and awesome direction. After Smooth Criminal, someone (Greta, I think) said that all Michael Jackson covers sucked by comparison, and all the boys jumped in to defend the Alien Ant Farm cover. After sound check, we wandered back out. Disappointingly, there had been no provision made for us in the line, so we sort of clumped awkwardly at its front. One of K's friends started having all sorts of people sign her belly--fellow fans, roadies, band members.
At this point, the vans had pulled up to the curb as well, and equipment was being unloaded. The Cab were sort of milling about, although they did carry in their own equipment (maybe not all of it, though. fuzzy memory, here). Johnson, especially, carried in a lot. He seemed very work-oriented. He was wearing his superman bookbag, saggy pants, and a skeleton belt. They were almost all wearing white shirts. Singer was totally sleeping in the van while all the rest of them were out and about.
Ian and Johnson played around a little:
The show started at 6:30, and they probably let us in around 6:00 or 6:15. There was no control over the line (which we were at the front of). An employee of the club started checking ID and giving out Xs at the door, and at least 10 people went through before K and I (4th and 5th in line, respectively). It didn't matter in the end, however, as I got the center mic position at the stage. K was a little behind me, but by THS's set I had worked over to the right enough to let her stand under the mic with me. One of her friends had some THS balloons from a previous show he'd done streetteam for, so we blew them up and batted them around the crowd while we waited for The Morning Light to start.
The Morning Light were pretty awesome, although their singer was occasionally hard to understand. The drummer definitely rocked out. I ended up buying their EP after the show. They seemed like nice guys.
Pictures!
Next was Steel Train. They were pretty awesome, too, especially when they sang Road Song (mostly) a capella.
Pictures!
Yay The Cab! This show is what converted me to being a Cab fan. They're just so ridiculously adorkable, really, I couldn't resist. They had all changed out of the white shirts for the show (except Singer, who had on a white tank top). Early in the show I saw a real true rare Johnson smile, and it was amazing. Cash sort of made weird faces throughout (his guitar had a cfob sticker, not that I caught on then). Singer's crotch was in my face. No, really. Here's a video some other fan took of his crotch in my face.
Don't know me? I'm the bouncy girl standing by the centerstage mic with short hair and Singer's crotch in my face. It was sort of awkward. I mean, if I looked straight forward it was hello! There was a small child standing kind of behind me (she was 11, I believe) who Singer kept trying to engage. He asked her name and if she wanted to move closer to the stage. She did not. All she wanted to do was text her friends, apparently, and wait for THS to come on. He also stole some girl's pink glasses for a song. They were all sort of awesomely energetic, playing to each other and such. Singer moved all over the stage, Ian did strange guitar things, Marshall was awesome on both keyboard and guitar, Johnson was a mess of flying hair. Cash was actually the least energetic, which I found strange. Does this match other reports? I was especially impressed with Ian's performance, as one of his friends had apparently passed away, and he was still mostly smiles and energy.
Pictures!
While we were waiting for The Hush Sound, I took a picture of their set list and Chris' pedals. Both are kind of ridiculously amusing.
Adam is their tour manager (I'm pretty sure, at least).
I got lots of awesome eye contact (or so it seemed) with Bob, which kind of made my night. Greta was gorgeous, as per usual. Darren was repping Chicago, which was funny to me. He rapped as promised during the Obama song. In addition to the stuff on the set list, they played Honey and the Obama song (and maybe a few more? I don't recall). They didn't play an encore, just tacked the extra songs onto the end of their set.
pictures...
Ian came out to play with them
So did the guys from The Morning Light and Steel Train, but those pictures are pretty bad (and not up here).
After the show, all the musicians hung out by the stage and merch area. I met and posed with all the hushies minus Greta, who had disappeared somewhere. I went outside to see if she was out there for my friend (they weren't allowing reentry). Out there, I met most of The Cab, minus Singer and Marshall. Marshall came out, went to clean his face, and then started eating, and I didn't want to disturb him.
The major bummer of the night was that my camera battery was dying, and apparently failed to record my pictures with Chris, Cash, and Ian (my second favorite of The Cab!). Thankfully, it saved the one with Johnson, my absolute favorite. He's so awesome! And snarky! Awesome snarky sparkly smiles &c!
