Summerfest, Day 4: Immagine Dragons and Mother, Mother at the Miller Light Oasis

Day 4 of Summerfest: Mother, Mother and Imagine Dragons 

Stage: Miller Light Oasis (2/6): I have a love hate relationship with this stage. On the one hand it is the largest of the free stages. On the other, it is often the most crowed and the hardest to hear. Let me explain what I mean by crowed, because it’s not the kind have crowed that most people visualize. About twenty rows of bleachers are followed by two full rows of picnic tables in front of the stage. One would think this meant that the tables were a safe place to sit and watch from a distance.
One would be sorely mistaken.
Because of the popularity of the artists at that stage three is no casual watching vantage point. By the time the 8:00 set is starting the bleachers are packed with people standing on bleachers. The tables are double packed with people standing on the tables and benches By the time the 10pm set tolls around it is pure mayhem- in addtion to standing on tables and bleachers, there are people standing between the rows and packed around the tables. It is luck if you can see one of the three screens from the tables.
If you’re far enough back, you legitimately cannot hear the vocals at all.

But, if you’re up for the crush, it is beyond worth it.

The speaker system is in desperate need of a make over. The sound balance is non-existent relying on the bass predominantly and drowning out the vocals every time.

The shows:
Mother, Mother (4/6): I really got a kick out of the female lead vocalist’s playful sprit and the antidotes peppered throughout their show, however, the want to be punk style of dress and blasé nebulously defiant attitude didn’t have the effect they were going for. For punk attitude to work, you really have to have a balls-to-the-walls devil may care drive, they were too nice for punk and too blasé to be feel good. They talked bout being rebels and throwing a party in the same breath that they threw out hippy rhetoric, which did work. Where they fell flat was the total lack of energy, I could tell their thing was the disinterested but still rebellious attitude of punk, however they were just too placid for punk.

The guitar work was solid and they had an overall good sound reminiscent of the neo-punk movement.

Imagine Dragons (5/6): My vantage point was less than perfect for this show so It was a bit hard to really review their stage show. However, when a band has enough sheer energy to push past even the drunkest, least courteous crowd, that's when you know you have something magical.
And magic it was.
I knew I was in for a rock show unlike any other when I saw the two drum sets and one massive bass drum at the front of the stage. I’d heard enough of their stuff to know it was already drum intensive, but this took the cake.
The music had a pulse; the drums were palpable and gave the music an energetic drive that propelled Imagine Dragon’s already motivational message.
Vocalist, Dan Reynolds is also one of the drummers, which is a rarity. Not only is he a drummer, but also he’s a good drummer. And he doesn't sit behind the drum kit. Over the coerces of the show he ran from drum set to drum set by way of the massive bass drum in the center of the stage. In addition to high-energy drum work there were two other drummers who were equally talented and equally vigorous. Reynolds’ command of the audience was brilliant.
The band overall had a sense of coordination that was quite pleasant.
I had noticed all of this before the encore

And thin they played radioactive, their big radio single. And the energy was physically tangible. The entire au dance in one, eerily articulate voice sang every note down to the breath. It became a force—one mass of power.

That is how a rock show sounds.

I cannot wait to see them again.

Road Trip Show: Coheed and Cambria with Moving Mountains and Pianos Become Teeth at The Canopy Club in Champaign, IL

Venue (3.5/6): The Canopy Club is my kind of venue. It’s small enough to be cozy but large enough to be a proper crowd. It is neither the nicest, nor the cleanest of venues, though it is far from disgusting. It has its own character and charm. The majority of the space is standing room, but it has a balcony for those who want to sit. The layout was comfortable with ample access to bars and merch.  The floor was also divided in such a way as to keep the pit crowd from running up against those who wanted to stand but not mosh.   This was my second time at The Canopy Club and both times I had a perfect line of sight to the stage. It was nice and intimate.

Where The Canopy Club loses points is the horrid sound system.  While it’s not the worst I’ve heard, it is very unforgiving especially on the vocals and produces a lot of noise.

Overall, it’s a fun venue with an intimate, comfortable feel.

The Show:

Opener, the First: Pianos Become Teeth (1/6)— Oh Gods. I think these guys  are the worst live act I’ve seen. The one point they earned is for the drummer who, despite his other band-mates' complete lack of talent, was actually decent.  I retract any statement I’ve made about screamo not needing talent to be decent.  This was noise.  The front man didn’t even have a strong scream and seemed to be either drunk or high out of his mind.  Being smashed isn’t a problem usually, however it impeded his already tenuous ability to preform. I spent the parts of the show wondering if he was going to simply stager and fall right over.  The screaming was just drunk screeching, not the guttural screams that make scream work.  And the back-up vocals were just as bad.  The guitar work was fair at best and the bass work was just wretched. Despite my usual desire to encourage younger bands I ended up actually falling asleep on my feet during this set.

I took a glance at their album work, as many younger bands don’t preform as well live as recorded.  It was better, however, it was still horrible.

Opener, the second: Moving Mountains (3/6)– In the wake of Pianos Become Teeth’s performance, all Moving Mountains had to do was show up and tune their instruments to be an improvement.  They had a very professional, yet still eager attitude toward performing.  All told they were solid. Front man[dude] has a good scream and still mange’s to make the melodies distinct. The one that surprised me was when their hither to subdued bassist let out an eagle-like scream.   They made a good effort to keep their sound solid and get the crowd moving.

All told decent.

Headliner: Coheed And Cambria. (5/6)– Coheed and Cambria is the band that set the bar in my book for top live show. From how articulate front man Claudio Sanchez is to the technically astonishing guitar work and brilliant stage presence, Coheed and Cambria brings a level of showmanship and talent not seen in many artists.  Sanchez has innate confidence but has a willingness to share the spotlight with his band mates and a young lady who I suspect is his wife. He also has a very strong relationship with the fans and knows exactly how to work with the crowd while not slacking off on performing.  In addition to his phenomenal vocal work Sanchez has a gift for guitar work.  The majority of artists I’ve seen who both play and do vocals stick to rhythm guitar as it is much simpler to do when sinning. Not so with Sanchez, he does a great deal of the lead guitar exquisitely.

Guitarist Travis Stever is a marvel in his own right.  He can do things with guitar work that I didn’t know were possible. He is amazingly talented and brings his own magic to the show. His backing vocals also complement Sanchez’s own tenor voice lending an ethereal quality to their overall sound.

Their energy and sound are always amazing to experience. A Coheed And Cambria show is unlike anything else I’ve seen.