The Calm Blue Sea at NEU+RAL Concert Review
Allan and I went to see The Calm Blue Sea Monday night at NEU+RAL. While the tickets were basically a steal ($5 to see three bands including TCBS–Sleep for the Nightlife and Reverse Mount Rushmore), there weren’t many people there…I think maybe not more than 20. Nonetheless the music played that night was great! Unfortunately we did have to skip out on Reverse Mount Rushmore due to some circumstances.
I have to say off the bat that I have been to a few post-rock shows and I have never been to a show that ever sucked. I get easily disappointed with the pop bands that I see live, and that could be because of the acoustics of the venue or maybe they just truly suck ass. It is always guaranteed that a post-rock show will never be disappointing, and that probably lies in the fact that it’s all instrumental so they really need to know how to play, and do.
Neither of us had ever been to NEU+RAL before. It’s a pretty small club in the basement of a building on College Street, but the acoustics of the place isn’t so bad. Sleep for the Nightlife, hailing from our very own Toronto, Ontario, played first, but we only got to see half of their set (we were a little late, on my account. Sorry Allan 
). I had never heard of them before besides some MySpace songs the night before the show, but they were quite entertaining and personable performers onstage. They played a few songs I recognized from their MySpace, including “i heart pandas.” They have more of a jazz- and metal-influenced, fast-paced appeal (I was reminded of The Samuel Jackson 5 often), which kept me on my feet throughout the entire set. I think towards the end of the set, the tempo started getting a little off, but I can’t place any blame because I would never be able to keep up that kind of pace if I was playing the drums like that for an hour.
The Calm Blue Sea came on next playing songs from both their albums. I was actually surprised (and a wee disappointed, not to dis the other band) they were the second band because they are most popular of the three (loosely according to MySpace hits, anyway). Unfortunately, it being two days after the actual show, I’ve forgotten what they started off with, but I do remember they played a few of my favourites from both their debut and Siegfried (we reviewed it here). I really was ecstatic to hear “Literal,” only the microphone was on way too low to hear the vocals. Damn you, sound guy! But all is good. Their performance was awesome, and everyone was so into the music. We ended up hearing some pretty awesome tunes such as “We Happy Few,” “The Meeting”/”The River that Runs Beneath this City,” “The Treasure,” and “The Contest.” And as soon as they came, the soon they left. I believe their set was about an hour, which doesn’t ever seem long enough when it is music you enjoy. I wished they could play longer though, but seeing as they were sandwiched between two other bands, it’s understandable that they couldn’t. I’m a bit disappointed that they were sandwiched between the two bands, leaving little (or no possibility, really) for an encore, despite there being just a few of us. I’m sure I’m definitely not alone when saying this, since someone from the crowd yelled out, “One more!” I couldn’t have agreed more.
We recorded some tracks but I suppose we were standing too close to the speakers as my crappy camera compressed a lot of the sound, making it sound really distorted. I always feel bad about taking pictures of bands playing live, just because I think the flashes from the camera are distracting and blinding…but enjoy the few pictures we took that night in the “more” link below.
Here is the rest of the band’s tour schedule:
The Calm Blue Sea’s Remaining Fall ‘09 Tour Schedule
Sept 9 @ Brillobox – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – 9pm
Sept 10 @ Bernie’s – Columbus, Ohio – 9pm-
Sept 11 @ Convenant Church – Cincinnati, Ohio – 8pm
MP3s:
The Calm Blue Sea – Literal
The Calm Blue Sea – The Treasure
The Calm Blue Sea – The Cross
Tags: concert
