Perhaps the best time I will have had in Minneapolis/St.Paul was tonight as I saw, coincidentally,
Themes perform their last show as a Minnesota band. If you know Themes (yeah, Box Awesome!), you know that they are constantly on tour. Coming to the Twin Cities, I was more than delighted to see that they would be playing at the
7th Street Entry and could not miss the chance to reverse the roles for a change. I drove around the block quite a few times, looking for somewhere to park in this city as a huge mass of Hanson fans waited to get into First Avenue in the unusually warm late September night. Upon my third time around, at the stop light I saw Jacy, stared at him a little, waiting for recognition as well as a green light. You know, great surprise... point, holy shit what are you doing here?, GREEN LIGHT. I finally found a spot a few blocks away (although with how many times I went around that block and how much gas I probably wasted, it might as well have been several blocks away) and eventually met up with Jacy, Kelsey and Hannah from
A Whisper in the Noise (now playing violin with Themes) at O'Donovan's patio.
Later, as I watched them perform many new and great familiar older songs, I began to feel nostalgia for a stage and environment that was familiar to me. Themes has been through Lincoln so many times and were always straightforward and kind. Their warmth and passion for their creations is apparent as they seem the same people, very comfortable in their own skin, at home and elsewhere. The point is, without getting too gushy, that these people (among many other greats who have traveled as musicians through Nebraska and, even more importantly,
Box Awesome) are really good people and I enjoy my time with them. I began to feel even more at home in a new city. Seeing them in their own environment was a great sight, especially being that this was their last show before going on tour with
Minus the Bear, recording new material and making an eventual move to Portland. They will be back here Oct 15th at the
Varsity Theater in Dinkytown and I am sure that we will see them again soon back home, hopefully very soon.
side note: Mogwai's
Martin Bulloch has a pacemaker with problems?