Yet Another Show and No Guitar?

We hit another live show last weekend. Hell, that's all I seem to write about these days. But to be honest, hitting shows is the only interesting thing I seem to have going on right now. Besides a trio of Red Sox games I plan on catching in Kansas City in early April, the only other thing I have to be excited about in the very near future is another show which I paid a pretty penny for. But we'll talk about that one later.

Last weekend, KJ and I caught the VD Party (Valentine's Day Party, get your mind of the gutter) in DT Kansas City. The motivation for this show wasn't so much for the bands playing but the price. It was absolutely free, well, minus the gas money and the parking garage....and the meal we ended up having at Chipotle which was scrumptious. (Yay, tacos.) But anyway, the show itself was free and you really can't pass that up.

The headliner was OK Go, a band I've never really listened to. Going in, I thought I only knew one song, turns out I know two. The band I was looking forward to seeing was Company of Thieves who we caught at the free Halloween show with Our Lady Peace. (Refer to Slutterfly, Slumblebee, Slirate, and Our Lady Peace.) It was quite a bit different not seeing them in their Wizard of Oz get ups but they put on another great show and busted out a few new tunes.

The band I was really impressed with was called Crash Kings. I'd never heard them and had no idea what to expect. When they first came on and I saw they were a three piece I was a little skeptical. From my experience it seems that a lot of three piece bands, especially up and coming bands, sound too hollow and incomplete without those layers that I so crave. My skepticism went up a couple of notches when I noticed there was no guitar player, just keyboards.

But they proved not to need one. Hell, half the songs sounded as if there was one, or two. With the crunching bass, drums, one hand rocking the rhythm on one keyboard, and the other hand rocking the solo (The thing even had a giant whammy bar! I know it's nothing new for a keyboard to sound like another instrument, but damn, it was still pretty cool to watch.) they filled out really well and were actually pretty heavy sounding in some places. The recorded versions, not so much, but I recommend checking them out anyway.

Maybe I'll go play some guitar now that I have the place to myself for a little while longer. I'll probably just end up falling asleep on the couch with the Olympics on. Not so rockin', but it's been a long week.

Rock on!