Welcome back to school! Now, I am going to have to go ahead and ask you what you did for break, since that is what everyone does.
However, since this is the newspaper and I cannot hear your response, I am just going to skip ahead to the part where I tell you about the really awesome concert(s) I went to.
Thanks to some very awesome people, including my boss, Peter Kreten, and my boyfriend, Bryan, I was able to experience Of Monsters and Men (OMAM) live, not once but twice!
On Sunday, December 16. thanks to Peter and his friend from JBTV, Kyle, I was able to get into the taping of the JBTV show with OMAM at the last minute. In return, I of course had to sell my soul to him, but it was very worth it.
When I first arrived to the JBTV studio, I was escorted upstairs to the lobby. I could go on and on about all the amazing things they have in the lobby, however since this is an article about OMAM, I will not gush about the lobby too much.
However, I will tell you, the walls, the ceiling, everything is covered in albums, posters, and even a straight-jacket that are all signed by bands. I would really love to have a day to just walk around in there and look at everything.
Besides having an insanely cool deco, everyone that worked there was so kind. Even though they were all running around trying to pull everything together, they still stopped to introduce themselves or to tell me to help myself to a Vitamin Water.
I even met Jerry Bryant, the founder of JBTV!
After much waiting, we were finally let into the stage area. This room was so much smaller than I had expected! I had seen an episode or two of JBTV and I never thought it was such a small room.
However, it was nice, because it gave the show a really intimate feeling. Unfortunately for everyone else, not everyone was able to get into the actual room to watch it live, however I was there and only a mere three feet from the stage.
The set was short, but I was not worried, because I knew that I would be seeing them the next night at the Riviera. I saw the set list before OMAM took the stage and they would be playing “Slow and Steady”, “Love Love Love”, “Mountain Sound” and “Six Weeks”.
If you are a fan of OMAM, you may be thinking, “What? They did not play their biggest single ‘Little Talks’?” Calm down, of course they did. It was the last song; they just wanted to “surprise” everyone.
The entire time they played, I had goosebumps, because their voices truly are very beautiful. When they spoke, which was rare, it was a little difficult to understand what they were saying. However when they sang, their lyrics were not lost in the language barrier.
If you want to see their episode of JBTV, just head to jbtvonline.com and search “Of Monsters and Men”.
The next night I saw OMAM at the Riveria Theater. If you have ever seen a concert here before, you know that their sound is not the greatest. Therefore, I had low expectations for the show.
However, I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself actually understanding the lyrics being sung and my eardrums were not getting completely blown out.
Since this was the second night for OMAM at the Riviera, they had most likely worked out any kinks, which gave us the better of the two shows.
The show was even better than I could have imagined. They played for about an hour and a half to two hours, which seemed like a very long time, but I was not about to complain.
Of course they left the stage and people called for an encore, where they then came back and played three more songs.
Overall, Of Monsters and Men are a great band to see live. They keep the talking between songs to a minimum, which is fine with me, because I am there to see them play music, not listen to a monologue.
And if you have ever heard them on the radio or heard their album, their voices are really just as awesome live as they are in the studio versions.
This was one of the best concerts I have seen in a while and you better bet I will be there the next time they are in Chicago!
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