If you don’t like being sweaty, being close to people, or getting kicked in the head by a couple crowd surfers, then seeing AWOLNATION live in concert would probably not be a good idea. However, if you don’t mind letting loose and dancing around, having one of the best nights of your life, or wanting to try and crowd surf yourself, then seeing AWOLNATION should definitely be on your to-do list.
AWOLNATION played to a sold out show at Raleigh’s Lincoln Theater on Tuesday, March 19th with openers Mother Mother and Blondfire.
To get the crowd warmed up, the five-piece who call themselves Mother Mother took the stage. The indie rock Vancouver natives were first timers to Raleigh and the crowd welcomed them with open arms. The band did not have much room on stage due to the equipment of the other bands, but they worked with what room they did have to the fullest extent. Vocal duties were shared by guitarist Ryan Guldemond and keyboardists Molly Guldemond and Jasmin Parkin. Ali Siadat manned the drums while Jeremy Page rocked the bass. Mother Mother graced the crowd with a hand full of songs including singles “Bit By Bit” and “Let’s Fall in Love.” Their song “Hayloft” was musically and lyrically catchy and you couldn’t help but find yourself singing along by the end of it, even if you didn’t know the words to it to begin with. They had great energy throughout their set and afterwards they made sure to let the crowd know that they would be waiting to meet everyone at the merchandise table soon after.
Next up were indie rockers from LA, Blondfire. They picked up right where Mother Mother had left off and gave the audience something to be excited about. The brother-and-sister duo of bassist Bruce and vocalist/guitarist Erica Driscoll, guitarist Steve Stout and drummer Kiel Feher had awesome energy and played a number of their songs, including some that you can find on their latest EP including “Hide and Seek” and “Where the Kids Are.” Blondfire also treated the audience to a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dream.” Erica Driscoll’s voice sounded almost identical to Stevie Nicks’ making the cover sound very much like the real thing. The band interacted with the audience throughout their entire set and didn’t leave the stage before they got a picture of the entire crowd that they said they would post to Facebook the next day.
Finally, after a couple minutes of waiting for the set change, the long anticipated AWOLNATION took the stage. As each band member came out on stage, the screams of the crowd got exponentially louder and as lead vocalist Aaron Bruno finally stepped out the audience was deafening. The band opened their set with “Guilty Filthy Soul” and from the very first note the crowd was jumping and moshing. The band played most of their songs from the album Megalithic Symphony including popular singles “Not Your Fault,” “Kill Your Heroes,” and “Sail,” as well as a couple of new ones. “Jump on My Shoulders” was happily received by the crowd who were jumping and shouting back the lyrics to the band. The voices from the audience clearly overpowered Bruno’s vocals and the music coming from guitarist Drew Stewart, keyboardist Kenny Carkeet, bassist Devin Hoffman, and drummer Hayden Scott during “Sail” demonstrating that it is clearly one of their most known and loved songs. Crowd surfers were getting pushed on top of the crowd like nonstop waves that were only egged on throughout the entire set by Bruno. He even posed a challenge to the crowd to see how many girls they could get to crowd surf by the end of one of their songs. Bruno even took a stab at it himself and jumped into the crowd to the excitement of all the screaming fans holding him up. After a 13-song set, the band left the stage leaving the crowd in anticipation of an encore. A few short minutes later, AWOLNATION come back out and Bruno takes a second to thank the crowd for their support. He said that when they were writing these songs they really weren’t expecting many people to believe it in or even like it. The sincerity of his statement really showed how humble of a band they were and that they truly believe in their music and appreciate each and every one of their fans. They finished off their set with an encore performance of “Knights of Shame” and walked off stage to the resounding screams and cheering of the audience.
Leaving the venue, the common phrase that was heard was “That was an awesome show!” AWOLNATION wanted to make this night a night that many people would remember and it seems like that’s exactly what they managed to do.
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