Racing on a faultline

All right, before I get into the amazingness that was the MuteMath show last night, let me begin by making the blanket statement that being at a concert by yourself is not nearly as fun as if you're with people. That's all I'm gonna say on that.

Now, to the show. Doors were supposed to open at 6:30, actually opened at 7, and the show started around 7:45. One of my biggest pet peeves proceeded to take place: 3 opening acts, two of which were unadvertised. Uber lame. The first one was a Nashville band, Call Me Mister, who were surprisingly good for an opener to the opener to the opener. Next came The Futurists, who were overall pretty painful to listen to and had this attitude of "Hey, we're from Albuquerque, NM, and we're playing with MuteMath in Nashville, so we can do whatever we want." Seriously, it was on each of their faces. At the end of their set, the drummer threw a stick into the crowd, and whoever caught it threw it back at him! It hit him too, it was amazing. That should tell you how much everyone liked them.

The main opener was Working Title, a band with one too many guitars, but weren't terrible to listen to, and I can see why MuteMath has them on the whole tour. Enough of that though, cause around 10, MM hit the stage.

They opened with "Chaos", from their new LP, a great way to get going. Their drummer came out wrapping duck tape around his head, which made him look like a mental patient, and it totally fit him, because that guy was sick. Seriously, some of the most ridiculous drumming I've ever heard/seen. The followed Chaos with "Typical", again from the new LP, which included Paul Meany jumping off the keys of his keyboard to make these chords that somehow fit the song. They kept going like this throughout the night, with Paul switching from keyboard to keytar to percussion and back. They were all over the stage playing different stuff. Other songs I remember from the night are "Control", "Peculiar People" (during which Paul threw his wife into the crowd to surf with a vide camera), "Stare at the Sun", "Plan B" "Noticed", "Without It", and "Picture". So, basically, they played everything off the new album (except Stall Out, which is one my favorites) and a few off the old. All of these songs were connected by these amazing jam sessions that were dang sweet. At one point, Paul took the cover off his keyboard (It's more than a keyboard though, I don't know the real name, but it has strings and everything) and jumped up and down on the strings to make the chords. Unreal. They closed the night with "Break the Same", which rocked real hard, and led to a percussion solo that involved the drummer standing on top of Paul's keyboard-thing, with the top still off, and Paul's stool tipped over on top it too, and playing rhythms on the stool, a mic stand, and a warped metal disc while Paul beat away on a bass drum and the guitar player sent the same note through a distorter and the bass player played a high hat or something. It was amazing. For the encore they played "Reset", the instrumental from the EP that was, again, ridiculous, sick, etc...

Probably the only thing I didn't like about the show was the crowd mood. I could tell that everyone liked the music, and the applause at the end of the show definitely represented that, but hardly anyone got into it. There were times when I wanted to just jump around during a chorus or something, and I look around and maybe four people have the same idea. And I wasn't about to start doing it by myself, as I was by myself and had no one to do it with. So I stood there, trying so hard not to just start flying all over the place.

In conclusion, if MuteMath is ever playing anywhere within an hour of you, go to the show; it is like looking into the face of God and seeing Him smiling back at you, saying, "You are my most wondrous creation."