Modern Minstrels

American Analog Set

Last night Nick and I went to see The American Analog Set at Bottom of the Hill. I hadn't even heard of them until about a week ago when Nick told me he had tickets to the show. He hooked me up with some mp3s, and I liked what I heard so I said I'd join him for the show.

Nick and I met up with his friends Doug and Zach at the show. We were there about an hour before the show started, so we talked for a while and checked out the merch table. I decided to buy their 2001 album, Know By Heart, since I had already listened to it 3 or 4 times in the week I had the mp3s from Nick and it contains my favorite song by them, The Postman.

The first band of the night was a fun local band called Scrabbel. Their music wasn't anything mind blowing, but it wasn't at all bad either. I quite enjoyed the cello and maracca that looked like an orange. Being the night before Halloween, the band members were dressed in various costumes and you could tell they were having a really fun time playing.

The next band was a local all female group, Vervein. They also had a cellist and played an enjoyable, fairly mellow set. The main thing I remember from their set is the singer dedicating a song to "the guy wearing a leotard, that takes balls...and we can all see them."

And finally we were treated to The American Analog Set. I was quite happy when they played The Postman for their second song. Partway through the set, someone called out for Punk As Fuck, which is another of my favorite songs. Sadly they said they said that song was for the previous night's show. However, the person that requested it said back that they would have been there last night, but he the show was a 21 and over only show, so Andrew said something like they'd think about it. A little while later Nick called out for Aaron and Maria and Andrew laughed and jokingly replied, "I love how you said that with so much hope when you knew the answer was going to be no. It was like you were saying, can I have $20?" The band gave a shout out to Elise of Indie Pop Rocks who was at the show, which I thought was cool. After they had finished their set and left the stage everyone was still clapping, so they came back on and played Punk As Fuck for the encore!

This was most certainly the most mellow show I've been to, but I greatly enjoyed it and Know by Heart is going to be getting some heavy play in iTunes for a good long while.