It is a delicate operation; the reviewing of friend-bands... Nests features one of my inner-circle friends playing a very non-traditional instrument; Benny on the Singing Saw. I had missed my first opportunity to see Nests at Market a few weeks back, so I was very glad I had the chance to do so now. It made my heart all warm and fuzzy that some of my closest friends were right up front with me, in clear Ben-Ben-View... It felt very intimate and special. Nests has a very distinct sound you pretty much have to be really in the mood for... the technicality of the music is flawless, well written, perfectly performed, certainly unique; the mood of the music is ...I dunno... spooky! the songs, without the singing saw would be almost drone-y (read:shoegazer?), lonesome cowboy sings the blues-ish. With the addition of the saw, everything is haunted. In fact I at one point had to ask Roo if tir na nog was, in fact, haunted. It was hard to ignore the intensity of the mood. It's almost impossible for me to remain completely unbiased and objective here because I have so much love for Benny. It's hard not to gush about my out-of-bounds pride in his accomplishments. I have a very special place in my heart for this man. I can't tell you the number of 5 minute drunken life changing conversations we've had in the darkest corners of Jackpot. I couldn't help but get a bit choked up during this performance because I'm not sure I know of a person more deserving of all their dreams coming true. I personally, am not a huge fan of the alt-country genre, but good tunes are good, (obvious statements are obvious,) and I enjoyed this set- but i'm not going to lie, I still can't tell if it's because of the music or the pride...?
Roo was very sure I would like and should definitely check out Jenna Smith. I had apparently seen her at a LBLB months before, but must have had one of those KA-Patented-drunk-wanderings-offish nights. I do remember (after roo reminded me) it was the night I met Jeremy from Nests! Hey hey - full circle! I was right up from with Jonny and Sarah and we barely stopped talking through the whole set because we just couldn't stop talking about how adorable and amazing she is! As I remember, the original set we had seen was Jenna and an acoustic guitar only. Adding the rest of the Jintlemen (Zack, Adam, and Nick from Annuals, Johnny Hobbs, and her brother Shane from the Windsor Oaks Band,) kicked the mood into a frenzy. Well, okay frenzy might be pushing it. Well, okay the last song was a flipping frenzy... Unexpected amazingness! After the last song blow-out, Jonny and I start fist-pumping and screaming "AGAIN AGAIN!" - I turned to roo and literally said “Goddamn! If that was just playing on my ipod I would hit REPEAT!” - That is a frenzy. However the rest of the set hovered somewhere around adorable/swingy/funky/rockin'/ and all back to adorable again...
Yup, Nick.
We couldn't help but play fashion police during this show. (ps - Jonny t, i swear to god i don't want to ever go to another show without you again. too much fun!) Completely shallow and hilarious observations about this crew: Jenna: OMG BOOT ENVY. can she get any more precious? Cutest thing ever. Johnny: totally one of the cutest dudes in Raleigh. want to squish his face off. then possibly make out with that face. Nick: FACE IS AT 92% BEARD CAPACITY.
After the show i ran into Mike, one of the certifiable Gray Young Army members, who missed the last show, I made sure THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.
ANGERRRRRRRRRR!
miscellaneous addendum: Schooner at King's Friday night... SHOW FAIL. I am so mad at myself. I was asleep by 11. I said no more apologizing to bands, but dammit you guys, I'm sorry. I suck. :(
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