Early Morning Blues Threepeat ~ Exile From Conformity

Does this make me a groupie yet? I think per one definition you're supposed to sleep with the band which is so not the case so maybe not. Still, 3 trips to Boston to see these guys play has got to count for something.

Since I never seem to have real time on these trips, I took the red eye out of Seattle trying to get to Atlanta in time to fly to Boston that AM. First flight out and I touched down gunning on about 4 hours of sleep totally for two days. I was in rare form. There was a fun moment explaining the T to a non-Boston native on the airport shuttle. I think I'm here too much now hmm?

Rana grabbed me and there was a trek to get our tattoos done and then off to the show. We met up with Victoria there (who I think needed my coaxing to show up) and ran into the two girls who run the EMB fan twitter, Courtney and Commie. So we had our own little group of girls to hang with even if I am more than a decade older than most of them.

It was a full line up of bands that I'd either somewhat heard of (Ghost Thrower & Lions Lions) or that I'd researched a little beforehand. A couple of the early bands were young, but with a lot of energy. They were going for getting the crowd jumping, which was really impressive. It reminded me of Matt from Cage the Elephant actually. He's sort of changed the way I look at that sort of stage work. (Meaning I get a lot more out of it.)

My biggest take aways from the night were obviously Ghost Thrower and Early Morning Blues though.

Ghost Thrower never fails to disappoint. I think there's something about Travis Alexander, the lead singer, dressed in a white undershirt and cuffed skinny jeans that doesn't make you think he'd have that sort of powerful noise that GT has, but he does and it's always good. I really enjoyed their set, and reminded myself, again, that I still need to pick up that EP package. Definitely recommend them.

Early Morning Blues was working with a slightly new line up. Nick Conway from A View From An Airplane has joined, taking Danny's place. He played with them at the Levi's acoustic show, but in Travis' stead, not Danny's. There's some shifting obviously and it's a little bit of a bummer to not see Danny on stage, but Nick won us over pretty quick. First he's a really nice guy and second (possibly more importantly?), his voice lends to Bryan's really well. Adding him on vocals a is a definite perk. There were some tweaks to the songs, a longer bridge on Chapter One and Never Leave, but all it did was make both songs just a little bit better. Never Leave in particular just sounded extra great.

After we caught some time with Bryan (and throughout the night as well, but longer at the end). I was surprised to see that he'd managed to get the bracelet I'd given him last time back on after taking it off for work. He explained it but I still handed over the back up one I'd made (this one came with a clasp). He seemed to really like the metal version and though it took us a moment to get it on he didn't get nearly as frustrated as I did.

Travis jumped into the conversation and won himself a hug for the effort. He asked if it was my second show, and I corrected him to say third. He's forgiven on forgetting the first since I didn't meet him after. He said "oh right third," then held up four fingers instead. I'm guessing that means show up again kT. We did talk about my birthday, to which Travis decided to change my sign from Leo to Virgo so it would mesh better with his and then I pointed out how old I'm going to be and Travis stared at me like I was insane. "I wouldn't have guessed a day over 22." Bryan just smiled. I think he'd sorted out that I was older already or he's just so stealth with his reactions that he kept it in check.

I said hi to Nick when he came to talk to Bryan, half introducing myself. I told him we'd tweeted back and forth some the other day, and when I told him my user name he nodded. "Oh yeah, Bryan was telling me about you." That got Bryan a look from me and he just sort of smiled and looked away with a shrug. "You talk about us all the time, spread the word. I figure I can do the same for you. It's like a mutual talking about thing." I'm not sure what I did to deserve promotion, but apparently I've got EMB out there promoting some kT action.

Bryan made sure he gave me some tips on bands playing in Atlanta (though I might have suggested he show up at Music Midtown since it is a good set) and we talked tattoos a little more. He made a tattoo parlor suggestion as well (I'm up to like three different places in ATL that I'm supposed to check out) and I mentioned that I liked his Star Wars tattoo. Of course he was impressed that I knew the logo and I asked if he was a closet nerd. He said yes, then shook his head, out of the closet. Mad props for the nerds.

Another perfect night that was 100% worth the lack of sleep leading into a drive to camp Saturday afternoon. It's nice to feel loved and welcome. Though nothing tops being spotted by Bryan and as soon as he sees me he comes over for hugs and to make sure my trip was good. Really can't get better than these guys, not in a million years.