Getting tickets to this event was work and a lot of luck. The club only handles four hundred and there were only about a hundred people if that who got tickets so far as I could figure. Got mine in the Music school raffle. Met a guy who was sixth in line out of thirty at a store than only had six. Met a woman who only got tickets because her friends saw the line at a record store and figured it out in time to grab a spot. And met someone who knew someone who knew someone in the band. So you already felt pretty blessed to be in the house. Then I got up to the rail . What you see up there is so different in a venue this small, particularly at this club where the stage is only about two feet off the ground. There just isn't much of a wall physically or psychologically. If an eyebrow goes up, you see it. If a guy is frustrated with a lick, you see it. If Thom throws a grin at the crowd, you can feel it. It can't help but be intimate.
These are guys at the top of their game but still risking it all to do something different. A few things went wrong, and I'm only mentioning it because it was part of why the set was so outstanding. A mike came apart twice. Thom slipped once. Someone in the crowd was talking and Thom told them to shut up. A few songs are works in progress. Words on a music stand. That kind of stuff. We got to see a tiny bit of the process. And it was an inspiration to see the way they care and the intensity of their dedication. You know you're hearing music that will change the way you hear music from now on. You change period. You aren't the same going out as you were when you came in.
I don't want to just gush but really, this band is force of nature. If this is what it's like to run Amok, you guys go.
