Music: *Spotlight* – Twin Sister

 

Twin Sister

 

 

I had to do an entry on this band.

Having only heard them once, and live for that matter, I instantly fell in love with their style. Very dream-like theme & feel, with mellow and gentle use of voices, very creative melodies and lyrics, Twin Sister is an impressive Indie band.

 

Color Your Life Album

Vampire with Dreaming Kids EP

Currently, this band only had one EP and an album. The band consists of 5 members: Andrea Estella on vocals, keyboardist Dev Gupta, bassist Gabe D’Amico, guitarist-singer Eric Cardona, and drummer Bryan Ujueta. They formed in 2008 on Long Island, but have since moved to Brooklyn. They are currently on tour.

They have a solid band and the use of instruments is amazing. Considering that they have only such a short amount of songs, all of them are just wonderful to listen to.

4 Songs I Recommend:

- I Want a House
- All Around and Away We Go
- Phenomenons
- Ginger

Pay them a visit at their website. They’re a real treat of a band.

Music: Special Review – The Morning Benders Concert (Wednesday 3 November 2010)

The Morning Benders

Oh YES.

Having missed the first round of tours due to the fact that they didn’t come anywhere near my state (And who could blame them… not much to see or do here, really), they surprised all of their fans by doing a second tour for the year. Lucky enough, they hit two cities in the Ohio/Kentucky area: Newport and Columbus.

Now, I would’ve went to both, but I had just gotten back from out-of-town (Went to the Rally for Sanity/Fear in DC, which I will blog about later) and had a small family emergency while being gone, so I could not hit up both concerts. However, I was lucky enough to hit Columbus and I was certainly quite glad that I did.

The Basement is in downtown Columbus, not far from the renowned campus, The Ohio State University (I still have no clue what the hell “The” is in there for). It was a pretty cold night and a random, middle of the week concert at that. When a close friend of mine and myself arrived at the venue, we were pretty damn surprised at the fact that it was somewhat empty. I, having not been to the venue before, was surprised at just how small it was. It was, literally, in a basement. Concert posters were plastered over the walls, while a bar rested towards the middle of the room, the stage being placed towards the front of the entrance. The stage, itself, was up close and personal. The band was there for all to see. Considering that we got there pretty early, I had the perfect chance to get up front, as that had been my goal along, for this concert. I was happy that I did.

Oberhofer

Starting off the concert was a band called Oberhofer. I’ve never heard of the band before, but let me tell you that your ears are in for a very interesting mixture of music if you look them up. The sound is a mixture of wails and creative rhythms and melodies. It has a certain kind of innocence, yet truthful reality to the lyrics as well. The band is pretty friendly and loving towards the crowd from what I can tell. Jokes were made and the guitarist near the xylophone was talking to the crowd like it was normal. It was an interesting opener to watch.

Twin Sister

Now the next band was a bit of a surprise. I had heard so much about this band from many other fans, but I had never looked them up. After seeing them in this concert, I must say as soon as I got home, I looked them up all over the Internets. Twin Sister is a treat of an Indie band. Lovely voice from the lead singer, Andrea, with her range of vocals for each song, and the solid sounds from the band itself made me instantly fall in love. The sound was fantastic and definitely lovely to listen to. I hope they return to have their own tour, as I would gladly attend. My friend said the same.

Explains Itself...

Don’t get me wrong. The previous bands were quite nice and cool to see, even with not knowing much about them. But the whole purpose of me buying those tickets was strictly for what I have called my all-time favorite band, The Morning Benders.

If you haven’t looked them up, seriously. Do it. Since I reviewed their album that was released earlier this year, Big Echo, and having fell in love with them on the spot, it would only be enviable that I would try my damnedest to see them in concert before I died.

To give myself a personal surprise, I refused to look at any reviews of previous concerts that they have done. I was already in shock that I was able to actually see them so closely. I mean, I was right up front. If I wanted, I could’ve reached out and touched Chris Chu’s shoe, but I figured that would be uncool, so I held in my urge. They put on a wonderful show. They chatted with the crowd, had pointed out that they had seen some familiar faces from the Newport concert, asked for a bottle of water and got it from a fan, and enjoyed our ambiance.

Not really wanting to focus on any of their pervious works, this concert stayed on course with playing mostly songs from their Big Echo album. Two treats from Talking Through Tin Cans was put in that mix, Waiting for a War and Boarded Doors, with a new song called Virgins for an encore and an awesome cover of Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.

The Morning Benders

I must say that I was a happy camper that whole night. I sang along to pretty much every song, nearly had a heart attack when they played my favorite song off the of the album, Stitches, and I mean…. who would not nearly faint like some chick back in the 50s & 60s at a face like this?

Look at that lovely, yet tired face!

They ended off the concert with their well-known song, the song that pretty much made them famous all over the world, Excuses. It was a wonderful experience. Chris asked the whole crowd to sing along, using a maraca to single when we were all suppose to join in with “La La,” everyone pretty much singing along even after the song ended. He enjoyed the crowd so much that he proclaimed that they would return to Columbus for their next tour, and I pray that they do indeed keep that promise.

Taking a quick look back into the crowd, as I was curious to know just how many people were there, I found that it was packed. It having started off an empty venue and then a random explosion of people appeared after about a good hour. This picture explains it all:

Such a lovely crowd

It was a pretty well-behaved, chill and active crowd. Mixed with some pretty neat age ranges. There were humans from ages 16 to 35. That made it even more of a pleasant experience. After the concert was done, the bands headed towards the back of the venue to sign posters, take pictures, pass out music and t-shirts. I was able to snag a Morning Benders t-shirt, signed poster from Chris and a photo. I haven’t taken pictures of the shirt and poster yet, but I will update this as soon as I do. As for the photo with Chris, well… I need to get my friend to send me a copy of it (YOU HEAR THAT, STU?!).

A night to remember, I must say.

(Pictures were taken by a girl who also attended the concert, Ada G. Matusiewicz. She was a cool looking chick quietly maneuvering through the crowd with her fancy camera. She captured my views of the concert without me having to ask. I don’t even know the girl and I must say that she had to be reading my mind or something. Lovely pics, dear).