Old Shoes/1985/Earl Grey Hot Tour Kickoff

Last Friday night Old Shoes, 1985 and Earl Grey Hot kicked off their northwest tour at the Missoula Public Library. I hosted the show on behalf of the library, and 20 people showed up, despite a lack of advertising. Here's the pictures:

Old Shoes

1985

Earl Grey Hot

Casiotone For The Painfully Awkward

First things first, I was very excited for this show. I'm fairly new as a fan of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, but everything I've heard from him has gotten me excited. I went down to the Crazy Daisy right after I finished work and unfortunately missed Old Shoes, but was right on time to catch Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. I really dug their singing saw, and the music was good, pretty low key, but still good. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it through the show without a little help, so as soon as they finished their set I rushed to the gas station to grab some Sparks and Pabst. I returned to catch the last two songs from my friend Matt, who plays under the name 1985. I was bummed I missed most of his set, but since I'm seeing him play again on Friday I figured it was worth it to have a few drinks.
Purrbot was up next. I think Nathan may be one of, if not the, most consistent live acts in Missoula right now. I have yet to see him really butcher a song, or seem uncomfortable on stage. And the fact he writes some great songs helps too. He joked around throughout his set, which lightened the mood of his otherwise heavy material.

Finally, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone took the stage. It was a shame that the crowd (minus Mike, John and myself) decided to remain seated through his whole set. He kept making comments about how he wasn't sure how dancy songs would be received and had trouble with his audio mix. He thought he needed to play very quietly and seemed very reserved. The music was great, however. It was really amazing to watch him recreate his songs in a live setting. I especially enjoyed his cover of Graceland, which he ended his set with. Had the crowd not been so incredibly awkward, the show would have been even better.