Maudlin Strangers (Kilby Court- 10/13/15)

When I saw that Maudlin Strangers were going to be doing a fall tour- which was announced this summer- I hoped with everything I had that they would be coming to Salt Lake City. They were here this past summer and I wasn't able to go because I was grounded; I was really excited, and I vaguely remember jumping out of my bed and doing a happy dance when I saw the dates.

Static Waves and Strange Names opened for them. I had a high playoff game before the concert, so I was late and missed all of Static Waves and the first couple songs for Strange Names. I honestly feel like such a poser asshole when I'm late to concert, even if I have a totally valid reason I still feel like total shit when it happens. But it happened and I am so sorry to Static Waves that I was unable to see their set (even though I know they probably don't really care all that much if one girl missed one show), but I've listened to their music and they are fucking awesome, and  they are a local band so I have already looked up all their upcoming shows to see which ones I might be able to make it to. They're a great band and I hope anyone that reads this will look them up.

Strange Names put on an amazing show, and I even got to interview them, which was amazing. Tyler Glenn, of Neon Trees, was actually at the show to see them play, and if that isn't enough to get you to at least look them up then I don't know what's wrong with you. They are going to be opening for Maudlin Strangers for the rest of their Strange & Strangers tour, so if you have the opportunity to see them please do. They were amazingly polite while I was interviewing them and wanted to make sure that I got what I need for my questions. They are a great group of guys that play kick-ass music. They even laughed at some of the dumb shit I said, which made me feel great ;).

Now to the main attraction: Maudlin Strangers. This was my second time seeing them live, and it was even better the first time- mostly because they got to play a full set, whereas when they opened for Bad Suns they were a lot more limited on time. During the show, Jake- lead singer- said "We're going to play some new, new stuff," then he paused and said, "well I guess this is all new for most of you; is there anyone it's not new for?" I shyly raised my hand, and he looked at me and said "oh, we've got one; and you've got the shirt to prove it!" I was wearing my white Maudlin Strangers T-shirt that I bought when I saw them with Bad Suns, and- after drawing attention to myself in front of the 20 or so people that were there- a nice shade of red across my face. But one of my favorite parts of the concert was, after Jake had broken a string on his guitar, Francis- from Strange Names- saved the day by letting Jake use his guitar; I found it kind of adorable.

After the concert was done, I facetimed my friend Bella- who lives in New York and loves Maudlin Strangers- with Richie- the drummer- and she freaked out. I ended up staying on there with her for about 20 minutes; she got to talk to all of the guys and even ended up being in a random girl's picutre with the band after Jeff- the human form of the mustache man emoji, guitarist, and keyboardist- had my phone in his hand while they all posed for the picture; the best part of that was Bella just yelling repeatedly through the phone "Who is that? Who is she? Who are those girls?" I stayed at the venue until they left, and it was actually really cool just to watch them pack up. They were saying it was really boring and I must hate it, but I loved seeing behind the scenes a little bit; most bands have a crew that pack up their stuff, or if they do pack it up themselves it's only a some of the members that are lugging around equipment while the others do God knows what, but with Maudlin Strangers, they packed it all up as a team. They would talk out how it show fit together, what should go where, and joked around. Each of them was just kept singing Dead Inside by Muse, but not the whole song just "dead inside"- if you've heard how Matt Bellamy sings it in the song, they you'll understand why it's so amusing; Richie told Bella and me not the do any of the bad drugs, the worst of which being smoking sea turtle; and Richie danced with his sexy legs for us. And then later in their Snapchat story, Richie was dancing, while drinking a Modelo (he'd mentioned he wanted to get beer), and singing "dead inside"; I felt like that Snap was meant for me.

They all just really made an effort to get to know me, at least a little bit, and it really means a lot when the people you look up to most give a shit about what you have to say. I'm just going to leave it at that, because I have now starting crying but all the kids out there who know how it feels to be so isolated and alone- even if you have people all around you but you just can't connect with them- know how it feels when someone actually tries to be there for you. It made me never want to leave, because I haven't really wanted to talk to people in a long time, but I never wanted to stop talking to them. And now that I'm just bawling I'm really going to stop, but just thank you guys.

My favorite thing about Maudlin Strangers is just their humility- except Richie who, after the show, asked me, "We're the best band you've ever seen, right?" And even though he was kidding- at least I assume- I sat there trying to think of someone better, and it's a really difficult thing to do. They are just great performers; they have amazing chemistry that you don't see with a lot of other bands, because they're actually really good friends off the stage as well- or at least they're amazing at faking it. Jeff also came up to me later and said, "Are you buttongirl22?" (that is my twitter handle) and I felt pretty cool, even though I knew it was only because I'd tweeted him asking when each band was going to be going on. I hope the guys know that I'm in this for the long haul, and by that I mean that every time they come to Salt Lake City, I will be there to shyly raise my hand- unless I'm grounded or have a soccer game, obviously. :P

Static Waves' Website
Strange Names' Website
Maudlin Strangers' Webiste

(I'm sorry that some of this turned into a mushy cryfest on my part, but I just started writing and didn't want to erase those parts of this post. I have just had some pretty deep shit happen lately and this band has happened to be coincidentally involved in a lot of it, the timeline just worked out that way- which I didn't actually realize until just not.)