Fast paced? Check. Crowd-surfing lead singer? Check. Lead guitarist standing on kick drum facing the drummer in classic guitar pose? Check. In short, Cage the Elephant brought all the requisites for a good show, especially as this was the best (read: only) stop on the tour. Lead singer Matt Schultz greeted us early with several, “nice to meet you"s and brought enormous energy to the stage, never standing still while belting out his lyrics. Unfortunately the vocals were a little hard to understand at times due to ambient noise, except on those few tracks with the best known, chant-along lyrics, such as “In One Ear” and “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” which features a southern flavored slide guitar intro. As High Dive is a smaller sized venue, Cage the Elephant incited a respectable first fours rows to mosh, which clearly pleased and motivated the performers. Matt Shultz took full advantage of the tight throng of bodies and dove straight into the dancing crowd. We gladly held him up and passed him back to stage when the time to sing was again at hand. All of the band was clearly feeling their music: bobbing heads, moving around stage and at times even leaning on one another. Matt Schultz even playfully used his microphone to sweep the hair out of bassist Daniel Titchenor’s eyes.
I can’t help but feel that the debut album is actually a side project some bigger band assembled so they could play around with new things, something along the lines of Blink 182’s side project Boxcar Racer or The Transplants. The sound has been described as a mating between the White Stripes and the Stooges, but we all know that cross-breeds are sterile. The high point of the show was certainly when Matt Shultz jumped off the stage but instead of crowd surfing he took a couple of seconds to position himself on some fellow’s shoulders and then finished the song atop the crowd who yelled all the louder. This provided some great photos and video for this team until his path wound dangerously close to the photography equipment. Guess that’s how you know its time to put away your camera and go join the crowd.
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he is amazing bro his style can not be touched....some people dont know what he is talking about caz u dont do what he does he is sickkk bra
by dylyn on Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 11.59 am from the entry: Wiz Khalifa: Burn After Rolling (Mixtape)
Wow,Great post.Thanks for sharing with us. land wi
by wisconsin land on Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 09.53 am from the entry: of Montreal + Gang Gang Dance - Orpheum Theatre (Boston, MA; Oct. 30, 2008)
Ugh. Paste’s profile of Free Energy made me kind of hate them. So does your review. It’s this unctuous defense of good-time rock-and-roll ("we’re just here to party, and we’re awesome!") that seems more self-serving than fun-loving.
by beth on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 09.41 pm from the entry: Foreign Born + Free Energy - The Knitting Factory (Brooklyn, NY; Mar. 12, 2010)
that inescapable feeling you are referring to, is that like when you hear something and you could have sworn you heard it before because of the nostalgic catchy quality? or is is like when you’ve heard a band exactly like said band?
great post by the way!
by paul on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 03.15 pm from the entry: The Novel Ideas - "The Sky Is A Field" - Borrow It
Whoa! I had no idea she was enegaged. You would never know with the way she behaves! Wow!
by art on Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 09.48 am from the entry: Nikki Darlin and John McCauley: 1+1=1
This comment stream is so meta. Great review Kelly.
by chris on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 07.50 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
no prob. The whole album is excellent, combining some of the harder sonics of Los Angeles with the meat of his debut and obviously difficult to summarize in only 50 words… 
I’d say it’s on par with the debut, but better than Los Angeles.
by kelly on Tue Mar 16, 2010 at 06.23 pm from the entry: Flying Lotus - "Cosmogramma" - Buy It
this was a great show. You have to love the energy of a band in a venue that size.