Cloud Cult - Neumos (Seattle, WA; May 9, 2008)

So my friend Jim and I have this inside phrase called “going Plan Alpha,” which means doing something, almost always ill-advised, without a second thought, and give it 110% effort, even though the end result will usually be horrible. Last Friday night, I had a terrible head cold, my photographer had an even worse one, and I’d just found out that the show had been postponed until midnight. After telling my photographer to stay home, I found myself armed with a very small, slight broken digital camera and $20 in my pocket. I wanted to go home, but a couple of big, nagging thoughts were preventing me from doing so. First, in case you’re not familiar, Cloud Cult is an awesome band! Sure, sometimes they’re a bit low-key and mournful, but they’re always ready to mishmash genres and muck up some musical expectations. Lots of fun! Also, I’d never seen them live before and there was this pesky little quote I read in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where singer Craig Minowa said, “I don’t think there’s going to be another Cloud Cult album for a while. It could be never, I don’t know.” So this could be my only chance. Totally time to go Plan Alpha! Now I’m not telling you this in order to brag about my melophobe journalistic cohunes (if I wanted to do that, I would just draw a graph of the Earth, my cohunes, and the Sun), but to set the stage for a concert that had every indication of being horrible, yet turned out to be amazing!

“Hi, this is Cloud Cult,” Minowa greeted the excited crowd, packed inside Neumos for the late show, “and this is our third show in Seattle today! So… Now we’re warmed up!” So apparently I wasn’t the only one going Plan Alpha… Minowa, dressed to impress in a masquerade mask propped above his wide, almost manically joyful eyes, and his six band mates (if you count soon to be painting painters) seemed to radiate a steady, if doggedly upbeat, momentum. The stage boasted some impressive stage lights and two huge easels, with large blank canvases at the ready for who-knows-what (probably painting). That was something I haven’t seen before at Neumos… As the band launched into several opening songs, including a pounding rendition of “Pretty Voice” from their excellent The Meaning of 8 album, complete with the audience singing along, “There are no words / But there is understanding.” Trumpet player Scott West and Minowa’s small wife began to furiously paint the canvases, almost in time with the music, as the sound swelled. Faces began to take shape in the paint, and the veins began to stand out on Minowa’s neck as he belted out, “It’s the feeling that you’ve lost it / What don’t you get? What don’t you get?” from “That Man Jumped Out the Window,” which turned into an all out rock fest.

Stopping momentarily to introduce his wife, Connie, and the rest of his band, Minowa went on to tell the grinning audience, “Connie has the flu, but said she said she wouldn’t miss Seattle! Also our trumpet player Scott West’s dog is dying. He really loves that dog a lot. Really really loves it, but he felt the same way.” Minowa also went on to tell, (no lie!) that the band is really enamored with Seattle and very happy that they could play three shows here. Aw, shucks… What do you even say to that? I was impressed. Now is also a pretty good time to point out, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the band’s sound, that these guys rocked a lot louder than on their records. And the crowd loved it. Even their sillier songs, like the very weird, but catchy “Happy Hippo,” sounded better live (this was probably due to the ace duel drumming!).

Besides enjoying how much they rocked, seeing Cloud Cult live really made me appreciate how together the band was/is. These guys are all about solutions! Other bands may pine after loved ones left behind, but Minowa and West brought their S.O.’s along to aid with painting (which were being sold via a silent auction at the merch booth, with proceeds going to charity) and the merch booth expertise, respectively. Sure, Radiohead said they wouldn’t tour, because of how much pollution it caused (ahem - melophobe proves otherwise!), but Cloud Cult proudly practice “green touring” and included a helpful poster by the merch booth explaining as much (bio-diesel tour van!). Furthermore, for those of you already not sensing a theme, Minowa’s label, Earthology Records, is a nonprofit label that uses only recycled materials and donates all profits to environmental charities. And, while I’m turning this into a hippie love-fest of a review, I want to commend the Neumos security guard in front of me, who offered his stool up to this short girl who couldn’t see. That never happens. Maybe we were all getting caught up in the band’s music and the optimistic and joyful atmosphere they were creating?

“If I had three wishes, I’d wish to live forever...” Minowa gushed, in way of introduction to their song “Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide,” “And I’d wish you would live forever. And I’d wish our works would live forever. Now I know we can’t live forever, but according to the Law of Thermal Dynamics, energy once created can never be destroyed. That’s what this next song is about!” The crowd seemed transfixed as Minowa, with eyes closed and head shaking, sang, “Don’t bring me down, down! I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’ll laugh my whole way through the hurricanes and fire!” The way he sang the lyrics with such heartfelt earnestness transformed the song into one of the more beautiful songs of the evening. There was a palpable pain there, which was being steadily overcome as the song came to a close. Another great highlight of the show was the hugely rocking “The Tornado Lessons,” which had kids explosively jumping and singing along to the words “you fake it till you make it! That’s the story of your life! Tea parties with tornados in the middle of the night!”

Sadly the show had to come to an end, but, like everything else they did that evening, Cloud Cult gave it 110% effort. “We have to be done in one minute. But we’ll do two full songs!” Minowa told a cheering crowd, before busting out a loudspeaker and launching into a very upbeat version of “The Will of a Volcano.” Like a lot of things that evening, Cloud Cult took something simple and continued to build on it, making it great. The band sang, “You have a precious little mind / You paint a perfect little rainbow / You will make this right / You have the will of a volcano,” as their drums and bass built and built into a cacophony of sound! As Minowa, flanked on either side by two fresh paintings of melancholy faces, and a sweaty, but smiling band, whispered to the cheering crowd, who was all but being ushered out by security, “I love my mother / I love my father / When it’s my time to go / I need you to know / I love you all,” I could see a huge grin spread across his face before he waved goodnight. 

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