Mates of State

So freaking talented. Do I even need to explain? I didn't think so. But for all you ign'ant suckas out there, here's the low down. Husband-wife duo make a two-piece band; Kori Gardner, wife, jams out with her keyboards and synthesizers while husband, Jason Hammel, busts out the beats on his drum set. All the while, creating lush and vibrant vocal harmonies over the already lush and vibrant melodies! Did I mention that they are married? SO COOL.


Anyways, I haven't been to a show or concert in such a long time. I've really been in the mood for live music lately. The last time I was in the presence of live musical performance was a couple weeks ago at my sisters' school recital. But besides that it was at Siren Fest in the summer. It was full of hipsters (me including), and undistinguished "indie(whatever that means)" performances by other hipsters and their synthesizer keyboards. The only two performances that stook out to me was this group called The Dodo's, from California. They were this quirky and clever acoustic pop group who would occasionally bang a trach can for percussionary effect. They were pretty cool.

But it was the co-headlining group, Broken Social Scene, that blew me away that night. Great performance. I don't want to explain the details of that very fateful hour though, cause it was that amazing that you just had to be there for yourself to reallly understand and comprehend what happened. (In reality, it was an awesome performance, but not to the extent that I am making it sound to be, so it is possible that I could explain it to you but I don't feel like it.) In an effort to try and educate you on events of that summer evening, I have provided you with a video. Though it is a video, it simply doesn't do the band or their performance justice; you really had to have been there.

They had a girl named Aubrey, who they had just met, fill in the vacancy of pop singer Feist, formerly of Broken Social Scene, for the song "7/4 Shoreline". She did a brilliant job of singing in front of the 1000+ crowd, and was met with cheers from the audience. And during their song, "Ibis Dreams of Pavement", they got the whole entire crowd to do this thing called a "therapeutic scream", where everybody just screamed and let out as much personal stress as they could, a moment to just forget everything and scream as loud as you wanted. It was really cool, it was just so unifying, with the whole audience just sreaming. I don't know how to really explain it, you just had to be there.