Not sure where to begin with this review. I took no pictures
last night as I didn’t want to interrupt the moment. I wanted to just be in the
beauty of the show and not worry about writing up a blog post about it later
and needing a good picture that visualizes what I am writing about.
Cloud Cult is a band I fell in love with 6 or 7 years ago
after their album Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus came out and I heard the
simplisticly beautiful song “Transistor Radio”. I was immediately smitten.
Their songs are orchestral, yet folky, industrial, yet rock. They perfectly
combine every element of the rock music world seamlessly. And they are
positive. Uplifting. They make it a point to show you that the world is a
beautiful place – even in its most heartbreaking. Yet, it is never cheesy or
corny. Just beautiful.
I love this band with all of my being, yet sometimes I
forget to listen to them. And then I see them live and I’m just left awestruck.
They are such a force. They play with complete engagement. Each and every
person on stage (and there are 8 of them) is completely into the performance
and gives it 100%. And the audience was one of the best I’d ever been a part
of. I guess when you sing songs geared towards being positive, the jerks stay away.
Everyone around me was completely into it, singing along with such earnestness.
Usually people screaming along next to me really bugs me, but not last night.
Maybe because everyone seemed to be singing along when they should. Cloud Cult
is a sing along kind of band, too.
I always cry at Cloud Cult shows, too, and last night was no
different. When they went ahead and played “Transistor Radio” (which I’d never
heard them do live before) and dedicated it to their sound man whose
grandmother had died that day, I knew the tears were coming soon. But it was
when they followed it with “When Water Comes to Life” that I started to lose
it. That song just breaks me. Just go listen to it (really cool fan made video below).
That was followed by “The Man Jumped Out the Window”, which
is one of their songs that I never really paid much attention to, but last night
– after the two songs that preceded it – I think it might have moved up to one
of my top songs of theirs.
Then there’s the song “There’s So Much Energy In Us” – which
might be the most beautiful song about dying that I’ve ever heard (at least
that’s my take on the song – but I think it has way more meaning to it than
that – video below. Once again, just listen). The whole place sang along and you
could tell everyone was just – I don’t know – feeling something. I tried to sing
along but I just kept getting choked up so I had to stop.
Seeing Cloud Cult live, for me, is as close to going to
church and having a religious awakening that I’ll ever experience. You see them
and you want to be a better person. You want to take all the ideas they present
and put them out there into the world. And all they are really getting at is
just to be good to each other and enjoy the days you are given.
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