anberlin
DATE: Saturday, March 3, 2007
VENUE: Station 4 – St. Paul, MN
Website:
www.anberlin.com
It is not a secret to anyone that I think the new anberlin album Cities is the best album I've heard since last summer. And well, if you didn't know that, now you do. Besides the fact that my bro Christian was playing (thanks for getting me on the list dude!), I was just hoping to go see anberlin play my favorite songs verbatim live like I would hear them on the album. That isn't a bad thing at all, I just wasn't expecting to get a good live show out of it. Man, was I ever wrong!
With the lights out and the intro track "(Debut)" playing over the speakers, the band took the stage and broke out into "A Whisper & A Clamor". Halfway through the song, I turned to my best friend and said "Holy sh**! Check out the energy on stage!" I knew my boy Christian could bring it on stage cause I've seen him perform a few times now- entertaining on the guitar and superb backing vocals. But the entire band just brought it on stage. Particularly what caught me for a surprise was the energy of lead singer Stephen Christian. He was all over the stage, jumping up and down, getting the crowd into the show. With the constant crowd surfers landing on stage, in between "Readyfules" and "Adelaide", Stephen gave a kid a "what's up!?" and hugged him as he was running off stage.
Another thing I was not expecting was
the great light show the band had on stage. It really brought another
element to the show. The band also played two acoustic songs, including a
rendition of Radiohead's "Creep" that they had never played in concert
before. The guys followed that up with an acoustic version of "The Unwinding
Cable Car". After playing their new single "Godspeed" and leaving the stage,
anberlin came back on stage to end the show with "(*Fin)", the nine minute
finisher from Cities.
Great music. Great energy. Great light show. And a group of great guys. What else could you want at a show? anberlin has been selling out clubs across the country – and this is only their first headlining tour. These guys are going to explode into something huge, and small clubs won't be able to hold these guys much longer. Make sure you go see these guys when they come to your town!
The one hour, 13-song set list from the
show is below:
- A Whisper & A Clamor
- Never Take Friendship Personal
- Hello Alone
- Readyfuels
- Adelaide
- A Day Late
- Paperthin Hymn
- Creep (Radiohead cover)
- The Unwinding Cable Car
- Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen
- Dismantle. Repair.
- Godspeed
- (*Fin)
