Photo by Cait McWilliams
First things first, make sure you read my preview editorial on these guys. If you haven’t, I’ll give you about five minutes to run through that before coming back to this. If you’ve already read it, take a five minute break from life. You deserve it.
Alright, are we all caught up now? As you read, I hadn’t seen these guys headline their own show before. But now, just over a week later, I have quite a bit to say.
Let’s start off with the opener, Riothorse Royale, or a trio out of Los Angeles. They might as well remain that nameless, as their set was so drab I wanted to gouge my eyes and ears out after hearing the first note. I’ve never been so bored at a concert in my life, and I’m not putting that lightly. I want to say that their music made me feel nothing, but it actually evoked a tiny feeling of anger inside of me. Thinking back on their set, a small trickle of anger began to well, and is continuing to grow just thinking about sitting through their set before Hippo Campus’.
I don’t know who decided to pick this band to open for them, but they made such a mistake. Riothorse Royale was so mundane and mind-numbing that I barely even remember what they sound like. I just remember how angry I was watching them. I’m angry again, so I’m going to move on to how I felt during Hippo Campus’ set, or the complete opposite side of the spectrum of emotions.
Photo by Cait McWilliams
The boys from Minnesota opened with “Souls”- a crowd favorite. Hippo Campus have perfected the art of fast paced alternative rock that you can still get your dance on to. Despite the crowd being a little hesitant to dance at first, by the time a few songs went by the entire floor was moving at The Crocodile.
My favorite song of the night was an unreleased one, and I’m not even sure of the name of it as they didn’t tell us. This has been plaguing my conscience for the past ten days or so, as this song hasn’t managed to leave my head yet. The only detail I can give you about it is that one part of the lyrics goes, “Some German poet,” and that it will be the song of the summer if they release it within the next few weeks. Hippo Campus, if you’re reading this, please release this song and then tweet me telling me the name of this song as I think that might help me get it out of my head.
The last time I saw these guys they played their biggest single “Suicide Saturday” in the middle of their set, and they decided to do the same for this show. This is pretty out of the ordinary for any band, but especially a smaller band with one radio hit. This goes into what I really enjoy about this group- they’re daring, unafraid, and pushing the boundaries. Whether it’s in the music itself, in their live show, or what they represent, they really wear their heart (and their ideals) on their sleeve.
For another example, prior to the last song of the night, they explained that they don’t do encores because they think that they are artificial and unnecessary. The tune ended up being “The Halocline,” and it is hard to describe the moment they created in words. The room was silent except the guitars that slowly built into the whole band, and the explosion of sound that came at the end of the song was breathtaking. It was hard to participate as a member of the crowd for me, as all I really could do was listen and watch as these guys created such a dichotomous performance. Hard yet soft, fragile yet rough, and tame yet ferocious. They walked off stage to applause that lasted for minutes, but to all of our disappoints, didn’t swallow their pride to come back out for another song.
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