Carbon Leaf

After a while, the stage was empty and a Carbon Leaf song started. We realized that no one was there so it was just a recording, which was weird. This went on for about a minute and a half.

While the song played, the band came out (1st picture) and picked up their instruments. They then picked up the song as the recording dropped out without missing a beat. Very well done.

Carbon Leaf is a quieter band typically, more of the folksy, Guster-ish sound but with normal drums instead of hand percussion. Their lyrics are also a bit more etheral, with lots of wings, and flying, and dreams (no portals or doors though), which is not my usual auditory cup of tea, but they also can rock when they want to. They even worked covers of Free Bird and Longview into their songs. They played harder, louder, and faster than their recordings would suggest.

They were extremely skilled musicians, with great timing. The bassist played a blistering Les Claypool-y solo for a few minutes that was awesome.

Someone threw the hot dog hat onstage and the singer wore it for a while. To give furter indication of the age of the attendees, someone threw a curious george onstage with a note that the singer read saying that someone had a show and tell at pre-school on Monday and wanted a story for curious george. The singer wasn't sure what to do.

Also, a few cougar-style ladies in front of us danced the whole time.