You know, it’s really too bad that I wasn’t able to write about this show before seeing Sufjan Stevens; now it’s just going to seem like these guys are an afterthought when, in fact, they are anything but.  I dig the debut of The Band of Horses that came out this year, and I really wanted to go see them live.  The only catch was that the show started at 9 o’clock on a Sunday night in Lawrence.  I almost passed at seeing them but my friend Josh wanted to go and that was really all I needed to push me over the edge.

The opening act was a guy named Chad Vangaalen.  The guy did something I had never seen done before.  Not only did he play guitar and sing, but he also played a kick drum (and sometimes some symbols) as he did so.  Not only was it pretty cool, but it made you wonder why Jack White has kept around the Meg character for so long.  He was a pretty solid opener and the crowd really liked him.

The Band of Horses took to the stage and never stopped rockin’ it.  I thought a good portion of their set would be somewhat mellow, but they really created a bit sound live.  At times, they had three guitarists playing which is something I never would have expected.  The obvious star of the show was their frontman and his astounding voice.  When I first heard them, I thought they were sort of ripping off My Morning Jacket’s patented reverb with their vocals, but I no longer think that’s the case.  They put on a great show, and they left me as a much bigger fan of theirs than before.