Concert Review: Lovedrug Storytellers Tour

Last night, Josh and I once again ventured to The Lime Spider for another musical adventure. This time, instead of Josh's father going with us, this time it was my own father. My dad is much less crazy than Tim. He is very laid back, but every now and then he gets very excited over seemingly mundane things (vitamins, Family Ties, bowling, etc.). I especially find this funny, but anyways he's taking us. Once again the doorman is there marking the X's on our hands

what the heck! Josh and I get charged three dollars more because we are under the age of 21. This is bullcrap. Just because we can't get absolutely wasted on booze we get charged more money. It's just freaking ridiculous! Anyways the opening act is the lead singer of a band called Good Morning Valentine. He puts on a pretty good show with some nice acoustic songs, but he's no J.Tillman, that's for sure. After he comes off the stage, Josh and I overhear him with what was definitely the quote of the day. He said, "Yeah, it's pretty hard to drink and sing at the same time." Wow. Josh, my dad, and I were the only three people in the place not drinking or so it seemed. We go to our spot by the stage and right in front of me is two beer bottles and a half drunk glass of scotch.

Josh and I eagerly awaited the set as Lovedrug came on. They opened up with a nice renditon of Happy Apple Poison from their new cd. I had known it because of the powers of MySpace and high speed internet. They then went on to play two more new songs before doing anything that most people knew. Oddly, the guitarist went off stage after Thieving and let Michael play Paper Scars by himself on the piano. The guitarist had a major craving for more Coors Light it seemed so he played Goodbye Blue Fly on his acoustic guitar solo. He came back after that so they played more familar songs like Rock N Roll, Angels With Enemies, a Smashing Pumpkins cover and the new single Ghost By Your Side. Once again, the guitarist left so Michael played Down Towards the Healing solo. He returned for their final song and the show was over.

The show was outstanding. The acoustic set gave a whole new feel to old songs and did a great job of introducing new songs. It seemed that the lead singer, Michael Shepard, has been listening to a lot of Nirvana lately since they covered Heart Shaped Box on their latest EP and he was dressed a lot like Kurt Cobain circa In Utero/Unplugged. It's just a theory though.
This show also made me realize how good of a songwriter he is and how much they've progressed since Pretend You're Alive came out or even since Purple Door Festival.
Finally, although it seemed odd that the guitarist, Dave Owen, left the stage more than once, he definitely made up for it because he had a beard!