State Radio - 07.28.2008

I got lucky last night.

Though probably not as lucky as you thought I did by reading that first sentence. My luck last night was of a different sort. The type of luck that gets you through the night and makes sure you have a great time.

I went to State Radio play a show last night. State Radio is a great band formed after Dispatch broke up (okay, so they formed before Dispatch broke up, but they got more attention afterward). They play a lot of political music, rock infused with various styles and well, they’re an awesome band. Nuff said.

The place they were playing in is called the Filling Station; it’s a bar on the outskirts of Bozeman. On the outside it looks a lot like a warehouse and on the inside, it has a lot of similarities to my grandma’s garage. Great place as long as you don’t need privacy in the bathrooms too much.

Anyways, tickets for this show were on advance sale for about five weeks and silly me, I never got any. So I found the place, parked the car out back (in a pretty decent parking spot no less), and headed for the door.

A big piece of cardboard stapled to the door frame said “Sold Out.” Not one to be wasting gas money, I inquired inside. I was told that it was indeed sold out, and as I started back outside, the doorman waved me back over and explained that the bartender didn’t want to have too many people crowding the place up. So halfway into the doorway just out of sight from the bar, I paid door price and got my ink stamp.

Lucky Moment #1.

I got inside, snapped a couple quick pictures and watched Bigsby Jones take the stage. They’re a pretty good rock band. I hadn’t heard of them until last night, but definitely worth a second look. The acoustics of the place even with only a few people in it were enough to shake the camera inside the case I was holding. Fearing that it might damage the inner electronics, I stowed it in the car for a bit.

About an hour later, State Radio took the stage. I managed to find a prime spot sitting atop the bar. A great spot with a view of the stage, air flow, and sitting next to a pretty girl named Erin.

Lucky Moment #2.

I should probably mention that the show was amazing. The acoustics, the energy, the music, the heat, the cheering, it all combined to form this almost palpable force of nature that blew my mind (and my eardrums). Watching state Radio play is an intense experience. They played a mix of older pieces and newer pieces, including a couple songs that were almost brand new. There were two encores and the show lasted about 3 hours overall, two of which were State Radio.

In the end, I did manage to retrieve the camera from the car and get a decent amount of pics and some video. I should probably bring a tripod next time cause man, my arms got tired. I’m going to upload the pics and videos as soon as I do some color correction and encoding.

But yeah, I spent most of today recovering from last night. I hope the bands play in Bozeman again because the show was a great experience.