By The Thousands at Vaudeville Mews, Des Moines (12 Dec 2015)

Going back to the Vaudeville Mews concert venue in Des Moines, Iowa, for the first time in 10+ years was a bit surreal. Nothing has changed. I’m pretty sure they still haven’t cleaned the bar or the floor, there was still no toilet paper or paper towels in the bathroom and some of my angsty poetry is still sharpie’d on the bathroom walls.

I didn’t tell the boys in By The Thousands that I would be making the trek from Minneapolis to Iowa for the show. Hell, I really didn’t tell anyone that I was going out of town. I thought the element of surprise would be worth it… it so was!

It was odd seeing this band and not knowing majority of the crowd. When I see them up in Minneapolis, half of the crowd are friends of mine. Last night it was me, my buddy and two kids I knew from high school. That was all I knew in the crowded venue that was a second home to me when growing up.

Being able to see By The Thousands turn heads and get people moving in a town they have never played in before was the best feeling on the planet. The crowd could have easily fooled you into thinking that they had seen By The Thousands before. The crowd was moving back and forth in the narrow venue and at one point there was even a circle pit going on. Now, mind you, the crowd up in the cities when you see these guys is much more brutal and energetic but, for being their first time in Des Moines, I would call this a success.

Their music sounded great, as always. It was clean and tight and perfect. I could hear the people around us talking about how great they sounded and I couldn’t help but let the smile creep across my face. Here were my By The Thousands boys impressing my hometown with their amazing music. The songs were the ones I had heard before but, because of the new surroundings, they almost sounded different. Familiar, but different… but perfect.

By the Thousands' latest Connect came out earlier in November 2015. They are currently on tour with Terraform.

langen (langen@weheartmusic.com)
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