we were amazed and excited to hear that Mates of State were coming to play at our very own Che Cafe right here on campus. it is a very rare occassion when they book a pop band for Che - normally it's strictly hardcore. so, the station got into the show, and jennee and rishi hooked us up with an interview!! jennee, sanjit, jean, addison, and i interviewed jason and kori before the show, and it was awesome! they were soo cool - you can check out the interview from the link at the bottom. anyway, on to the show...
there were three opening bands and one friend of MoS who played one song. the first opener was this guy who used to be in Karate, which is a pretty cool band, and he was just on acoustic guitar, and harmonica on a couple songs. he said on his recordings he has drums and horns and stuff, but i liked it with just guitar, super mellow. he had a really good voice too, i liked him (i dont know his name though, sorry). the next band was katie the pest, they were this two-girl pop band, really fun. i kinda started to get sick of them fast, but they were good still, i just wasnt too into them tonight, i dunno. it was cool cause they just had drums and guitar, but it sounded good still without bass or anything. next this girl rachael played one song on acoustic guitar. kori said she went to see MoS in la last night or something, but it was 21+ and they wouldnt let her in, even though she knew the band, or something like that. so, they had her play a song for us tonight - and she was really good. she had a really awesome voice, unique, i liked it a lot, and her song was pretty cool, all mellow and stuff. then the last opening band was Trackstar, they were really good. it kinda sucked cause the sound was bad and i couldnt even hear one of the singers, but they were still good. they were three guys - drums, guitar & vocals, bass & vocals. for their second-to-last song kori came up and they did this soft song with kori on back-up vocals - it was really really awesome. good times were had by all indeed.
so next was mates of state, and what can i say? they were awesome. i got my way up to the front to take pictures for the station (and for myself), so i had a great view, front and center. unfortunately the lighting at che is beyond horrible, so i couldnt take pics without blinding them with my uber flash. i actually did get a few funky pics without flash, but the ones with flash turned out really well! (check them out at the bottom) so they started with some songs off the new album: "as night as now" first, then "a duel will settle this" - jennee's favorite - second. i dont remember the exact order (or anywhere near it) for the rest of the show, but they played a long set with songs from my solo project and our constant concern. i know they played "everyone needs an editor" (which was my fav but now i like the new album so much i dont know what my fav is anymore), "proofs," "what i could stand for," "la'hov," "throw down," and "tan/black" (which they claim they havent played in forever and were clearly trying to remember as they went along - very entertaining to watch, jason's looks to kori are awesome :-p). off the new album, i know they played the aforementioned songs and "hoarding it for home," "quit doin it," "i know and i said forget it," and i think more than that but i'm not sure which ones. and they played "beehive state," which was cool cause during the interview jennee said she really likes that song, so they said they'd play it. man, that was such a great show, they are so cool live. they are so much fun to watch cause they are total perfectionists with getting everything just right, so they are always looking at each other to stay on beat. jason is always giving kori the funniest looks cause he is concentrating hard and tired from playing so hard, it's awesome. they sound so much better live then they do recorded because the songs sound exactly the same except with the live energy, which adds soo much to the sound.
