Nothing But Thieves Concert Review
Written by Jeff Ramella on November 8, 2018
By Victoria Merse
Nothing But Thieves headlined at House of Independents this past Saturday the 13th of October. Demob Happy were one of the two openers for the event and they played what I thought was an excellent set. The band is made up of three members Matthew Marcantonio, Thomas Armstrong, and Adam Godfrey. Their vibe on stage reminded me of the stylistic tune of nirvana. Their sound reminded me of the grunge rock scene of the 90’s. It was a good set regardless of the fact that I did not know who they were or any of their music it did not matter because they put on such a great set I enjoyed despite of my lack of knowledge of them.
The second opening act of the night was the band Grandson. In my opinion, the best part of the whole concert was this set. Jordan Edward Benjamin who is known as Grandson is a Canadian-American musician who mixes politics and music and let me tell you his songs are everything. The way he performed his set, the way he acted on stage and the energy that he executed throughout his whole entire performance made the night. Before every song, he would tell you what the song was about, which for some artists they try to avoid because they feel art is up for interpretation, but he took a different approach to his music and I loved the strategy behind it. I met up with him after his set with my friend who I brought along with me and he acted differently on stage than when we were talking face to face. On stage, he reminded me of the kind of character that you know is pure genius and has sporadic thoughts and speech, to put that in simpler terms, he was a crazy genius on stage. In person, however, he spoke educated and intelligent. The short conversation my friend and I had was inviting and friendly. His energy on stage was unbelievable. He managed to perform a whole set with high intense energy and still sounded like his studio recordings.
Nothing But Thieves came on stage and there set was okay. I can not complain about the song choice because they played all the songs of theirs that I love. However, I did not like the ordering of there ballads/slower songs and there more upbeat songs. It was unproportionate. I usually go by a loose rule of thumb that a slow song should be played every three songs give or take. This set was set up in the opposite way. The upbeat songs were every two to three slow songs. I did not like this arrangement because I expect at an alternative rock concert to be headbanging and jumping for seventy-five percent of the set and to me it was half and half. I found that most of the set I was standing and swaying to the music. To end on a positive note the band sounded amazing. Lead singer, Conor Mason, had excellent vocals throughout the whole set which to me trumps the criticism I gave about the set list. When I evaluate whether or not I thought a show was worth my time or not I look at the vocals and sound. To me, those are the most important part of the show and Nothing But Thieves delivered an excellent vocal and musical performance. As for the show as a whole, I felt that the mix of bands that performed was excellent and I can not complain because they all put on a good show as a whole.
