Format Concert = Religious Experience

wow! The Format concert was so freakin awesome. I think I'm converting to the Formatist dogma. I will live my life according to the dictates of the great Formaticians of years past. Let me say again, wow!
We got to sit right in front of the railing on the top balcony, almost dead center (for those of you familiar with Bricks/In the Venue/Club Sound), and we could look down on all the Hike Schoolers smashing themselves together to see. Man it was good to just sit, talk, and enjoy well written music performed well by people doing their own thing.
A little about the opening bands... Tickertape Parade, Anathallo, and June all played before the Format. Tickertape Parade-two guitars, a bass, and a drum. Sang about the same stuff as every other band ever at Bricks in the last 7 years, and played the same riffs. June was a little disappointing. I had heard good stuff from them, but they sounded rather... generic. Guitar hook---fast rhthym---sing about being oppressed---head thrash. Anathallo was GREAT! If you haven't heard them (I hadn't) and you want different, wow, talk about different. They had 7 members that all played 4-5 instruments and alternated between their insturments. Drums, huge bass drum, kitchen pot, xylophone, moog, keyboard, trumpet, trombone, tamborine, bass, and guitar. Their music was VERY experimental, but to watch these musicians all rock together, and switch intstruments mid-song was inspiring. The whole place was rocking, and people were impressed.
Now to the FORMAT!!! Talk about inspiring. These guys are freakin original. They walked onto a stage that they decorated with their own shag rugs, and a huge banner they designed themselves (they actually do all their own artwork, and design) while in the background was playing this funky song straight out of the seventies. They were already grooving. It was goosebump producing. They played, we watched from about thirty feet away, and it was good. They had guitars, and keyboards, and drums all going. Man, it was good.
The Format have been dropped from their label. That is GREAT NEWS! They are putting the next album out all by themselves. Can I just say how GREAT it feels to see a band doing it all themselves? AND having good taste in what they do? They write, play, sing, draw, design, and it's all good. They wrote a song about their experience with their record label called "The Compromise." This song is so well written, that if you didn't know it was about a record label, you would think it was about a relationship. I LOVE it when song writers dont spell it all out for you, or cram a metaphor down your throat. The acoustic version of the song can be found here. You can login with my email samnuckolls@yahoo.com and the password is valencia. Download it. The song makes you realize just how horrible the dependance on labels is for musicians. Anyway...
Sorry bout the long post. They were good, and I can't wait for July 4th, when the new album "Dog Problems" hits.