Why Skipping The Opener Is Not Always A Good Idea

When I saw Cake last week at Raleigh Amphitheatre, the band made a joke that no one was opening for them, so they'd open for themselves:  play an hour set, then take a break and come back and play another set.  Lead singer John McCrea joked to the effect of that's why you should never miss the opener.  Give the opener some respect.

With that in mind, I was glad I got to the Lincoln Theatre early last night and caught the opening acts for Candlebox.  The second opener, a power-pop quartet from Washington, DC, was called Honor By August. 

I'm really glad I saw them.  I'm no music critic, but I've seen enough shows and enough crappy opening bands to know when there's a good, tight group on stage in front of me.  The band's got some pretty melodies, which contain some deep, and some not-so-deep lyrics.  The picture above does them justice in that at least they all match--last night, they looked to me like the strangest bunch of rag-tag musicians.  From my faraway eyes, the lead singer looked like a grown up Bud Bundy, the bassist like he was a Comic-Con geek trying to be cool, the lead guitarist was a Jimmy Page in training and the drummer?  Well, his suspenders and jaunty hipster hat (like the one he's wearing in the shot above) made him seem like he fit the mold the least.  Yet, what looks like a group of people that don't fit really do fit.  HBA is a genuine, hard working band who hooked me. It's not often I leave a show saying, "I'd like to see that band again."  In fact, that's only happened to me three times in my entire career/time going to shows.   Look them up on iTunes, or on their website, found here.



Alli


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