@mothermother LIVE in Philly, PA @ TheFire - aREViEW

I'm 12 years old and my parents are divorced. Que the violin please! I have to travel a lot between Florida and New York. Keep that violin going! But I like to travel. In fact the truth is I hate Winter, so having to go to Florida when it was cold....i know...twist my arm right. More violin! You've heard folks complain about weather before, so that's not new. But I actually don't mind the snow or all the coats, it was the lack of sweet sunshine which wasn't there to brighten my day that eventually got to me. I'd pack my things and try to sleep the night before my jet set. It never happened. I never really fell asleep. How can you when your 12 and about to travel to Florida in December! But what kept me up; in a way, wasn't the thought of seeing friends and family and eating mom's food, though that played a part. It was the fact that in the very near future I'd be reunited with my old friend. The warm and bright fireball residing in the sky's above my world. To explain this properly one would have to imagine a world of grey clouds, snowy skies and starless nights for months on end. This kind of life makes you yearn, desire, pine for, crave, want, wish for, hanker for, even lust after the most basic of man's needs. The sight of the life supporting mass out there in space was above all else the most important part of my journey. And at the airport, I'd board the plane, find my seat, and drop my things. After the announcements, the safety brief, the seat belt demo and the taxi, we'd push off with a slow rock back from the gate. The engines spool, the passengers getting high on combusted JP8 fumes, we'd blast off down the runway and into the air in what aeronautical pro's call a reverse controlled crash with the earth. The moment was rising, the hands slightly moist with fear and anticipation. We'd enter the cloud pack at 10,000ft and push through. It's only a few more seconds now. Wait, I think I see it! The rays drive their way through the Nimbostratus layers and bounce their way to the edges of my peripherals. The brighter it got, the bigger my eyes became, until nothing separated us. Up above the cloud layer its always a sunny day. To me, in my current time, this experience is just about how I felt the first time I heard MotherMother!

Fast forward to modern times. It's March 4th and I'm searchin the net. I stumble upon the MotherMother site and click on shows just to see what kind of adventures they are having. Ok, wait, what! Insert the proverbial party stopping record scratch please! They are playing in Philly tomorrow March 5. And at The Fire where my buddy and his band The Fling played only a few short months before. I ask Rin, "wanna go?" YES!!!!! We live in boring ass Amish Country. Occasionally, we smell shit for days on end, buy homemade foodie items @ central market and continue to dare each other to one day stop and go down that long ass driveway for home brewed root beer. In other words, its boring here. A chance to see Philly and more importantly a band that's near super star status to us is a no brainer.

REViEW of The FiRE : One hour fourty-five minutes later, we are parked and a little suspicious of our current neighborhood surroundings. We have no gauge on Philly. What's good, what's bad, what's normal. Parking wasn't an issue at all. The FiRE is basically set in a neighborhood. This means no parking garages and a savings of a few bucks. Good, more for the bar and band merch. We walk in and get carded. This show is 21 and up. Don't know much about The FiRE's policies on age, but the thought of avoiding crazy teens out on a saturday night drunk was nice. Upon entrance you don't have to go anywhere. Your at the bar. We walk to the back and immediately use the facilities. Its what you might expect. The little rooms are covered in band stickers and permanent marker. Funny, the mens room had only a stand up urinal yet still reeked like an atom bomb had been exploded twice over. We bagged a few beers and bam, we have a MotherMother sighting! "There's the singer and one of the girls, and sweet there's the bass player too!" Look, I'm going to go schoolgirl on you for a moment. If you only knew how many times I've spun their records, how many early mornings were spent driving to work and home again in the midsts of "Ga Ga Ga Ga" then you might see things from our perspective. These fine human beings have in my eyes crafted lyrical gold. And tonight at The FiRE we are the miners panning the river! Aside from a round of Ms. Packman and searching for The Fling stickers on the walls, there's a few paintings to admire and some sketchy ass electric to look at. The buildings in fairly rough shape. Who knows what its been throughout the years, all we know is that tonight its the vehicle for some of the catchiest, most singable and groove-able music to have hit these ears in recent times. After a few opening acts, time had drawn near!

REViEW of MotherMother : Rin and I are in complete awe. We felt like millionaires having a few friends over to watch our houseband MotherMother take the stage. We were in a "crowd", and I use that at the lowest of limits, of about 25 to 35. Maybe 45 people total if you include the folks in the bar area. Again, totally in awe. There's this disconnect. MotherMother's music is so good to us. We can't see how in the hell only at max 45 people came out of their Philly homes tonight to see this rockshow. But at the same time we are delighted to have been two of those 45 people. I've seen lots of high dollar acts, lots of stage lighting and pre-packaged million dollar ambiance all in the name of rock&roll success. Truth is, none of that stuff truly matters. MotherMother's stage presence is one of humility. They have not a pretentious "scene" bone in any of their bodies. With a few tweaks at the board from the house audiophile, this ride is about to begin. Aside from an occasional air guitar, I'm no musician. I will not pretend to know anything about the complexities of their music. I will however stand up and claim expert status on my ability to know what I like and what I think is good. To say I have a lot of music is a serious understatement. I have been completely destroyed by the iPod FF button. These days to have an entire album play happens two, maybe three times a year. In 2010-2011 my one and two have been been O My <3 and Touch Up and soon to be Eureka! Speaking of a cry of joy or satisfaction when one finds or discovers something, I have a sneaking suspicion its Eureka! folks will soon be screaming when this band goes big. The stage was minus any grand lighting pyrotechnics. Hell, we were lucky there was even a defined stage at all! But this was of no concern. The music spoke for itself. We got to hear all our favorites, O My Heart, Hay Loft (Warning, Hay Loft will cause MotherMother addiction, you've been warned!), Arms Tonight, The Stand, Baby Don't Dance. The highlight was the encore performance of Body Of Years, which as fate would have it, is the song that sold me on this band.

The evening ended quicker than either of us wanted. With ears deafened and faces melted we migrated to the merch table, bought both their records and skipped town.

Thanks for the show MotherMother!

Please come back soon!

Please continue to make this music!