Sometimes, you go to a concert and see people of all ages. Dave Matthews Band is probably a good example; their music appeals to both people that have mortgages and people that are not yet old enough to drive alike.
Other times, you go to a concert and you see people of all ages…because apparently, no one that bought tickets was old enough to drive themselves to the show. Parents ring the outer edge of the pit, coats and purses in hand, waiting for their child and his or her friends to get done moshing and singing along. Other parents wait in the car and read a book. Perhaps they’ll stop at McDonald’s for milkshakes on the way home.
Seeing Sherwood and The Higher play at the Masquerade in Atlanta was decidedly the second sort of experience. The club was filled with teenaged boys wearing their sister’s jeans and “guyliner” and girls that looked ambiguously similar in band tees and nearly destroyed Chuck Taylors. Their typical-looking suburban parents waited on the sidelines like they were at a soccer game instead of escorting their adolescent children to a concert in the section of an Atlanta punk club knows as “Hell.”
Before the music starts, the crowd can get kind of annoying to anyone over the age of 18. The feeling was akin to being back in high school; you’re odd kid, you don’t know any of these people and it’s hard to remember how to relate to them. Once the music starts, however, it may be the best way to see a show. The teenagers sang along like it was the last concert they’d ever see and they knew every word. That particular kind of devotion and joy is difficult to find at shows that skew to an older, “hipper” audience. After all, it’s hard to appear detached and impossibly cool if you’re bouncing around and singing along.
The Higher, a poppy band from Las Vegas opened the show with a perfectly serviceable set of entertaining and occasionally hip-shaking “emo” rock. Their type of music is the kind that lends itself well to live performance – simple guitar riffs and drum beats and vocals that don’t overly tax lead singer Seth Trotter’s abilities. This simplicity might belie Trotter’s full talent, however, if his covers of popular R&B songs on his personal MySpace are any indication. Of particular note was “Insurance,” an 80s-flavored confection that had everyone in the room, even those there only to see Sherwood, singing along to the chorus by the end.
Although it was clear that the majority of the crowd had come to see Sherwood, a California indie rock outfit that owes much of it’s fame to MySpace founder Tom Anderson’s adoration and support, their performance didn’t fair quite as well. Of particular disappointment was arguably the band’s best song yet, ‘Alley Cat,’ a subtle track with enough electronic beeps and boops in the background to make the casual listener think they were hearing The Postal Service. When played live, however, most of the subtle charm is lost. It might have been an ambitious choice to try and recreate that song in concert anyway, so Sherwood probably deserves credit for trying.
The rest of their material, being significantly less nuanced, translated quite a bit better to the live show atmosphere and the nearly sellout crowd sang along and ate up every word. Even though the entire thing was fairly average, it was hard not to be overtaken by the infectious, youthful energy of the crowd. For a night, even the older kids got to remember what it was like to be 16 and think music could change the world.
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