Let This Colony Know

Every year near the end of April, Old Dominion will host Campus Chaos.  Now my third year attending, I have had the pleasure of seeing such bands as Blonde Redhead, The Love Language, Maps & Atlases, No Age, and Ra Ra Riot without having to stray any farther than my college campus.  This year was not the best, with Anberlin and New Boyz headlining as opposed to some of the large names in indie that I have mentioned.  Yet I still had an amazing time reuniting with my old friend Aria, who led me outside to the Tonelson Garden where we caught an up and coming local act Bison.

Bison’s sound, not really indicative by the video I took, fits somewhere between the indie folk of Mumford & Sons and Bowerbirds. This is a slower, more stripped down song but other videos on their Facebook page show off their layers of instruments and harmonies.  The most shocking thing is that they have been together for just four or five months, but play with the precision of a band that’s been in the game for much longer.  

Bison have not yet recorded a CD.

- Ryan

EVERYONE WHO ENJOYS OUR TUMBLR SHOULD FOLLOW MY PERSONAL TUMBLR AS WELL!!!

treyill.tumblr.com

THANKS!

So let me start of by saying this was the greatest show I have ever attended. Even after recently seeing Sufjan, Bright Eyes, and several other of my favorite artists, TV On The Radio still triumphed as the best show musically and energetically.

The night started off with Baltimore based Celebration opening the show. The bands main focus seemed to be on lead vocalist, Katrina Ford. They didn’t have great instrumentation, nor did they have any spectacular lights, banners, or any sort of wild energy. With the focus of what seemed simply on vocals, it was a decent performance.

TV On The Radio was up after Celebration. They came onto stage with simple waves and thank you’s. They weren’t flashy with an entrance, they had no back-drops or light effects, which pretty much told me the performance was going to be spectacular.

The tour was in support of their new album, “Nine Types Of Light”, which made it appropriate they opened with a new song. That being Killer Crane. The slow opening and great flow of instrumentation was a great way to start the performance.

Next they went back to into the past and performed Young Liars off the “Young Liars EP” and The Wrong Way from “Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes”, which I must say were two of my favorites that night.

They then began alternating new and old as they followed The Wrong Way with, Caffeinated Consciousness, Dancing Choose (from Dear Science), You, Blues From Down Here (from Return To Cookie Mountain), and Keep Your Heart. Each one of these songs had an uncontrollable amount of energy as the band rocked the entire theater driving the audience wild.

They followed the alternation with two oldies, Province and Staring At The Sun. Staring At The Sun, which is normally a very psychedelic and slower song, was turned into a fast, hard hitting jolt of musical mastery. It was unreal the way the band could turn any song into an all out storm of energy.

They played two new songs next which were Will Do (my personal favorite off the new album) and Repetition. Once again doing and amazing job of getting the crowd hyped even though a majority of them had never heard any of the new tracks.

They closed the set before the encore with what seemed like what everyone was waiting for, Wolf Like Me. If you know this song, you know its an amazing display of quick guitars and powerful lyrics, and they showed no signs of slowing that down and in fact blasted it right into the crowds face faster and more intense than anyone could imagine. It was unbelievable!

After a very quick run to the backstage, the band was back on stage and ready to finish out the night. They started the encore off with another new one, Forgotten and followed with Red Dress. They closed the show staying true to fans with an oldie, Satellite. They seemed to go off on this song in what seemed to be more of a jam session then them trying to perform a song.

If you get a chance to see these guys anywhere near you, I’m highly recommending it!

-Trey