"The North American" Tour

Don't let the tour name confuse you.  There is a logically good explanation as to why it's called the "The North American" tour: three of the four bands that played Tuesday (February 7th 2012) night at the White Rabbit in San Antonio are from overseas!

We Are The Ocean; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

The first band, We Are The Ocean, hails from the UK, and they were rocking.  As Vicci mentioned in her "Bands That Need Love Too" post about them, one of the unique aspects about this rock band is the dynamic vocals.  We Are The Ocean is a five-piece band with two lead vocalists; one holding a microphone and the other playing guitar.  What's so great about the vocals is that Dan (microphone, pictured above) has a hard-edge quality to his voice whereas Liam (guitarist) has a smooth and mature sound to his voice, and the two compliment each other well.  Some might say it's contradictory, but when you hear their songs, it seems natural that they go together.

Dan of We Are The Ocean; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

What was disappointing during this set was the lack of audience members to rock out to this band.  Although I do prefer smaller and more intimate shows, it irked me that We Are The Ocean had so much energy and performance to offer, but there were about 20 people staring at them.  Dan literally jumped down into the crowd and stomped around singing and head banging to get everyone into the music, which was cool to see.  He managed to get a few people to rock out with him.  No worries though - these guys will be back for South by Southwest next month, so be sure to go out and see them!  They won't disappoint.

Sam of Twin Atlantic; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

The next group of guys are Twin Atlantic, natives of Scotland, and in general when dealing with bands from Europe, the first thing we all notice is their accents...when they speak - when they sing, their accents disappear into sounding white American.  But this guy, Sam (above), he sings with his accent. Just a fun fact!  Anyway, these guys put on a fantastic performance - every member was insanely into the music they were playing.  And the music they were playing was flawless.  It was energetic, it was fun, and it got me wanting to dance except for the fact that some of their biggest fans were moshing next to me - I was punched and kicked to be frank.  Other than that, these guys are great performers, and I think I fell in love with a band for the first time in forever.  Can't wait to see them again and can't wait to get a copy of their CD!

The Swellers; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

The Swellers' may not reside from outside the US, but they still gave as much energy as the previous two bands.  I recognized the band name from seeing an advertisement in AP Magazine for the AP Tour last year, so I was somewhat curious to see how these guys were live.  To be honest, they weren't my favorite performance, which is sort of a let down considering they were co-headlining with You Me At Six.  I'm not saying they were terrible; it's just I wasn't as into their performance as I had anticipated.  I like their songs but I didn't care much for them.  I almost wanna say that some of their songs sound similar to me...or I could have been distracted from the group of moshers causing a ruckus behind  me and pushing me.  Not gonna lie, they did have a lot of energy, but I wasn't feeling it - doesn't mean you shouldn't check them out yourself; they're pretty decent!

You Me At Six; photography by: Vicci Patneaude

Last but certainly not least, You Me At Six, took the stage with much anticipation brewing in the crowd.  Now, I saw them at the Mayday Parade tour last semester, but Tuesday night I felt like I was seeing them for the first time all over again.  It's amazing how much of a different experience you get from being closer to the band rather than from afar. And as I said from the first time I saw them, they literally get you off the floor jumping and dancing.  The lead singer, Josh, gets off the floor too with you.  The music is just that easy to dance to, and that's what makes them so great to see live.  One of the things that impressed me vocally was that You Me At Six has recorded a song with frontman, Oliver Sykes, in which he does some screaming, so obviously Oli is not on tour with YMAS, so Josh had to scream Oli's part. Needless to say that I was blown away by it.  Pardon me for deivating from formal writing when I say it was probably the sexiest thing I had seen at a concert in awhile.  Josh genuinely impressed me.  Not to mention that YMAS are nice guys to talk to - not just because of their accents but because they're fun and funny.  They are MUST SEE especially because they're originally from overseas and won't get to tour here as much, but that might all change after this tour.  Go get their latest album, Sinners Never Sleep!