medioXcore - is this thing on?: Mucca Pazza and the Mystical Tuba

So I was talking with my friend Angie at a show last week, as we sat at the back of the venue watching a band play. She said "remember when we used to say 'I can't imagine ever NOT being in the very front at a show?'"

We used to scoff at the "old people"- you know, the ones in their 20's- who would stand watching the band from the back, hardly rocking out. "If you love the music so much, how can you do that? How can you just stand in the back not even moving?"

Ok, so now that we are those old people, I totally get it. I mean, I don't leave the house after work on a weeknight, so staying up at a show, in Los Angeles, past 9 PM, is like really hardcore.I had to go to work the next morning. And I'd been at work all day prior. This is tough stuff.

Maria had told me about Mucca Pazza, a 30-piece marching band from Chicago, Illinois, that plays punk rock tunes. She asked me if I wanted to go see them play live.
"You had me at '30-piece marching band that plays punk rock tunes.'"

The self-proclaimed "circus punk" band members wore old marching uniforms, all in different colors from different schools. Up on stage they had an ominous Steampunk look about them, and I could imagine that their polished brass trombones were really guns and they were about to fight a war against a mechanized establishment.

All 30 members, against all odds, fit on the stage. However the performance was punctuated by a cymbal player doing rock and roll jumps off the side of the stage, crashing his cymbals as he landed, as a portion of the brass section wandered around amidst the crowd, half sneaking half proudly marching like they were in a really important competition. Oh, and did I mention the cheerleader?

It was nice to see smiling hipster faces in the crowd. People don't smile at shows anymore.

Maria and I took some photos, but my battery unfortunately died only a few shots in.
[click for bigger photos]