Anberlin Band • Page 209

idk if you got an advance of Vega, Jason, but if you did, are the songs remixed or remastered?

 

Cities
Vital
Never Take Friendship Personal
New Surrender
Lowborn
Vega EP songs
Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place
Blueprints For The Black Market

 

Same here. I think I let Cities and DITW flip back and forth rather often, but Vital/Devotion is my clear #1.

 

I think I'll stick with this ranking. If I had to add Vega, I'd slot it in below NS since it's only adding the two new tracks to the EPs, which are already placed appropriately (and I'm assuming the other track won't blow me away).

 

Wait, Nate isn’t playing drums on this tour either? I would’ve been pretty annoyed if I went to see them and 2/5 of the band was full-ins…

 

he just had a kid, iirc. timing definitely isn't convenient, but it is what it is, lol

 

Vital pretty immediately became my favorite. The musicianship and cohesiveness on that album is just outstanding. As much as I like self starter and someone anyone (eh, this one less) though I wish they weren’t the singles/set staples. It’s obvious why they were chosen but they feel underwhelming compared of how good and unique and fun the rest is.

Second place is still cities and then NTFP or DITW depending on the day. I usually don’t take well to bands simplifying the music, for lack of a better word, as much as anberlin do on DITW, but they knocked it out of the park and i think it’s my favorite sounding record.

all that said, the last EP on its own might challenge for the 3 spot.

 

I got into the band after New Surrender was already out, so DITW being my first as a fan definitely has it high up in my list.

 

They just got off the stage in Chicago a few minutes ago, that was such a mess.

There were some technical issues and they ended up coming on 25 minutes late (to a 45 minute set).

Midway through the second song Matty's mic dies and it took them like 10 minutes to fix it. So they are already like 40 minutes into their scheduled start time and they are 2 songs in.

They managed to do 4 more songs and then the main guitarist says "my boss just told me we are done". The other guitarist slams his guitar on stage and storms to the back. Matty takes the mic, says thank you and says that they are "at the mercy of people who have no idea what they are doing". Everyone is pissed, crowd is booing.

On the plus side, Matty sounded great and "Seven" is a great song.

 

Well, that’s not a good look. Were there issues with the sound for the bands before them, too?

Reminds me of the nightmare Tampa show of the AAR/NFG/TSL/TGUK tour last year. The sound guys fucked up so bad.

 

Now that I think about it, AFS also came on a bit late (about 5 minutes late) and it was obvious that there were some tech issues involved.

 

Oh dang. That sucks. Way out of their control, but just SUCKS to see this compounding amount of suck for them.

 

The Vega tracklisting is pretty front-heavy with the heavier songs (Animals, Seven presumably, Circles, Lacerate), interesting choice.

 

having spun the sequencing a handful of times now, i'm surprised how well it flows for the most part. still baffled why they didn't use Asking as track 11 because it would work really well, but it is what it is.

 

shared this pic of the back cover over in the album thread. really love the art direction for this release, tbh.

 

Yeah it looks really good. Not sure I'll be purchasing it because I already have the EP's on vinyl, but definitely looks great all around.

 

Im gonna hardcore disagree with you, Said & Done is a banger. That being said, Anberlin has a ton of top-tier Bsides that are better than a lot of bands Asides.

 

am i seeing this correctly or did Stephen hop on stage last night (per the band's IG stories)?

 

He did indeed. Not sure for how many songs though. The tour was where Stephen is at, so I’m not surprised. Would not expect this for any other dates.

 

it's odd because i could've sworn i saw him say he was gonna see them but not perform, and was adamant about that fact. oh well, i'm not complaining.

 

He did post a video saying that. But his denial about it felt very very over the top on purpose. Something like, “there is literally no way that I can get on that stage.” All that was missing was a wink haha so I’m not surprised at all.

 

Christian mentioned in this recent Podcast that Anthony Green was asked by Stephen if he would willing to sing in Anberlin instead of him. So there were other choices but in the end Matty was the one they ended up with and worked out the best for everyone.

 

I'm not sure if Anthony's vibe fits much with Anberlin, as cool as that would've been. AG's probably got too much going on anyway, L.S. Dunes and his solo stuff seem to be doing pretty well.

 

also revealed on the podcast:

they considered having Stephen and Matty trade off on vocals on the two new tracks, but found that Matty worked better on those songs than Stephen.

supposedly having Matty in the band has reinvigorated the energy of the other members. Christian doesn't necessarily say the other members were phoning it in, but that Matty was supposedly working incredibly hard to do the songs justice that the other four felt compelled to meet him there.

 

Anthony would have been a different vibe but infinitely better