The Waking Eyes

I'm heavily overworked and underpaid. I've got so much shit on the go right now that I gotta make this review a quickie. If it was sex, it would be the equivalent of the pity fuck... or the "ok, ok, I'll fuck ya just to shut you up" fuck. Sorry guys, catchin me at a bad time for a review but I'll say this... these guys are still cool. Just saw them a month before this show but since then, they been to the other side of the country and back and they aren't showing any signs of wear and tear at all. They played what seemed to me to be the same kind of set they did when they opened for Collective Soul. They also played it with the same kind of energy they put out at a much bigger and pumped up venue. When the Waking Eyes hit the stage, nobody was coming up to the front and they put out the invite a couple times... finally I think on their 3rd invite, people moved up and got into it. I've witnessed this before... I don't know what to call it but it's that moment when a whole venue comes together at the very same time to create the perfect mood for a show. Almost like the mass orgasm that Charlie Manson was always trying to get his "family" to experience. I don't know if it's some kind of mass hypnosis or if everyone had that extra drink they needed to get uninhibited but it happened. About halfway through the Waking Eyes set, the green light came on for lettin lose so they managed to set the stage, roll out the red carpet and tweak the mood to get everyone ready for Grady.

Sorry, but I wasn't familiar with these guys at all before the show. Someone at the venue told me that if I listened to the radio at all, I'd have heard a couple of their tunes in constant rotation. Normally I fuckin hate the radio so I don't even bother. OK... I didn't have a fuckin CLUE who they were. I didn't know any of the songs they played and I didn't know if they were gonna be a band ya wish would get the fuck off the stage or play all night. Well, considering they were opening for one of my favorite bands of all time, I actually wished they woulda played a little longer. They were good. Damn good. Very tight, creative, original, and one thing I like, they had personality plus. Every guy in the band seemed like the type to have been kicked out of class for being a disruptive little asshole at some time or other. This is a good thing. That was me. I was and still am a disruptive little asshole at times. Ok.. more often than not. Anyway... enough about me.

When I pull up in front of a band and the first thing I see is a Gibson SG plugged into a Marshall (half) stack, I know we're gonna have some good loud Rock n Roll. And that's what we got. Winnipegian cold filtered, home grown Rock n Roll with a bit of a twist. They tossed a couple other instruments into the mix that don't usually find their way onto a rock stage. Trumpet, stand up bass, of course some keyboards... They really did get us going for Collective Soul and when Ed thanked them for opening, they got a hell of a tits up from the crowd. After the show I met Matt and Rusty and they seemed like pretty decent guys even though they gave the camera the one fingered salute when we got our pictures taken!! Ok.. so I told them to finger the camera... makes for a more interesting picture. Keep your Waking Eyes peeled for these guys cuz they might just be around longer than the average Winnipegian group.

The Waking Eyes Official Web Site

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