Mates of State

I went to see the band Mates of State play at the Ottobar in Baltimore on July 14th. (That feels like a lifetime ago!)

Nick Thune opened with his comedic stylings.

And when I say, Nick Thune opened, I'm lying.

Guy, the Sword Swallower opened. And instead of opening at 7:30 as was advertised--he opened at 9:30pm. (Note I don't have a picture of Guy. This is because Guy or Die or whatever his name was--was inappropriately long.) I loved the Ottobar as a space, but they opened their door two hours late on a WEDNESDAY! And had three opening acts. What the what???

By the time the main attraction came on stage, the crowd was ready to keel over from fatigue. We'd been waiting in line since 7:30pm. Mates of State didn't even get on stage until after 11:30pm. I was soooo tired!!


But enough about that.


Nick Thune was hilarious! Check him out on youtube.

Free Energy played an amazing set. They're an awesome band. They dress like they stepped out of the 70's and into 2015. They swagger like Mick Jagger, with their long hair and their shirts undone so you can see their awesome chest hair. It's pretty killer. And the music ain't bad either.

Mates of State is made up of husband and wife duo--Kori Gardner and Jason Hammell.
They are joined by two other talented musicians--(our friend blowing the horn) and another guitar player. I can't find their names anywhere though.

Gardner and Hammell have been married since 2001 and they tour with their two kids. They put on a pretty great show. Jason plays the drums and Kori plays a multitude of keyboards while they both sing.

I had a great seat on the balcony just above Kori. I got to watch her play all the different keyboards. It was pretty awesome. She's wickedly talented.

My favorite thing was watching them watch each other. They were really in sync. I would imagine that the drummer would drive the beat, but I could see him looking to her for cues--so who knows. It was pretty hard to distinguish. They were so together.

They made a comment about the crowd being pretty "chill".

Yeahhhh . . . more like exhausted.

I love a good show--but when it goes until 1 am on a Wednesday night--I don't care how much I love the music, everyone was pretty toasted.

There was a couple that actually left early before the awesome grand finale.

And it was a killer finale! Free Energy and Nick Thune joined Mates of State and everyone sang and banged the drums in a giant communal celebration. I loved it.

Good times! Check out their albums "Crushes" and "The Re-Arranger".