Opening Bands: The Blood Brothers
Date: Friday, September 12th, 2003
Venue: The Metro, Chicago

Preceding the mellow sounding Cursive of Friday’s show was a “screamo” band by the name of The Blood Brothers. This band had probably attracted just about as many fans to the show as the headliners did, but The Blood Brothers got a profoundly more energetic response from the audience. The Blood Brothers churned the moshing crowd with a more hardcore sounding style of which was complete with screaming vocals.

Needless to say, Cursive was next and put on a fabulous set. The band played most of their songs off of The Ugly Organ, Cursive’s most recent album. Included in their set were the songs “Am I Not Yours”, “Art is Hard”, as well as “Lament of Pretty Baby”, which was a track off of a previous album. Cursive’s music is intricate and original. It seems to be influenced by various styles of music including emo, yet it is much mellower than most typical emo bands. With the use of a keyboard and notably, even an electric cello, it takes on a unique sound of which you can not find from any other band; it is truly superb. Yet somehow, fans seemed reluctant to move during this Friday night set.

The majority of the audience, with the exception of a small quantity of hardcore fans located towards the front of the stage whom were obviously really into the music, practically stood still as the music played. The fans seemed especially lethargic once compared to the crowd’s fierce movement displayed during the sets of earlier bands of the night. This lack of output by the audience put a slight damper on the concert going experience. Cursive ended by playing “Gentleman Caller”, which proved to be a perfect selection for the conclusion of this show.