Unofficially Asheville

The Dodos last migration to AVL was a year ago March where they played a pretty full Harvest in-store. This year they got upgraded to The Grey Eagle and the show was packed. It’s nice to see great bands gain a local audience that quickly. Yeah, we <3 our town like that.

First up was the Durham band of brothers, Megafaun. Brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund used to be in a band with Justin Vernon (you know, that Bon Iver dude). Now that Bon Iver has gone on hiatus, we hope that Megafaun gets the spotlight. They’ve got awesome harmonies reminiscent of Fleet Foxes and a dynamic live presence often jumping into the crowd to finish their songs. I preferred the live show to the record and even then preferred when they left the electronics out of it.

Indie pop New Zealanders, The Ruby Suns, were up second and they gave me a good opportunity to get another PBR and some delicious bread pudding from Twin Cousins.

The crowd swelled and welcomed The Dodos. It was hard to get anywhere near the front, but standing on our toes on a chair in the back, we could see that they expanded from a minimalist two-piece to a stage busting three-piece with that addition of a second percussionist, Keaton Snyder. There is a complete lack of pretension with these guys who were just rocking the t-shirts and hoodies and I mean rocking. High energy, killer show. See them next time when I’m sure they’ll be headlining at The Orange Peel.