The approval to photograph the Band of Brothers Road Show tour featuring American Authors and Magic Giant with PUBLIC opening in St. Louis came through late on Saturday. And I was not ready at all. In fact, I was looking forward to crawling into bed as early as possible for potential double-digit sleep. I begrudgingly swapped out sweatpants for jeans and made my way to The Pageant with camera and lenses in tow. I. Was. Tired. But not for long.
PUBLIC, the three-piece band from Cincinnati who self-describe as “the music of the night,” opened with a 30-minute set playing their alt/indie pop-rock and had a blast doing so. Their cheery sound immediately woke this still sleepy person out of her heavy-eyed fog. Lead singer, John Vaughn wanted to make friends with everyone in the audience saying “our favorite part of a show is meeting new people.” No stranger to St. Louis (they opened for Driver Era last spring at Old Rock House), Vaughn joked that he even knew about St. Louis’ “high school thing.” Songs included the catchy “You Are on My Mind,” “4Her,” and “Make You Mine.”
Up next was, well, both American Authors and Magic Giant together in a happy, wonderful mashup of similar yet distinctly different bands that ebbed and flowed gracefully together and apart throughout the night. A Plinko board game was brought out at the start and a couple of lucky fans were called upon to chose where the chips were dropped, determining which band would perform first, and while Magic Giant won the honor of starting the night out, in reality, both bands kicked off a fun, upbeat and danceable concert that kept everyone grooving all night long. After a short intro with both bands performing, Magic Giant took over the stage with their infectious, “boot-stomping, banjo-toting collective delivering boho-chic pop hooks” — I liken them to a mixture of many of the free-flowing bands from the early ’90s. During the night they pulled two delighted fans from the crowd onto stage to dance along, appeared in the audience to sing “Great Divide” and generally dazzled everyone in attendance while elevating the mood to one of pure joy with songs such as “Celebrate the Reckless, “Jade” and “Hideaway.”
Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, the rhythmic, high-powered, pop-rock band, with a little bit of banjo tossed in, American Authors took over on the fourth and fifth songs of the night with “Believer” into “Stay Around.”
The show then switched back to Magic Giant, then American Authors and … well, you get the point.
Early on, American Authors frontman Zac Barnett told the avid crowd that they “played the [now shuttered] Firebird about 5 years ago during a tornado warning.” They still played the entire show but “we knew the escape route to the basement door. We’ll always remember St. Louis for that.” They then went into “Oh, What a Life” which Barnett shared is about the good and bad times through life.
The bands came together for the cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Cecilia,” and “Rocketman” before splitting for a few and coming back together for others. They culminated the night with both bands sharing the stage on “Window” and “Best Day of My Life.” Then the opener, PUBLIC joined them for the final encore of a rousing cover of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?”
This must-see, feel-good concert will warm you from head to toe on a cold winter’s night, and yes, wake those weary bones right up — necessary for me as I had a few hundred photos to cull through afterward.
You can find a good majority of those images here: http://bit.ly/BandBrothersTour20cz
Find out what’s up next at The Pageant: https://www.thepageant.com/calendars/
