I was dragging my feet around the Pittsburgh airport on my way back from a weekend at Half Hills Music Festival in Steubenville, OH. My plane had been delayed over an hour, which meant that I’d be missing the last bus home. After arranging a ride back from a buddy of mine, I sat down at an empty terminal and began scrolling through Facebook. A friend had shared this video, with nothing more than the word “wow.”
I have never in my life seen anything like it. I applaud the living daylights out of their creative vision on this one. Well done, gents.
The first time I watched it, my mouth hung open the whole six minutes in a tight circle as if I was on the verge of saying “What the actual hell am I seeing right now?” I brutalized the replay button four times in a row after that, and even sang along on the fifth listen.
I showed my wife and our friend (the one who had given me a ride) the video later that week. Their excitement prompted me to look up tour dates. The Academic was playing just a handful of shows stateside in the coming weeks (they’re from Ireland), one of which was at Paradise Rock Club in Boston less than ten days later. We barely caught them.
Not only THAT, but it just so happened that they were opening for Judah & The Lion, a band that my wife and I have been keeping an eye on ever since they joined twenty one pilots on their 2017 Emotional Roadshow Tour. We bought tickets immediately, and were able to double-date with our ride-giving friend and his fiancée (who was in town for a week from Montana (seriously what are the odds?)).
That show was far and away one of the best I’ve seen. Tyson Motsenbocker (another discovery for 2017) opened the whole night, followed by a killer performance by The Academic. Judah & The Lion then took the stage to a booty-droppin’ track (they actually dropped booty for real). We weren’t quite sure what to think of them at that point, but their top-notch set made die-hards out of the lot of us by the end. I cannot express how great of a show they put on; all of them.
Afterwards, we went to meet The Academic at the merch table to essentially tell them this entire story; how my chance discovery lead to us watching their live set not two weeks later opening for another band we’d also been dying to see.
The Academic on Facebook
Judah & The Lion on Facebook
Tyson Motsenbocker on Facebook
Backline on Facebook
Backline on Twitter
Backline on YouTube
Cheers,
Mark
P.S. – Craig, the lead singer of The Academic, was wearing a cheezy looking salmon crew neck sweatshirt during their set, and my wife bet all of us that he had bought it at the Goodwill next door before the show. We couldn’t quite tell what was on it (Three sheep? A cut in half sheep? A cow, maybe?).
It turns out that he did in fact snag it for $6.00 next door, and it featured a black cat in between two white cats.
Backline 