by Guest Contributor Mark Iman, MarkImanConcertReview.blogspot.com
November 12, 2014 kicked off the final installment of touring for Blue October’s most recent album, SWAY, at The Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland. Starting the evening off was Harvard Of The South, a side project created by Blue Octobers Justin Furstenfeld, Matt Noveskey, Jeremy Furstenfeld and longtime collaborator and friend Steve Schiltz of Hurricane Bells and Longwave. The band recently released a 5 song EP titled Miracle and is currently available at the shows. I made sure to grab my copy and have a hard time switching to anything else. It has a great old school grunge feel only with less teenage angst. As I heard someone in the crowd state “Imagine if Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Smashing Pumpkins had an illegitimate love child, this would be it.” Being that all the bands listed are a staple in music history I see no better way to compliment them and look forward to hearing more music in the future.
The show started with a brief video telling everyone about the upcoming LIVE album and documentary that has been in the works for the past several years. The band is working on a pledgemusic campaign to make it possible for the fans to help participate in its creation. Currently they are 82% funded with little over a week left. For more information and to pledge please click the link at the bottom of the page.
Once the band took the stage it was a no holds barred roller coaster of emotion, but with a new dynamic that I had never seen from them before. Rocking through the set with a confidence that was reassuring to the crowd, lead singer Justin Furstenfeld made it clear that the band would be covering a lot of material spanning the length of Blue October’s discography while focusing on the albums Foiled-Sway. At which point the crowd went ballistic. I cannot describe the Jekyl and Hyde way in which Justin can turn on and off his aggression during songs like Say It and Light You Up to bring it back to his softer side with Congratulations. To watch him reign himself in and mentally as well as physically work through the emotions before proceeding, shows the maturity and calmness that he has embraced in life now.
It is no longer the Justin show. This has been my 9th time seeing Blue October but it may as well have been my first. Although the music was the same and the band members have not changed, it felt like I was watching someone new. From the playful interactions between each other to Justin egging on the crowd by asking us to sing along or telling one of his anecdotes to get us laughing, from start to finish it was obvious that everyone is in a better place.
Many Thanks go out to everyone in the band for making the first night special for all of us in attendance. Justin, Ryan, Matt, Ceb and Jeremy your music has touch the lives of so many and we appreciate what you do. We cannot wait to hear what is in store for the future and since Justin said “I’ll be doing this Blue October thing ‘til I am like 90!” we will hold you to it.
by Guest Contributor Mark Iman, MarkImanConcertReview.blogspot.com
- http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/blueoctoberfilm
- Website: www.blueoctober.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blueoctober
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/blueoctober
Music Junkie Press 
Reblogged this on Ramblings from SEKS and commented:
Looks like they put on a great show!