Two Fridays ago on the Local Beat was one for the ages. It had been almost a year since the last time The Old Ceremony marched through out station’s doors and the first time that I had ever interviewed them but what a show it turned out to be. Django Haskins and Mark Simonsen joined me for an abbreviated version of The Local Beat from 5 to 6 p.m. to chat about their upcoming release of their double-EP and their show that evening at the Pour House. Premiering some of their new material for the first time on radio ever we heard acoustic versions of brand new songs such as “Wither On The Vine”, “Worlds Too Much”, and “Never Felt Better” (check out the ReverbNation player to the right for those) as well as the mastered copy of the title track of the double-EP titled “Tender Age”. Django and Mark also played “Ole” off of their first album followed by the remix version off of The Old Ceremony Remixed album that came out last march. We chatted about everything from the new album and it’s current status to Django’s move from NYC to the Triangle almost a decade ago and his fascination with mandarin. We also briefly touched on their music video for Til My Voice Is Gone which won an award at the LG Film Festival for best video in the Music/Fashion category:
Listen to the podcast of the interview below for the entire conversation:
The Old Ceremony 1/22/10
NC State Women’s Basketball .
The show was cut short due to an ACC women’s basketball game between N.C. State and Wake Forest which N.C. State won on a last second buzzer beater! Congrats to the Wolfpack!
Show at the Pour House .
Later in the night I headed on over to South Blount Street in time to see Ryan Gustafson take the stage to open for The Old Ceremony and Asheville based band Floating Action. Many might know Ryan as the head of now defunct band Boxbomb, but if that is all you know then you really need to grab his new solo album Donkey. Donkey barely missed my top-10 list for best albums of 2009 but it really is a remarkable record. This was my first time seeing him live playing the new songs and he definitely lived up to my self-imposed hype. Mark Simonsen joined him for the entirely of his short set and Django went on stage to harmonize during an epic version of “Soul Train”. Ryan is playing next Friday at the Duke Coffeehouse with Max Indian and the Light Pines (as part of the threesome’s mini tour). That is going to be a hell of a show.
Next on the bill was Floating Action, a group I knew very little about. They reminded me of a surf rock jam band with an incredible slide guitarist. They were very stoic on stage, but really grabbed the crowd well.
TOC came on a little after 11pm and jumped into a searing set of songs off of Walk on Thin Air.Most notable to me were “Til My Voice Is Gone” and “The Disappear” which I had never heard them play live since this was my first time seeing them in over a year (a mistake I will not make again). TOC was as tight as ever and perfectly on point with the crowd, which was enormous by the time they took the stage, who sang along to all of the songs and was one of the best audiences I had been a part of in recent memory. There is little doubt why they are one of the premiere bands in the area as their live performances always outdo their already fantastic recorded material. The Old Ceremony is unfortunately not currently scheduled for any more dates in our area in the near future but next time they come around be sure to get out and see them perform.
I apologize for the picture quality as I lost my camera about an hour before the show in the black hole abyss of my car. I hope the pictures from my cell phone can do some sort of justice.