Khruangbin live

First the facts: we braved the heat (90+ degrees) and rode our bikes to the Botanical Gardens for the Khruangbin concert last night. We were there early so there was tons of available bike parking conveniently right near the entrance. It seems like they prioritize getting to the venue via bike so that was really cool. What’s cooler is that a lot of people did go by bike – the bike parking area when we were leaving was totally packed. Amazing. There was a lot of bike/walking traffic on the Greenbelt the first few miles out of the venue, but everyone was cool and with our lights we didn’t have any issues in the dark.

Show details: I was looking forward to the opening band, John Carroll Kirby, even though I didn’t really know anything about them. I just knew they had a guy playing flute so I figured it’d be like a weird jazz fusion thing. It was exactly that and, honestly, it was awesome. I’m usually not a big flute guy lol, but it worked and was so fun (everyone was pretty into it). Probably the perfect opening act for a band like Khruangbin.

As for Khruangbin, I’m still kind of processing it. They played the entire A La Sala album and then a bunch of older stuff afterwards. It was amazing – hard to put into words how tight they are live. DJ on the drums is amazing. Laura on the bass is amazing. And Mark on guitar? Probably up there as one of my favorite guitarists. So. Fucking. Good.

A couple days ago I read an article (can’t remember where it was from) about worthwhile things to spend money on. Live music was number one on the list and I couldn’t agree more. Shows (music, movies, plays, etc.) and books are two things that punch so much above their weight when it comes to value. I’m so thankful that we were able to see them live and will hopefully have the chance to do so in the future. In the meantime, a reminder for myself to go to more shows.

Nice glasses

John Carroll Kirby

Laura Lee

Mark Speer

Khruangbin

Mark and Laura

More Laura

More Mark