It’s been far too long since I’ve written about music on this blog. Last night I went with several friends to see The Head and the Heart in concert at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore, which seems the perfect occasion to remedy that. If you’re not familiar with them, The Head and the Heart is a Seattle based indie folk pop band. Their music has amazing harmonies, which is one of the reasons I love them. Much of their music also features piano that reminds me greatly of Ben Folds, so if you enjoy him you would probably also like The Head and the Heart.

Now that I’ve talked about the band, I’m going to turn specifically to the concert. Ram’s Head is an SRO venue. Usually when I see concerts at SRO venues I can barely see because I’m so short and never fail to wind up behind some really tall person. Ram’s Head has a number of different balcony levels though, so there are more opportunities to find a place where you can see. Thanks to the couple who inexplicably left their prime spot against the rail in the center of the balcony right after the opening acts, I got to move up and have an amazing view of the band I actually came to see.

Speaking of the opening acts, they were not good. The first band, Black Girls (which incidentally is a band made of 5 white men), wasn’t horrible but nothing I’m going to bother seeking out again. However, the second band, Drew Grow and the Pastors’ Wives was completely awful. Their idea of music is completely antithetical to mine. It was that grating music that consists of nothing but melody-less yelling and screeching set to discordant music and instrumental feedback that was somehow supposed to be a song. It was painful to listen to. I was never so happy to see a band leave the stage.

The Head and the Heart’s music on the other hand was wonderful. The concert itself wasn’t fabulous. I prefer it when the artists actually interact more with the audience than they did. The only interactions with the audience they had were perfunctory thanks for coming out, we’re going to play some new stuff, we’re happy to be here type comments. They got up on stage and just did what they do, but did it well. I still adore their music though and despite the fact that they don’t have much of a stage presence I’m greatly looking forward to seeing The Head and the Heart again in a few short months at The Newport Folk Festival.

I had a hard time deciding which The Head and the Heart song I wanted to link to in this post because I love so many of them. Down in the Valley is one of my favorites and is the song that they closed the show out with last night. Then there is Rivers and Roads, which I adore and that provided the perfect soundtrack to the final scenes of my beloved TV series Chuck. However, I finally decided on Lost in My Mind because it was the first song of their’s that I heard and the one that made me fall in love with them. Perhaps it will make you fall a little in love with them too.