I created this blog to reminisce on my experiences with mewithoutYou. Included is a playlist of video I captured over the years. Also included is some other footage that captured important moments as far as I was concerned.
This weekend, mewithoutYou will finish off their "Farewell" tour with two hometown shows titled "The End of The End" which will thankfully be live streamed and available to watch for a month after. I am glad for the extended viewing time as not only can I not attend the shows, I have other shows I am going to during the time of the broadcasts! I will certainly be watching several times no doubt during the duration of having access to the live streams.
This weekend, mewithoutYou will finish off their "Farewell" tour with two hometown shows titled "The End of The End" which will thankfully be live streamed and available to watch for a month after. I am glad for the extended viewing time as not only can I not attend the shows, I have other shows I am going to during the time of the broadcasts! I will certainly be watching several times no doubt during the duration of having access to the live streams.
I was fortunate enough to catch the very first show of the "Farewell" tour at Thalia Hall in Chicago. I captured the opening song and the entire encore on video. They opened the set with "My Exit, Unfair" and the encore included "Torches Together," "In A Sweater Poorly Knit," and "Son Of A Widow."
My friend and mewithoutYou documentarian Paul Harrison was also at that show and captured the entire set! He has a lot of other good footage on his YouTube channel called "Christian Rock And Metal Nostalgia" including a lot more mewithoutYou content. It is interesting looking through his stuff and seeing so much that I also captured...sometimes from eerily similar angles!
I saw mewithoutYou for the very first time in the spring of 2002 I believe. They were on a tour with Norma Jean who had recently changed their name from Lutikriss. I recall stickers cut up and rearranged to spell out Norma Jean rather than Lutikriss. This show was in a garage in the back of a youth center called the Escape Zone (if I am recalling correctly) in Mount Vernon, Ohio where I attended Mount Vernon Nazarene University (I believe it was still a college that year). I also recall having been reprimanded at another show in that space for simply holding hands or having my arm around my then girlfriend as it was entirely too much PDA for such a setting! During that show, mewithoutYou were dressed in beatnik style and Aaron would jump between microphones because they were intermittently cutting out. Even with the technical difficulties, mewithoutYou stood out to me as something special. I bought the "I Never Said I Was Brave" EP that night and listened to it a lot. Toward the end of 2002, that girlfriend I mentioned ended up cheating on me with some other dude (or dudes?) and the lyrics of that EP and "A => B Life" seemed to echo how I felt in a way nothing else ever could.
I would catch mewithoutYou many times over the next few years when they would play in Ohio...quite often at the Lime Spider in Akron. I also caught a set at Purple Door Fest in Pennsylvania in 2003.
As healing came and I continued my trajectory toward ministry in the church, I found myself questioning things I'd see in the American church...along came "Catch For Us The Foxes" which again, lyrically, seemed to reflect the state of my life at the time.
I believe in the summer of 2004, mewithoutYou played Akron at the Lime Spider then in Columbus at a small venue whose name I can't recall in the Short North on a back to back nights on a tour with Noise Ratchet...I went to both shows, going back to Mount Vernon to work during the day in between.
Those earlier years, mewithoutYou would tour with some really great acts: The Working Title, Dusty Brown, Russian Circles, and Brazil are just a few I recall where I left a show with unexpected new music! Not to mention collaborations with folks like Norma Jean, Timbre, The Urban Sophisticates and the Psalters at Cornerstone!
2004 was also the first year I attended Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. I caught the mewithoutYou set there, of course. I brought a camera to record whatever I could but its battery lasted no more than an hour so I was unable to capture that experience.
I do have some footage from Cornerstone 2005 of mewithoutYou I captured on that old video camera. A neighboring camper had a converter so I could charge it up! I have footage of every Cornerstone performance after that until they stopped coming after 2010.
https://youtu.be/apvKxyR6Vzs
One moment that really stuck out to me from a mewithoutYou show was the mainstage performance at Cornerstone 2006. I had captured three songs from that set...a song from each album. "Brother, Sister" was coming later in the year and they were playing new songs from it. I had done the same during their set on Tooth And Nail Day in an Encore Tent. The moment, however, was not one I captured but one that the Cornerstone media team captured, edited and put out. The entire set was something special. They ended it with "In A Sweater Poorly Knit" and invited anyone to come on stage to sing and dance if they wanted to. Timbre played harp (it was the first time of many since seeing her perform). Something about that song and that moment felt otherwordly...to me and my friend Greg who was there as well. When the song ended and the band left the stage, the usual murmur of the crowd seemed absent even as we left the area. It will always stick with me as a special moment. As great as that song is, nothing including other performances of that song has ever come close to that feeling of that moment. Some of that feeling returns each time I watch the clip!
My friend and mewithoutYou documentarian Paul Harrison was also at that show and captured the entire set! He has a lot of other good footage on his YouTube channel called "Christian Rock And Metal Nostalgia" including a lot more mewithoutYou content. It is interesting looking through his stuff and seeing so much that I also captured...sometimes from eerily similar angles!
I saw mewithoutYou for the very first time in the spring of 2002 I believe. They were on a tour with Norma Jean who had recently changed their name from Lutikriss. I recall stickers cut up and rearranged to spell out Norma Jean rather than Lutikriss. This show was in a garage in the back of a youth center called the Escape Zone (if I am recalling correctly) in Mount Vernon, Ohio where I attended Mount Vernon Nazarene University (I believe it was still a college that year). I also recall having been reprimanded at another show in that space for simply holding hands or having my arm around my then girlfriend as it was entirely too much PDA for such a setting! During that show, mewithoutYou were dressed in beatnik style and Aaron would jump between microphones because they were intermittently cutting out. Even with the technical difficulties, mewithoutYou stood out to me as something special. I bought the "I Never Said I Was Brave" EP that night and listened to it a lot. Toward the end of 2002, that girlfriend I mentioned ended up cheating on me with some other dude (or dudes?) and the lyrics of that EP and "A => B Life" seemed to echo how I felt in a way nothing else ever could.
I would catch mewithoutYou many times over the next few years when they would play in Ohio...quite often at the Lime Spider in Akron. I also caught a set at Purple Door Fest in Pennsylvania in 2003.
As healing came and I continued my trajectory toward ministry in the church, I found myself questioning things I'd see in the American church...along came "Catch For Us The Foxes" which again, lyrically, seemed to reflect the state of my life at the time.
I believe in the summer of 2004, mewithoutYou played Akron at the Lime Spider then in Columbus at a small venue whose name I can't recall in the Short North on a back to back nights on a tour with Noise Ratchet...I went to both shows, going back to Mount Vernon to work during the day in between.
Those earlier years, mewithoutYou would tour with some really great acts: The Working Title, Dusty Brown, Russian Circles, and Brazil are just a few I recall where I left a show with unexpected new music! Not to mention collaborations with folks like Norma Jean, Timbre, The Urban Sophisticates and the Psalters at Cornerstone!
2004 was also the first year I attended Cornerstone Festival in Illinois. I caught the mewithoutYou set there, of course. I brought a camera to record whatever I could but its battery lasted no more than an hour so I was unable to capture that experience.
I do have some footage from Cornerstone 2005 of mewithoutYou I captured on that old video camera. A neighboring camper had a converter so I could charge it up! I have footage of every Cornerstone performance after that until they stopped coming after 2010.
https://youtu.be/apvKxyR6Vzs
One moment that really stuck out to me from a mewithoutYou show was the mainstage performance at Cornerstone 2006. I had captured three songs from that set...a song from each album. "Brother, Sister" was coming later in the year and they were playing new songs from it. I had done the same during their set on Tooth And Nail Day in an Encore Tent. The moment, however, was not one I captured but one that the Cornerstone media team captured, edited and put out. The entire set was something special. They ended it with "In A Sweater Poorly Knit" and invited anyone to come on stage to sing and dance if they wanted to. Timbre played harp (it was the first time of many since seeing her perform). Something about that song and that moment felt otherwordly...to me and my friend Greg who was there as well. When the song ended and the band left the stage, the usual murmur of the crowd seemed absent even as we left the area. It will always stick with me as a special moment. As great as that song is, nothing including other performances of that song has ever come close to that feeling of that moment. Some of that feeling returns each time I watch the clip!
https://youtu.be/IOXxdUa3G7w
I captured Norma Jean performing Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste from their Cornerstone 2006 mainstage performance as well and included it in the mewithoutYou playlist because Aaron did his guest vocal. While I don't think it quite lived up to the video of the performance from Furnace Fest some years earlier, it was still a lot of fun! Josh Scogin also came out on that song to do additional vocals.
Cornerstone performances were all pretty awesome! I already mentioned the collaborations that happened...but often Aaron would get scheduled to speak on another stage. Usually he'd say something about how he's inadequate to speak on anything...or he wasn't aware of being scheduled but here we are. At least one occasion became a potluck jam session. You never really knew what you might be getting at these events!
When "Brother, Sister" was released, once again the lyrical content seemed to be relatable to where I was in life. I'm not so sure the albums after that necessarily were as relatable however, I still really enjoyed each one. Even with the albums I like the least, I still like them a lot! There are very few artists that I feel can achieve that!
As the years went on, I kept going to mewithoutYou shows where ever I could whenever I could. Through 2012, it was usually somewhere in Ohio. From 2007 through 2012, often it was in the vicinity of Cincinnati. The Mad Hatter in Covington, KY was host to a good number of shows...some occurred at the Madison Theater. I recall at least once travelling to Columbus because I wouldn't be able to attend the Cincinnati area show of that tour due to work.
From 2012 until 2015, I lived in Pittsburgh I believe I only caught one show in Pittsburgh which was the Catch For Us The Foxes Anniversary. I traveled back to Cincinnati at least once for a mewithoutYou show during those years because of a scheduling conflict either with work or possibly with Audiofeed. Marco Castro and I traveled up to Detroit for the Underoath farewell tour and saw mewithoutYou there as well. I caught at least one mewithoutYou show in Chicago while still living in Pittsburgh. I happened to be in town visiting with Elphie prior to our marriage.
In 2015, I moved to Chicago and consequently most mewithoutYou shows I have attended since that time were in the Chicago area. I went to a show in June 2015 in Chicago at the Abbey Pub then had to leave for Cincinnati immediately after for our wedding and preparations ahead of time! I did travel to Indianapolis for a show due to scheduling conflicts with the Chicago date on the A => B Life Anniversary tour. Often Paul Harrison would be at those shows as well and it would give us a chance to hang out a bit. While at these shows I typically only would capture a song to share, he'd capture the entire sets!
MewithoutYou is a band that seemed to transcend typical genre boundaries and friends from so many different "scenes" liked them. It was something I could share with most people I knew. I am grateful for the time they have given us. They gave us many years...more than most! I will hope for a future where they play again, however, if they don't...I am thankful for what they gave.
https://youtu.be/BxRjjc3zFfs
https://youtu.be/o9sJdpt7I4E
I guess if we get nothing else, perhaps that will happen again?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCAA69C0A61832935
I compiled all the footage that I captured over the years into a playlist organized newest to oldest. The Cornerstone footage is all broken up by song. At the time, I wasn't able to upload video longer than 10 minutes so I decided the best thing was to break up full sets I had captured by song. I hope it is still in order of the set list for these full set shows.
Looking back at the playlist I created from the footage I captured of them over the years, it is much less than I thought I captured. I guess a lot of the time when they were most active was before I had an iPhone on me to be able to use if any moment felt it should be documented. While I brought a camera to Cornerstone, I was less likely to be burdened by one at regular shows. The idea of even capturing the Cornerstone experience on video was prompted by the "Ladies And Gentlemen: The Chariot" DvD.
These days it's commonplace seeing phones up to capture a moment and as such these moments captured digitally is likely over saturated. Nonetheless, I hope to share these moments with friends still, even if I'm one of many doing so. I am glad to have done so with part of the time that mewithoutYou was present.
Once again, thank you, mewithoutYou! You have given so much!
1 comment:
Happy you found a band that has meant so much to you through the years, and has spoken deeply to you through the rough and good times! I love you! <3
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