Hello to all you happy readers out there.  Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I have been really caught up with school the last couple weeks.  

So what have I been up to other than studying too much you ask? 

Well…

Last Saturday I headed to Musica in Akron, OH to check out the amazing folk act Frontier Ruckus.  This band blew me away live.  I have been a fan of them for some time now but always missed them when they came to Ohio.  I made damn sure I was not going to miss them this time.

The band made their final stop in Akron before wrapping up their tour and enjoyed every minute of it.  If you have not heard of them yet and like some honest, good folk rock, check them out.  Their saw player is amazing (yes, saw player).

The band played through a great set with everyone in the house signing along and enjoying themselves.  One kind female fan even showed her approval and tossed an undergarment to the stage.  The band loved it and even made the comment that no one had ever done anything like that for them before.  Once they found out the owner of the garment, they jokingly asked her to prove it was hers.  She had no problem doing so…

Other than a couple of highly intoxicated guys who could not control the volume of their voices, the night was a blast.  Frontier Ruckus are one of those bands that sound so much better live and I am glad I finally made it to experience it.

Opening act White Pines were playing when I got there and besides the Kings Of Leon singing similarities, they sounded awesome.  There was an opening local act that I missed but from what I heard from the hyper Moby-looking bartender (I mean that in a good way), the crowd loved them.

I took a crappy video of them playing “Junk-Drawer Sorrow” with my iPhone during their encore.  The coolest thing about the video I took is that the band pulled the plugs on all of their amps, gathered in front of the crowd and played the song a cappella:

Again, sorry for the crappy quality.  I am going to invest in an HD camera soon I think.

I did not bring my camera to this one, but luckily someone named Kayla Muller did and the band posted her photos on their site.  Nice job Kayla!

Frontier Ruckus was offering a pretty unique FUNRAISER recently (it ended  today – 02/25/2011 actually) to help them get a new touring van.  See this letter for the reason behind the request for donations.   I was just checking out what were offering to raise money for a new ride and I must say I was impressed with the idea.

Bundles were offered as an exchange for a donation and they started at $10 for some demos from the band.  The bundles escalated from there.

For a mere $1000 donation you could have received from the band:
Copy of trinity thaw demos
Copy of live at noordbroek
Copy of live at eddie’s attic
A limited edition I Am The Water You Are Pumping EP
A digital download of Deadmalls & Nightfalls
A digital download of The Orion Songbook
The Orion Songbookon vinyl (2xLP)
A frontier ruckus t-shirt
A personalized song written by Matthew
Hand-written lyrics for personalized song
&
A house concert for you and your friends

I wish I was able to take some donations on my end to make that happen…