The Alarmists / White Light Riot / Low Lustre live @ Varsity Theater 6/9/06

(The Alarmists live @ Varsity Theater 6/9/06)

All photos from The Alarmists / White Light Riot / Low Lustre gig and more here. Slideshow here. Video of The Alarmists performing "Good Advice" live here.

I didn't know when I left the house @ 9pm last Friday I wouldn't return back home until 15 hours later. Here's a very quick recap of the crazy evening and following morning...

It's rare you get to see 3 great bands in one evening and wind up really liking and rocking out to all of them. That's what happened at The Alarmists' CD release party on 6/9/06 at the Varsity Theater. Great crowd, the show was nearly sold out. Low Lustre opened around 10pm and played an enthusiastic set. I hadn't heard them before and really liked them musically. White Light Riot played their usual rockin' set. The crowd was really into it. The "rock n roll" moment of the evening definitely belonged to WLR, as lead singer Mike accidently cut himself right above the eye with his guitar early in their performance. What a trooper... he played the whole remaining gig with blood streaming down the right side of his face. Yeah, that's adrenaline for you. Luckily he's ok. He needed a few stitches though, so head over to their MySpace and wish him well... I'm not really that good with blood, so for pictures of the incidence (as well as other great photos and recaps), go to Brody's blog or photo-guru Mike's MySpace. The Alarmists came on around midnight and had the crowd in a frenzy. The mixture of brilliant songs from their album and new material really pleased the audience. Check the video for further evidence... All in all, an A+ performance by all the featured bands.

After the gig I hung out in the Varsity Theater for a bit talking with some nice people. Also got to explore the "skeleton hallway" and the roof. Very cool, if not a bit creepy, though. On the way to my car I ran into a friend of a friend, Jaric; a Polish guy studying on his PHD in Economics at the University of Minnesota. He joined me for the Alarmists after-party in St. Paul. We had a lot of fun out there... they even had ping-pong action. Around 5:30AM (!) we decided it would be a good idea to head down to Brits Pub in Minneapolis to watch the England vs. Paraguay World Cup Soccer Match (Jaric was still pretty pissed off about Poland losing that day). After a quick breakfast and numerous coffees we made it to Brits... It got absolutely packed and we had front row seats in front of the big-screen for the game. It was an absolute blast hanging out with the soccer hooligans! Way to go Beckham! I returned home around noon Saturday and was pretty exhausted... great night, though. You never know what's going to happen, I tell you...

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from the evening and morning (all the rest are on Flickr):


(The Alarmists' setlist @ Varsity Theater 6/9/06)


(Low Lustre live @ Varsity Theater 6/9/06)


(White Light Riot live @ Varsity Theater 6/9/06)


(Brody shows us the skeletons in Varsity Theater's closet)


(Hangin' on the roof of Varsity Theater)


(Myself, Chance & Heather after the gig)


(Jaric and I having coffee before the soccer match)


(Shakespeare speech before the England vs Paraguay World Cup soccer match)


(England scores!)

Related sites:
Low Lustre MySpace
White Light Riot MySpace
The Alarmists MySpace

Have a great Monday! Go USA in the World Cup!

- Steve