The fireside bowl documentary1/31/2024 ![]() ![]() I was also pleasantly surprised by how friendly and welcoming the band members and crew were to me, always stopping to ask me what book I was reading or to see if I wanted to share a meal with them. Within the fandom of mewithoutYou, there is this shared feeling that this band becomes a part of you, shifts your worldview, helps you notice things about living you didn’t see before. I also met many people who were getting into the band for the first time, the same as I was. I would hear how some people’s first exposure to the band was through their church’s music library (MWYs first four records were released by Christian label Tooth+Nail) and how hearing this music helped them see that faith was deeper and more complex than what they had learned through more traditional religious avenues. I would hear stories of a band in a bus running on vegetable oil, throwing pre-show potlucks, Aaron talking to showgoers for hours after their set was over. I familiarized myself with their vast discography and talked to people every night who had been touched by mewithoutYou in some form or fashion. Within a set I would hear bits of Fugazi, Ink and Dagger, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Neutral Milk Hotel. This band made deep music, balancing head and heart, hopping between disparate influences while still having a cohesive sound of their own. Night after night, I watched their set from the merch table, and began to understand why people would come up to me every show asking if (lead singer and lyricist) Aaron Weiss would be coming out, wanting to speak with him. ![]() Never mind that my knowledge of MWY’s music was limited to a split with Norma Jean that I downloaded off Soulseek in high school, I was just excited to be on tour with a band who’d been doing it for so long. I was ecstatic to have a chance to sound check every night, to know we had enough money to fill up the gas tank to get to the next city. I was on what an older, possibly more jaded musician would call “my first rodeo.” My experience touring had been limited to long, sprawling, DIY runs across the country, full of broken down minivans, donation buckets and house shows. In 2015, my longtime buddy Eric Slick somehow got our band Lithuania the opening slot on mewithoutYou’s summer tour, in support of their then-brand new album Pale Horses. I’m grateful that I’ve gotten to know these brilliant people, grateful that they let me into their world for a short time, and grateful that they forever changed my life. I’m also reminded of the feeling I get when seeing them play or listen to their music: gratitude. Watching this nearly 20-year-old video of t he band makes me think about how their dreams of touring the world as young people turned into decades of making art. The band crashes around the stage with a well-rehearsed yet chaotic energy, and the kind of raw power that can turn a casual listener into an acolyte. It’s three weeks before mewithoutYou play their final shows in Philadelphia, and I am sitting in a hotel room watching their July 2003 set at the Fireside Bowl on YouTube. ![]()
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