Taylor and I
I have been studying in Madrid since September and had been determined to see a show before I left in December. The most unfortunate hurdle in this quest was finding someone to go to a show with. I had met few people that liked the same bands as me in my program, and exhausted many options, such as reaching out to an old exchange student from Spain who also liked the Arctic Monkeys, but it was all in vain; nothing was working out. Then, the best thing happened: I had a program excursion to Morocco, met a fellow student studying in Valencia who has the exact same taste in music and essentially became best friends (because that’s what music can do for people). What happens next? She comes to visit me yesterday in Madrid and we see Local Natives as a local night club, Joy Eslava. It is so difficult to express in words how amazing a night it was (and to assist, i will employ the “a picture’s worth a thousand words philosophy” and attach some photos of the evening). Here are some highlights however:
– Being in the absolute front, standing against the center of the stage in this small venue, no gate to inhibit us
– Fantastic Australian opening band Cloud Culture
– Local Natives fumbling (though fairly successfully) through introductions in Spanish
– Hearing some of my absolute favorite songs, namely “Airplanes”, “Colombia”, “Sun Hands”, and “Breakers” though EVERY SONG WAS FANTASTIC
– Kelsey switching to the microphone right in front of me to perform “Columbia”, a song about his mother who recently passed away. I teared up and I won’t deny it
– Taylor smiling at my friend and I as we give him a thumbs up about halfway through the set
– The band closing with a beautiful acoustic version of “Who Knows, Who Cares”
– Praying that Local Natives plays “Sun Hands” as their encore song, as it was basically meant to be an encore song, and them doing just that. It was the closest to moshing I’ve ever been.
– Taylor shaking my hand from stage and putting his guitar pick in my hand just before the group leaves the stage for the night.
– MEETING TAYLOR, RYAN, AND NICK AFTER THE PERFORMANCE. Snagged some signatures, photos, and got to chat a bit at the merch table. My friend and I were instantly recognized as “the girls from the front!”. I also got to talk to the guys about how their performance more than made up for my rainy Gov Ball experience in June.
I had the night of my life
(Additional Note: The Zoom Function on my camera was not once used that evening)
The pedal board was just that close.
Sun Hands
My friend and I with Ryan
music movies la mode 