Sacred Hearts Club Meeting

I had the pleasure of checking out Foster The People SHC secret Show, which really isn’t a secret show as it was posted on their Instagram.

“SHC is a raw expression of what it was like when we first started playing music. stripped down. punk. community. no barriers. no money. no rules. it’s all about the music. first come first serve til we’re at capacity. put your phones away and pretend it’s CBGB’s, New York circa 1981. see you there. “ - Foster The People, Instagram

While Foster The People are currently on tour with Paramore (You can still buy tickets at: http://www.paramore.net/tour), they decided to do a few non-arenas shows and get back to the root of their music. Intimate small venues to showcase new music in the works.

Now, this is going to be more of an entry in a personal blog and not a full report as this experience will be better suited to actually going to one of these shows. By the time this is posted there will be only a few shows left.  If you are in the area shortcut answer: Go to the show! You’ll love the experience and hear new music.

So, I’ll knock a few questions you might be wondering. I didn’t have to sign up on a list to get in, just got there early enough to get in the venue. I did pay to get in but for another reason which I’ll explain later. This venue was a 21+ club seeing how they serve alcohol and were not going to mark you for being underage since most of the clientele were above the age of forty. More on that later.

So I arrived pretty early, roughly eight o’clock. (Normally, I would actually be there super early but I had some conflicting issue). Now, the Outer Limit Lounge already had a line up set in stone for Friday (with Foster appearing to perform at 11pm). Because of that, there was a ten dollar cover charge for those performers and not Foster. You had to be there at 10 in order to avoid those cover charge. Which is fine, I’m always down to support local bands.

The two acts that were there were fantastic but yet dumbfounded at what to do with such a younger crowd. There was a lot of bad “We are too old for you” jokes and a ton of eye rolls. Now for the crowd, as I mentioned were over the age of forty and were an absolute riot. The Foster fans didn’t know what they had come as one of the Outer limit Lounge regular known as Rockstar Gary made that clear. Completely wasted, Rockstar Gary was dancing as if he was the last remaining member of a mosh pit. I’m someone who is used to this kind of drunk but to people who are not this was a shocker for them. This wouldn’t be the first shocker of the night. The band Paybacks (who were the headliners) actually one of my favorites out of the two were the most obnoxious when it came to communicating to the Foster fans.

Now right after the Paybacks performed, Foster the People arrive relatively right after the stage was cleared. The added difference compare to their normal shows a was a music stand with a binder filled with lyrics. Something Mark would check or read/sing from time to time. The show was pretty fast pasted and filled with new songs, old songs, covers (One from Iggy Pop and the other from Sweet), and just a better feeling overall. I barely saw any phones out which was refreshing ( I would have use mine if it wasn’t for the fact I was at 3%) and the atmosphere was entertaining.

I found myself enjoying the interactions between Mark with the fans on a personal level (by means of facepalming, falling back on to them and rubbing their hair). They reacted with such thrill and joy and even a few moments during the show, Mark was messing with me and my camera (wish I had better footage of that) by means of caressing the camera lens. I can’t really describe it without some form of regret of better choice lens/ just in general.

After they were done with their set, they left as soon as they arrived. A few people gathered around the van to watch them load and leave, and that’s it. The night for me continued with their playlist on repeat on the road back home. It was a fun night to remember. I had the chance to photograph Foster Last year at Mopop Music Festival but that night was a little more personal.

If you like more of this please let me know, I’ll make a personal section.