"if ever you come near I'll hold up high a mirror,

Lord, I could never show you anything as beautiful as you."


Aaron Weiss, mewithoutYou

Last night I headed up to Cleveland's Grog Shop, the same Cleveland venue where I saw Anathallo last winter. Last night's show worthy of the trek from central Ohio was mewithoutYou. While standing in line for the show Billy spotted our friend Mark. We met Mark in Kent, OH, at a psalters show. Turns out another friend we met at that show were there also, Steve. We joined up with Mark, Steve, Cara, Rob, and some others and enjoyed ourselves at Que Tal?, an independently-owned chipotle-esque restaurant in the area. Steve told me about what's been happening at The Simple Way this week. I hadn't checked their website in bit and apparently it was due time.

In short, there was a huge fire that destroyed the Simple Way Community Center, along with many other houses in the neighborhood and cars. Many people have lost everything. It is a good opportunity to pray for the famlies of Potter St, H St, etc. as well as The Simple Way, that God would provide for them, and that this would point to Jesus and our need for Him above material possessions and even shelter. To read more or make a donation to the community or the neighbors click the link titled "The Simple Way" in my links section (scroll down a bit and it's on your right).

After good conversation we returned to the Grog Shop and heard Manchester Orchestra and Piebald before mewithoutYou. They were both talented for their respective genres, but what I liked most was the lead singer of Piebald getting on the shoulders of another band mate and wailing on his guitar over the crowd. I was happy when mewithoutYou bumbled onto the stage. Aside from their music being a glorious and tumultuous spiritual journey, I namely went to hear "In A Sweater Poorly Knit" performed live. If I didn't indulge in their particular style of music, I could still appreciate them for the poetry they put to page:



"A fish swims through the sea,
while the sea is in a certain sense
contained within the fish!
Ah, what am I to think
of what the writings of a thousand lifetimes
could not explain
if all the forest trees were pens
and all the oceans ink?"


The mewithoutYou mosh pit was the most intense I've ever been in. It wasn't even a mosh pit. There was less moshing/hardcore-ing and more violent-bone-crushing-sways. I've experienced my fair share of such movement at shows, but the ebb and flow of such a crowd has never been so powerful as to sway me backward so far that the people in front of me weighed me to the ground. After the pressure landed me there, countless individuals faced the same plight-- on top of me. All around me also. People were just piling up and stepping all over me. I heard the music from a distance thinking, "Of all the shows I could get trampled to death at I never would have pegged it as a mewithoutYou show, is this possible?" Also, "Does the band realize that 1/2 of the crowd is horizontal?"

I watched people get pulled up all around me and finally I was the only one remaining. Some kid behind me grabbed my arms and pulled me up, asking if I was okay. I'm not sure if I answered, I mostly adjusted to the new coordinates I consumed.

Somehow, after I was standing, Billy ended up next to me and after getting sufficient bruising (mind you, I'm not complaining about this, I'm actually a sucker for so-passionate-we-move-and-don't-stop shows and fully expect it) we fought our way out of the pit to the tune of "O'porcupine!"

Apparently this was a good time to leave, because the lyrics actually go:

"while in my little world...
a speckled bird humbly inspired
ran across the road when it could have flown
and it made me smile"

But Aaron sang it like this:
"while in my little world...
people might be getting crushed.
Really, are you guys okay,
Maybe you should slow down."

Ah, yes, well anyway, I'm thankful for good friends from different places & for lyric & for the various means I have to these things & for the reason to do all things, to partake in and find joy in these things...