Article and Photos by: Casey Steinmiller
KANSAS CITY – Located in downtown Kansas City in the Power & Light District, the Arvest Bank Theater at The Midland is a eloquent concert venue with a very classy feel. It has a max capacity of three-thousand with a multi-tiered floor as well as a large upper balcony that overlooks the main area.
A crowd of around fifteen hundred gathered on to the main floor to wait the first act. CRUISR an Indie- Pop band based out of Philadelphia opened up the show. They had a very energetic, up-beat feel, with catchy lyrics that even someone who has never heard of them could appreciate. A relatively short, but enjoyable set featuring songs such as Throw Shade, Kidnap Me, as well as a few other singles made for a great opener.
After a quick set change and lots of floral pieces added onto the stage WATERS took the stage. With origins based in Oslo Norway but a home in San Francisco, WATERS an alternative band with a hippy feel. With high energy they played songs off of their new album “What’s Real” such as Rebel Yell and Got to My Head. At one point in the set Sara Damert the keyboardist, grabbed a bouquet of flowers and started throwing them into the crowd. One of their final songs they made sure to have audience participation by playing Wrecking Ball originally performed by Miley Cyrus. The set finished and the crowd patiently awaited Misterwives.
Silence came over the venue, fog rolled out onto the stage and the crowd erupted into applause as Misterwives took the stage. They opened up with the song Best I Can Do showing off their unique use of pop infused with a trumpet and saxophone. After a brief introduction they continued into the songs No Need for Dreaming, Hurricane, Coffins, and Vagabond. Before moving onto the next song Mandy Lee, the lead singer, began doing push-ups on stage for gender equality, calling out societies standards for men and women are total B.S. They then moved onto the song Queens. After that the group took a picture with the crowd to put into their scrapbook, because the name of the tour was the “Scrapbook Tour”.
Immediately after they covered the song I Can’t Feel My Face by The Weekend. Misterwives has some very dedicated fans who travel from hours away to see them and sing along. The next song they played was Reflections and the whole crowd chanted along. They finished with the song Our Own House. After some waiting and the crowd screaming their lungs out the drummer got back onto stage for an encore and started playing solo and eventually was joined by the rest of the band to cover the song I Wanna Dance With Somebody originally sung by Whitney Houston. They brought an audience member onto the stage to dance with the band and then moved into the next song after he was sent back into the crowd. They closed down the venue by playing Imagination Infatuation which included a drum breakdown by the whole band as well as a trumpet and saxophone solo. After a thunderous applause the band finally left the stage and the crowd left the venue. Overall a great show with an extremely energetic audience.
