I the Mighty with Anberlin
Anberlin was plying a reunion tour, and my I the Mighty boys opened. They played Irving Plaza in NYC two nights in a row, and obviously I was at both, as well as the Boston show.
House of Blues — Boston 7/5/19
I had a job interview in NYC in the morning, then had to literally RUN to catch the bus to Boston for this show. I was super friggin sweaty by the time I got there, and I had to change clothes in a Burger King bathroom we stopped at on the way.
I the Mighty and Anberlin were playing at the House of Blues, and right across the street was Fenway Park, where Phish happened to be playing that night. There were WAYYYYYY too many people there, and they all had these like… nitrous something or other balloons? They freaked me out, and they were literally everywhere. It was a lot.
I the Mighty
Lying Eyes of Miss Erray
Cave In
Four Letter Words
Degenerates
The Dreamer
Playing Catch with .22
I met up with Cram and his kid Tristan at the venue. It was a small group of us that night. The three of us were pretty much the pit. We attempted to mosh but it didn’t go super well. Cram just kinda picked me up a few times to sing at the band, kinda just showing them where we were. They seemed happy to see us.
Cram also picked Tristan up during “Cave In.”
A random dude was happy to see us kinda moshing and ended up buying Connector after their set which was really cool.
Anberlin
Godspeed
Never Take Friendship Personal
Paperthin Hymn
Hello Alone
Adelaide
A Day Late
Ready Fuels
Impossible
Down
Blase
Inevitable
Unwinding Cable Car
Other Side
We Are Destroyer
Self-Starter
Someone Anyone
Resistance
Dismantle Repair
Feel Good Drag
Turns out I knew most Anberlin songs than I thought I did. I think I might’ve heard them in Anna’s car, probably.
I the Mighty didn’t come out until after Anberlin’s set. Cram had to run and move his car, so I got pics of Tristan with Blake for him. T’s getting TALL.
Someone told Chris he should be in a metal band, and I said he could get a wig to wear on metal nights and take it off for ITM.
Chris: “This is why we pay Lindsay the big bucks.”
Me: “The whole zero dollars and I’m still always here.”
Irving Plaza — NYC Night 1: 7/6/19
When I got to the venue, I was immediately surprised by Maryam, who left the country a while ago. She didn’t move back, just visiting for a little while, but it was luckily overlapping with I the Mighty!
Everyone in line went in and I hung back to go meet up with Niki and Jason instead. They were at JBat’s restaurant with their ETIDiot friends Mike and Spencer, and Biz joined us pretty soon after that. We got pre-show dinner and JBat sent us free whiskey shots.
Blake and his girlfriend Natalie were there too, so we bothered him for a bit, and then headed to Irving.
I the Mighty
Psychomachia
Pet Names
Lying Eyes of Miss Erray
Cave In
Four Letter Words
Degenerates
The Dreamer
Playing Catch with .22
Silver Tongues
Oh my god, there was an angry old woman near the pit who kept giving Niki death glares??? And like “punching” people who got too close to her??? The heck???
A lot of Anberlin fans hated us for trying to have some fun.
Jason “crowdsurfed” Niki all the way to the front because no one took her from him. It was sad.
Apparently he did the same for me too. I went up during the Matches line in “Degenerates” like the obnoxious piece of shit I am. As I was trying to get back to the pit, a random girl told me it was the prettiest, most graceful crowdsurf she’d ever seen. Little did I know that it was because Jason literally carried me the whole way lolllll
The whole crew was in the pit because all the Anberlin VIPs got barricade. Corey crowdsurfed at one point, which made me happy. I remember his first crowdsurf, it’s like my ITM babies are growing up in front of me.
Dude behind us: “They’ve clearly never been to a metal show before.”
Ummm this isn’t a metal show??? And what does that even mean???
During their whole set, Chris was embarrassing Jason from the stage by just talking about how much he loves him. It was cute af.
We hung out downstairs on the couches after their set, talking about Stranger Things and I caught up with Biz quite a bit. We’ve been fighting on and off for like… over a year at this point, but this show was a good time for our friendship and it was nice talking again.
I had to leave at 10 to get to yet another show. World Inferno was playing at Brooklyn Bazaar the same night, and I had an hour to get there, even after I the Mighty AND hanging out with the crew for a little while.
Everyone claimed they’d still be hanging out when I got back, but I knew damn well they wouldn’t be lmao. So obviously I missed all of Anberlin’s set this show, but I didn’t mind.
Irving Plaza — NYC Night 2: 7/7/19
Night 2, instead of Niki and Jason and Zach and Kailyn, we had Peter and Anna and Sean and Fenn. I got drinks with Peter and Anna before the show.
I the Mighty played almost the same set as the previous nights, but this time they traded out “Playing Catch with .22” for “Speak to Me” because they love us.
This crowd was slightly better than the night before. The vibe just seemed better.
Anna screamed the Matches line of “Degenerates” with me and I turned and hugged her and screamed “I LOVE YOU” cuz she gets me.
During “Silver Tongues,” Anna crowdsurfed, and so did a guy behind her at the same time. So no one was helping with the other dude, so Biz had him and I tried to help, we kinda threw him, but then he immediately went down. Whoops.
I later found out that he fell on Maryam. She will never let me live that down.
“Remember that time you dropped a full grown man on me?”
Also during “Silver Tongues,” Ian got up high toward the end of the song to play, and Biz kinda followed suit, and had people pick him up so he could air guitar on top of the crowd. It was really funny, I died laughing. Security didn’t know what to do about him.
Biz fell in the pit a lot for some reason. The first time, I ended up holding one of his feet and I overestimated my strength thinking we could all hoist him up and throw him on top of the crowd to surf, but instead I ended up on my ass as well. Whoops lol
A photographer caught me derping at ITM’s merch table after their set as Marion sang “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts.”
Brent sang “Unwinding Cable Car” with Anberlin. I loooooved it.
He told us beforehand and I was like “I’m gonna be downstairs” and he’s hugging me like “You aren’t gonna watch me?” It was cute hahaha, so I did.
Alyssa had a photopass and gave me a hard time for not crowdsurfing this show. Corey asked if I just got dropped, but nah, just no surfing for me tonight.
This was the last show at Irving for about 8 months while they do renovations, so they gave us free posters and free Irving Plaza socks which was… something.
Chris: “Who’s the best?”
Us: “NYC!”
Brent: “Where do we want it? In the butt!”
A guy in an apartment above us came down to scold us for yelling. Sorry not sorry, not our fault you chose to live across the street from a popular music venue, my dude.
Eventually I went to IHOP with Marion, Kryzia, and Corey. Apparently IHOP is the new post-show hangs since 99 Miles to Philly closed.
