When we arrived at the Cone Denim Entertainment Center in downtown Greensboro on a rainy Tuesday afternoon for a Foals concert, we were a little confused. We saw the typical people you expect at concerts — the frat bros who are attending the “most indy concert ever,” the cool parents that are having a few blissful moments away from their kids screaming to hear some other parent’s teenagers scream, and then there was us — two reporters trying to figure out where to pick up our tickets.
First off, shout out to whomever decided a print and photojournalist from Chapel Hill deserved free tickets to cover this show. We do not understand why we were granted these tickets or what the goal was in having us attend, and were honestly surprised they were real. But yeah, we appreciate it.
Anyways, the concert hall was once a movie theatre and boasted a balcony with VIP seating. Needless to say we were not up there. While the balcony was mostly for spectators to sit, sip their cocktails, and watch, the opening band Joywave was unable to fit the pianist on stage, so they stuck him in the balcony. He stood apart from the rest of his band, hovering above, affectionately being called the concert’s Phantom of the Opera.
This opener was one of the few bands that was able to get the crowd to do anything. We have been to concerts where the opener probably could not have motivated the audience to leave in case of a fire. Joywave, through their lead singer Daniel Armbruster managed at one point to get the entire crowd to take a knee.
"I am on stage, respect me," he said, and the crowd listened. That was borderline miraculous, and Armbruster should be considered a great motivationalist for being able to pull it off.
Their upbeat mix of techno and 80’s rock was fun and refreshing. It was sad to see the show relegated to only a “half-power-hour.”
We came out to see Foals though, and they did not disappoint. We were unsure if they were headlining, but that did not detract from their show. In addition to being a great rock band, the light show was incredible.
The best song of the night had to be towards the end of the Foals' set. They played one of their big songs, Inhaler, and in combination with the lights and crowd surfing, it turned out to be a highlight of our night.
We had to leave briefly into the Silversun Pickups show due to our trek back to Chapel Hill — the Tuesday night showtime was not the most inclusive to being carefree. While we can confirm it was a great show, we unfortunately do not have a lot to say about them. However, on the way back to the car we did see a rat running across the street which really cemented the night for us.
