Concert Review - Cage the Elephant w/ As Tall As Lions and Morning Teleportation

February 19, 2010
The Orange Peel
Asheville, NC

By: Alex Mayfield

Most people at the show on Friday were ready to hear “that one song” from Cage the Elephant. Not too many were worried about the other bands on the ticket. However, as the show started, band number one kicked off the concert in a surprisingly good way. Morning Teleportation is a funk-tastic, trippy, Modest Mouse like band, that wasn’t bad at all. Though the band doesn’t have a lot to spend on merchandise, (Their albums were burned onto computer disk and sold in paper covers) they played a show that astonished everyone. Unlike most bands that start off a show, Morning Teleportation burned their trippy funk into our minds for an experience that was (for lack of a better word) fun. And they sure beat the hell out of the following band.

As Tall as Lions came up pretty short. The biggest flaw of ATAL is that their show is flat out annoying. The lead singer was whiney, the bass player made love to the microphone while saying he wanted some “buddy to buy me beer, and some LADIES,” (Yes I referenced Demetri Martin) and the drummer posed for an Abercrombie advertisement with every drum hit. The band acted as if they were deeper and better than they really were. I hope they know that the only reason anyone clapped for them is because we all kept thinking they were done so we could see Cage the Elephant, but NOOOOOO. They had to continue playing way longer than anyone should have let them. (Is it bad to want to get refunded for free tickets?) The only achievement that ATAL had all night was that they arguably had the cooler looking t-shirts. Congrats to them. As ATAL finished up the crowd got ready to hear the band they came for.

Cage the Elephant finally comes out to the new fans they have acquired and start the show. Cage the Elephant had way more energy than anyone else at the show. By playing majority of the album, one new song, and a couple covers, they kept the show going at a decent length. The fans cheered and some left once they finally heard “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” such as the group of girls right next to me. It’s a shame that they missed quite the finale where Lead Singer Matt Schultz crowd surfed all the way to the exit out the back of the venue. Cage the Elephant put on a pretty decent show, which is lucky because Matt Schultz seemed way more hammered than he should have been, falling over several times Dewey Cox Style. (I make references in my reviews, please keep up.) But the show didn’t suffer and at the end of the night, I felt that I saw a pretty decent show. Cage the Elephant delivered and Morning Teleportation surprised everybody. You can skip As Tall as Lions next time they play a show near you.