Washington DC concertgoers flocked to the 9:30 Club on April 25th to see Blue October and Mona! The 9:30 Club is situated right on the corner of 9th and V ST NW in DC; directly behind the club you’ll find three places pay to park as well as the street. The crowd fills the venue and the word on the street was they couldn’t wait to see the “new” Blue October; the crowd was quite interested in MONA whom they had never heard of. You could feel the excitement amongst the crowd; this crowd was pumped and couldn’t wait until show time!
The opening act, MONA, an alternative band that was from the Midwest is now located in Nashville, TN. MONA had the crowd pumped and wanting more. Nick Brown swooned the crowd with his velvety lyrics while tickling the keys and Justin Wilson threw down some deep heavy badass beats! The consensus from the crowd that night….MONA was a kickass band! The only think lacking just a little from this dynamic duo was more time on stage, although the crowd couldn’t wait for Blue October, they thoroughly enjoyed MONA!
The lights went out, not even a dim light was to be found on stage before Blue October entered -- you could barely make out who was on stage; the crowd started to scream as lead singer Justin takes his spot front and center…. and then all hell broke loose! Chanting, singing, cell phones out recording as Blue October dominated the stage with their very first song. Frontman Justin Furstenfeld wooed the crowd with his swaying hips, lush atmospheric songs, singing about fears, why life is beautiful and recognizing everyday miracles. Three songs later it was time to exit the pit area, frontman Furstenfeld fist bumped the us on our way out.
Blue October wasn’t in an awesome space many years ago, Justin spoke candidly to the crowd about the song “Into the Ocean” which is about a boy who jumps off the bow of a ship into retrospect realizes what he has done when the ship starts to float away. Speaking so candidly about this song to the crowd, Justin openly spoke about how he battled depression and how beautiful his life is now.
The band is in a really, really good place now; everyone is happy and healthy, and listening to past songs compared to their newest ninth album I Hope You’re Happy you can feel that. The album feels like a complete 180 turn around, the crowd couldn’t have been any happier. The venue was filled with tried and true Blue October followers, some who traveled quite the distance just to see a show; the crowd agreed its Blue October's best album yet! Justin found pure happiness six years ago, which birthed the song “Your Love is Like A Car Crash,” this song is about a boy who is so dang smitten with his beautiful lady that he just can’t deal to live without her, he’s pleading his love to her as she walks down the street with another. Blue October played this song towards the end of the show, it was a sexy show stopper none the less. Justin decked out in a white button down shirt lights on him projecting his silhouette on the back of the stage while he swayed seductively for the crowd.
The band is well unified, they go together like peanut butter and jelly; Blue Octoner play into the crowds emotions with their instrumental cohesion while frontman Justin hits the crowd sonically, doing what he does best throwing out lyrics that speak volumes to his followers.
The gamble of happy music has paid off and in a big way, True Blue fans were estatic over the new material; as I walked out of the venue taking it all in; I couldn't help but notice more guys than girls were connecting by what Furstenfeld was singing about: they were belting out his songs with deep emotions. It’s safe to say that it doesn’t matter what frontman Furstenfeld sings about, true followers will go to the ends of the earth to hear what Furstenfeld has to say lyrically.