Northern Room "Galaxy" (23.2 MB) from Last Embrace High Noon Saloon Madison, WI April 21, 2008

Last year's free Jack Daniel's show with OK Go was a lot of fun, but I was somewhat skeptical about this year's show featuring the Bravery. As much as I liked their first album, their second left me completely cold. But, it's a free show, and the opening act is a Milwaukee band I'd been hoping for the chance to see, and it was certainly worth a few hours of my time. If nothing else, we got some free Jack-branded drumsticks just in case our Rock Band sticks break.

Opening the show was Northern Room, who were way too big for the venue. That is to say, their approach seemed like it was from a theater- or arena-style show, and a headlining gig at that. I think it worked for some of the crowd, but other seemed taken aback by the notion that they ought to know the songs or be singing along. I like their album well enough, and this was one of the tunes I was really interested in hearing (the other, "We're on Fire," was held for the closer).