At The Stars and The Cured at the National

After seeing Richmond rock band At The Stars perform several times in small venues and bars, I finally get to see them play on a stage meant for their presence.

The stage at the National Theater has boasted some big name acts and the size of it reflects that. It was nice to see At The Stars on that stage and not crammed in a small space. The bigger stage allowed the band to breathe a bit more and expand their sound which filled the halls of the National quite nicely. Their Brit-pop influenced style has never sounded better. And the guys looked right at home up there too.

Their set was full of crowd favorites as well as tracks from their upcoming album, which comes out later this Fall (not soon enough in my opinion).

This Is The Way
When Words Won't Come
from October/November/December (buy here)



Next up were the headliners of the night -- The Cured, a tribute band to The Cure. The second they got on stage, I felt like I had traveled back in time. It was as if The Cure themselves were on stage. It's one thing when a tribute band just plays the songs like the original band. It's another thing when they actually become the band from the hair to the voices.

"Robert Smith" in all his wild hair and British-accented glory, spoke to the audience: "Hello Richmond. Welcome to 1989."

Cure fans were losing it left and right as the night turned into one wild 80s-riffic dance party. One that I kind of didn't want to end.

Just Like Heaven
Pictures of You

Watch this video to see The Cured in action. It's something worth seeing.