Concert Review: Moose Blood

By Nicole Wolf
Photojournalist

I had the opportunity to see Moose Blood, the emo-punk English band, on their headlining tour in Dallas, TX back in February 2017 as well as an opening band for A Day to Remember back in October 2017. So, of course, I immediately bought tickets to their next tour when they announced they would be stopping in Austin on March 28, 2018. The day before the concert, and even the morning of, there was heavy rain. I didn’t really think much of it until I remembered that Historic Scoot Inn is an outdoor venue! However, I was determined to not let a little rain get in the way of me seeing Moose Blood.

Thankfully the rain stopped a few hours before the concert was to start. I arrived at Scoot Inn when doors opened at six o’clock so that I left myself plenty of time to watch the opening bands. The first band that performed was McCafferty, a punk-rock band from Medina, Ohio. I had never listened to their music before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from their performance. As soon as they started their first song, I knew I was going to enjoy their performance. Between the lead singer Nick Hartkop’s funny facial expressions and the band’s explosive energy, McCafferty put on an incredible performance that had the whole crowd dancing and singing along. The second opening band was Lydia, an indie-rock band from Gilbert, Arizona. I had seen them open for another band, PVRIS, a few years ago so I knew they were going to play a great set. Their first song “When It Gets Dark Out” amped up the crowd for the rest of their set.

The highly anticipated Moose Blood took the stage and started their set with their new popular single, “Talk In Your Sleep.” The opening guitar solo made the crowd go insane, screaming with excitement. Eddy Brewerton, the lead singer, struggled with the high notes which I thought was odd because he never had a problem with them in previous performances. They finished their first couple of songs then took a break to welcome the crowd and tune their instruments. Brewerton apologized for not being able to hit the high notes–because he was recovering from laryngitis. After revealing why he was having trouble, the crowd sang even louder when they noticed Brewerton struggling. There were times when he would take a short break from the song and allow the crowd to sing the next couple of lines to the song. You could tell Brewerton was grateful for their fans and it made him smile every time the crowd sang for him. Moose Blood ended their set with “It’s Too Much” off their most recent record, which is my favorite song. I was surprised they chose to end with this song because it’s slow for the first three minutes, but the guitar picks up the energy at the end. Even with Brewerton having laryngitis, Moose Blood nailed every song they played.

The rain held off for the whole show until the last note when it started the drizzle again. It was like Mother Nature had hit the pause button on the rain, allowing the crowd to stay dry for the whole show and then pressed play when it was over. This show was by far my favorite performance I’ve seen of Moose Blood’s. Brewerton seemed to genuinely be having a great time despite the fact that he had laryngitis because the crowd was there for him. I highly recommend seeing Moose Blood the next time they come to town.