Digital Love Show Review... more like a recap

I headed to The Independent for the first time on Friday night. SPEAK was releasing their debut EP "Hear Here." Love at 20 was debuting live for the first time ever. This would be my first time seeing Josh Mills' new band Missions. A night of firsts all around.

My overall impression of The Independent is that this is a cute little venue. I love that I don't have to cross I-35 to get to there. It's a quick ride from my house and that equals WIN. The intimate room is perfect for shows like this and the stage lighting gave me some awesome photos.

Love at 20
For this show being this band's debut, they were on top of it. I've heard their album "Time to Begin" many times so I was really familiar with the material and more or less knew what to expect. I chatted with drummer Mark Toohey waiting in line for drinks and he mentioned that the band got together in December and had to learned the entire album. Very impressive first show. The addition of female vocals from Amber Zook gave the songs a nice touch. Frontman Mike Groener had a little trouble with those high notes but I'm sure with more practice and less nerves, he'll be fine at future shows. This is definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Missions
This band was interesting to say the least. Not saying I didn't like it, but after seeing Mills performing in a clap happy dance band in the previous years, this was an unexpected change. Missions still has that dance capability to them but compared to Clap!Clap!, it's like a darker goth-like electronica band. It seemed with the crowd that they either loved them or wanted them to get off the stage so they could get their sugary fill from SPEAK.

SPEAK
What can I say about this band? This is my third time seeing them in the last 3 months. As always, they delivered a fun show. What makes them great in my eyes is that they obviously enjoy performing whether it's their originals or their covers. Guitarist Nick Hurt and bassist Joey Delahoussaye are so enjoyable to watch as they continuously shimmy their glasses off their faces.

By the way, how awesome are those names? These band members have great distinguishable names. Alongside Hurt and Delahoussaye, there is also vocalist Troupe Gammage and drummer Jake Stewart. And I learned that Gammage is a IV which mean there are 3 other people out there rocking that name. Amazing.

Anyway, SPEAK did a two part set which means after they did their first set of originals including songs from the new EP and an awesome rendition of Simple Mind's "Don't You (Forget About Me)," the guys took a short break before coming back with a new wardrobe (most likely as a refreshing change from their sweat drenched clothing) and did an entire set of love-themed cover songs in honor of Valentine's Day.

Unfortunately for me, I have Saturday morning class. (Yes I know and lesson learned: I will never ever schedule a class on Saturdays again.) So that meant I had to leave early and ended up missing the entire covers set. I did catch the first song which was Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" but keeping up with twitter, I learned that I missed Britney Spears' "Toxic" and an amazingly on point cover of "I Will Always Love You." The fact that I didn't witness this is now included on my list of "life's biggest regrets" for sure.