Teenage girl blogs about music. That's all.

Since seventh grade, Guster has been one of my favorite bands.  Now, it’s crucial to note that my music taste has changed a lot since seventh grade.  In those days, I was hooked on any band that sang a sad song (Dashboard Confessional, Fall Out Boy, Plain White T’s.  Ugh.) but somehow my taste led me to Guster and they’re one of the few bands I still listen to and love.  I’ve seen Guster twice before in concert, both times at Wolf Trap, a beautiful outdoor venue.  Seeing them play there became one of my favorite summer rituals, especially since they often toured with my favorite singer-songwriters (Ray LaMontagne, Pete Yorn).  After touring for “Ganging Up on the Sun,” though, the members of Guster had some babies and took a well-deserved break.

Over the summer, I caught wind that they were planning a seven-date tour in support of the 10-year anniversary of “Lost and Gone Forever.”  Lucky for me, two of these dates were in D.C.!  So, I picked up tickets for the Friday night show and waited in anticipation for October 3o.  Which, of course, was last night.

Basically, the show was awesome.  Guster played two sets: the first was a mix of songs from all of their albums, and the second was “Lost and Gone Forever” in its entirety.  The opened the first set with one of my all-time favorite songs of theirs, “Ramona.”  This tune was a great choice to kick the show off- upbeat, and a chorus made for singing-along.  The crowd was in a fantastic mood and everybody was bopping (not dancing, bopping) along to every song and singing choruses with earnest devotion.  Guster’s brand of rootsy power pop has held up very well over the years; Even songs from their earliest albums are fun and fresh sounding live.  In this first set, the band covered tunes from albums as old as “Goldfly” and as new as…unreleased! (Yes, the band played a few wonderful new tracks that will hopefully make an appearance on next year’s new album).

The second set was a fun and vibrant run-through of “Lost and Gone Forever.”  For most of these tracks, Guster brought horn and string players on stage to enhance the sound- to great effect.  “Fa Fa” + the horn section that appears on the album= Perfect.  On “All the Way Up To Heaven,” a small children’s choir came on stage to perform harmony and whistle.  It was as adorable as it sounds.

For their encore, Guster played “Hang On,” “Airport Song” (ping-pong balls aplenty!), and a literally unplugged version of “Jesus on the Radio.”  This last song was a highlight of the set- it sounded like the best camp sing-along ever.  Guster may have some cheerful and pitch-perfect pop albums, but to see them live is the best way to take them in.