HIGH WAISTED AND TEEN COMMANDMENTS TAKE A BOAT RIDE

When I first received the invite for High Waisted at sea I knew immediately that it would be the perfect party to end the summer. For one it was a concert on a boat and two it was being thrown by High Waisted, a band that is known for their partying ways. Here is an example: their only recorded music currently available was recorded after stopping in Nashville on a road trip back home from SXSW. They found a haunted house, took some acid set up their equipment and the result is the appropriately named The Acid Tapes, vol. 1.

The Facebook invite for High Waisted at sea, which was sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon, promised an amazing line up: Prinze George, Teen Commandments, Mainland and of course High Waisted. It also promised an open bar, face painting, a photo booth and conga lines. All of which they delivered on except for the conga lines but I’ll let that one slide. My friend and I found the photo booth within minutes of getting on the boat. We looked at each other knowing that the combination of the photo booth plus the open bar would equal trouble. We were right. Somewhere there are way too many pictures of us with random people including one of us with Brett from Teen Commandments with our faces painted.

Shortly after everyone finished boarding the boat the members of High Waisted began gathering their instruments and performing a sound check. I was a little surprised as they were preparing to take the stage first. The boat began to pull away from the dock and the band began to play. Jessica, the female front of the band, said they were playing first so that “we can party with you guys after”. Aha. Made perfect sense. They started their set with an instrumental that sounded like it could be a 1960’s surf classic. In fact most of their songs sound as though they could be straight from the 60’s surf wave but with a rock and roll edge doused in distortion. I was familiar with High Waisted’s stage presence and music style as this was not the first time I have seen them play. Their set often reminds me of what it would be like to take a beach party and transplant it to the middle of NYC. Because essentially that is what they do and on this boat littered with balloons and water guns, it was no different. High Waisted killed it on stage thus setting the tone for this crazy boat party.

A few drinks later, a visit from Brett of Teen Commandments with the before mentioned face paint followed by a few stops at the photo booth and then suddenly Teen Commandments were performing. I was having a blast. I had seen them play once before but only caught the last song of their set. They were basically new to me. I was captivated by Brett’s energy. He bounced around on stage with such enthusiasm and the crowd was happy to bounce around with him. I found myself at one point too busy dancing along to their synth pop music and not taking enough photographs.

It was a sad moment when I realized the boat had docked for the night and they were kicking us off. The night had been full of rocking bands and debauchery as promised. High Waisted at sea was definitely a crazy party making it the highlight of the summer and I am glad I didn’t miss it. If you have a chance to catch these guys play, do it. You will not be disappointed.

Article by: Chrissy Lush