needtobreathe | 09.13.2014

the first time i saw needtobreathe, i paid around $12 and watched them play in a room with maybe 50 other people. my friends insisted that i go, describing to me the beauty that is seth bolt, but also going on about how great the show was, how great the music was, and mostly, how great seth's hair was.

i was blown away. i had never experienced live music the way i had that night. it didn't matter that i didn't really know any of their songs, only listening to a handful before seeing them played live. it didn't matter that it was the most awkward venue and the most awkward crowd (shout out to the connecticut music scene). i left the show that night making plans to buy tickets and road trip to boston so i could experience it all over again two and a half weeks later. i left the show that night changed in ways i couldn't have known at the time, and maybe will never fully realize.

looking back, you could say it was the start of everything. after all, their opening band that night would be the reason i have the job i have today. it's crazy to look back and remember, and see how little dots connected along the way. and it's been amazing, and bittersweet, to see how much they've grown and changed too. i wasn't there in the very beginning, but close enough to it, i think. and now, to see them play, in nashville (hello, "girl named tennessee" IN tennessee), with thousands of other people, is absolutely incredible. their live show is still at the top of my list, one of the very best i've seen.

a lot of it was the same. rock and roll and bo swinging his hips. but with the new songs came stories about where they've been in the last couple years or so. i was a little surprised to hear bear talk about it as much as he did, but i enjoyed the honestly and the realness. and, as always, i love hearing stories behind songs.

apparently, with the band on the verge of breaking up after mixing up their priorities, "wasteland" was the original title of the album, because that's what it felt like for them. it changed to rivers in the wasteland after they reconciled with each other because they found hope in the wasteland. "brother" was written about bear, by bo, after they spent six weeks or so without talking to each other.

the finished off as they usually do, 'unplugged,' with "more heart, less attack," which has a bit of a new meaning, knowing a little more about what they've been through.

be more heart, and less attack.