Kindness

I recently saw Kindness play at U Street Music Hall in D.C. It was the best $15 I've ever spent. Before seeing him, I'd only heard a little bit of his music. I liked it but wasn't super into him. After seeing his show, I'm a fan for life, and I'll pay any amount of money to see him. There were lots of great moments, but three really stood out for me. 1. One of his band members is from D.C. and his parents were supposed to come to the show but were running late. He stopped the show and asked the guy if he could call his parents to see where they were. When they said they were 20 minutes away, Kindness stalled the show (in a fun and not obnoxious way) so they wouldn't miss as much time seeing their son play. 2. Some people in the front were taking video on their cellphones. Kindness started taking their phones and giving them to his band members so they could take video from on stage. He even huddled near some of the fans and took video with him. 3. Between songs, a group of girls were being kind of loud. He started talking to them and eventually had them all get up on stage and dance with his band during one of their songs. I've never been to show like that. The bar has been set quite high for live shows now.

Kindness put on an amazing show complete with horn players, backup singers, he made a phone call to Blood Orange, danced with the crowd and turned the whole place into a big dance party.

So fun, improvisational, experimental and playful. Not what I was expecting at all, but much better.