Last Saturday, I went to see The Like Young and a few other bands at the Courtyard Cafe in Urbana IL and it was easily the oddest show I've ever been too but also one of the most memorable. There were glaring sound problems from the very beginning, in fact before The Like Young started Joe got into a small feud with the sound guy over how loud he wanted to turn his guitar up (apparantly there's sound limitations at this venue). The band started and I was really shocked at how aggressive and loud this seemingly cute couple were (whoever described them as "Mates of State with guitars" was way off). They tore through their setlist and created more sound than two people should ever have the right too.

The odd part was that we couldn't hear the vocals at all. The crowd brought it up in between songs and the band got into another mini-feud with the sound guy which revealed that because the guitar was up so loud the sound guy couldn't turn the vocals on. Any normal band would have turned their guitar down a few notches at this point but, The Like Young, I think actually turned their sound up and ripped through a few more songs, saying "I think it's funny that we actually outrocked the Courtyard Cafe". This really pissed off the sound guy and he told them they only had two more songs left. They argued for a went back and forth for a while on this and then Joe screamed, "We have three songs left and you're going to have to f***'n shoot me to get me off stage." On the last song they let loose on the set, kicking over cymbals, microphones, and amps and then walked off the stage. The audience was speechless after they finished, in awe of what took place in front of them.

The very next day, via their website, The Like Young announced their retirement from the music industry, stating the cold and cynical nature of the music industry as a reason. They obviously had been thinking about this for some time but did the sound guy incident finally push them over the edge? Who can tell, all I know is that The Like Young came to the Courtyard that night to rock, and no one was going to stop them.

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