Images: Mini Mansions May 26, 2013 at the Knitting Factory (Boise)

On May 26th, I found myself in my hometown of Boise, Idaho. I was there to watch my siblings graduate from high school, but I couldn’t miss a rare chance to see Mini Mansions supporting the Arctic Monkeys on a 6-date mini tour.

I’ve missed Mini Mansions playing Vegas three times now. The two times they played the Neon Reverb Festival, I was stuck at other gigs, and when they opened a no-name festival that Royal Resort was putting on, I couldn’t shell out the $75 for tickets when they were the only ones on the bill I wanted to see.

In the vein of the Beatles, Mini Mansions plays psychedelic chilled out rock music. I was stoked to finally see them in the flesh and find out how their larger-than-life self-titled record sounds live. It’s always great seeing a band live when they’ve only got one record out, since you really get to hear all the songs that you fell in love with.

They opened with a new tune, “Sherlock Holmes” (which you can find a great performance of on YouTube.) That was followed by “The Room Outside” and a longer rendition of “Monk,” which started trailing towards the end, and melting into a slow psychedelic jam. Great Leslie organ tone, driving bass line, and 4 on the floor rhythm.

Band members Zach Dawes, Michael Shuman (of Queens of the Stone Age), and Tyler Parkford all share vocal responsibilities, with Parkford taking the lead for most music. Everything blended so well, and they really seemed to listen to each other on stage. The harmonies and dynamics sounded soooo good.

Unfortunately, my media pass didn’t include the rights to photograph headliners Arctic Monkeys. So check out the Arctic Monkeys via Google Image Search. They played a great show, I took some awesome iPhone photos of them.

With a new Queens of the Stone Age album under Michael Shuman’s belt, I assume Mini Mansions will be going on a long break, but I really hope to see new music from them in the future.

-Tyler Newton | http://500px.com/spottedlens