Just over a year after first meeting Gehring Miller to do an interview about his band, The Welcome, I finally had a chance to see them play live. There have been a lot of emails and Facebook messages throughout the last twelve months, but our schedules never matched up. The group took a short hiatus after completing their EP-a-month marathon of releases toward the end of 2011, and recently they released a new EP called Honey, Honey.

Having never seen them play, I wasn’t sure how it would go over. I was happy they were playing at Beat Kitchen-not only is it convenient to get to, they also have a great sound system. Because they’ve only released EP’s thus far, I wasn’t sure what material they’d be playing. I’m used to hearing them in short 10-15 minute bursts. They filled the set with songs from their most recent EP as well as some new songs.

For me, this was perfect. I mention in my review of Honey, Honey that the last few EP’s of their series had grown a little stale. The new EP breaks some new ground for the band and gives them renewed energy. they’ve added some different sonic elements, and Gehring has gained some confidence in his guitar playing. This becomes very apparent during the new track “The Colossal Sound.”

They only played for about thirty minutes, but in that time they showed me a side I hadn’t seen. One that can be ferocious and loud. They’ve grown so much over the last year-both individually a musicians and as a band. If you get a chance, be sure to check them out. I’m glad I did.