Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - May Tour 2012

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are very unique in the modern music world, with the band comprising of around 12 members! This is very uncommon nowadays, especially with a band who has had a hit as popular as their single Home, off of their debut album Up From Below.
It has been almost three years since the release of their first album, and the band has not toured recently until their May Tour 2012, which took place before the release of their much anticipated sophomore album, Here. This guaranteed that many of their shows were to be sold out along the way.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros sound infuses psychedelic and folk as well as some rock elements. Their music is very reminiscent of the 60's and 70's, with the band essentially being a large group of 'hippies'. (They have toured the USA in a big white school bus.)
The band were amazing live! I luckily was able to see them twice that day since earlier in the afternoon, they performed a few songs at the 102.1 The Edge studios at Sugar Beach, across from where there concert would be at Kool Haus. At the radio station they played new songs, two of which are not on their new album actually! One was entitled Mother, which they released that same day for Mother's Day, as well as a recent composition by Alex Ebert, American Democrat. He still had to read off his lyric sheet for this song. It was also such a lovely spring day out, that everyone enjoyed themselves being by the lake in the sunshine listening to some great music.

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros' sold-out concert later that evening at Kool Haus was also great! They played almost all of their songs, they were only short by a couple, along with some of Alex's solo material. The band also interacted with the audience quite a lot, especially Alex the lead singer. For their song Home, him and Jade sat at the edge of the stage and got the audience to "help" them with part of the song. For their last song, Alex went out into the middle of the audience and asked everyone to sit on the ground with him while he sang. It was a truly magical moment. After they finished their set, Alex and Jade stayed on stage to talk to audience members. My favourite part of the show was when Jade played her song, Fiya Wata. My friend who went with me introduced me to this song before it was known that it would be included on their newest album. This is probably one of my favourites off of the new album.
All in all, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros put on an amazing performance and made this a truly memorable day. I cannot wait to see them again!

A live video from when Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros performed Home at Kool Haus