Lucas Kellison and Undisco Wood’s Take Cover Song | Concert Preview

photo by Shannon Claire

 

   

[Editor's note: This Saturday, Jan. 25, Hear Nebraska hosts Take Cover Lincoln at Vega, starting at 9 p.m. Take Cover features Nebraska musicians covering songs by other Nebraskans. To preview, performers will share their takes on the songs they're covering.]

The song we're doing is "Before We Know" by All Young Girls Are Machine Guns.

The first time I heard this song in person was actually when my trio, Undisco Wood, was playing Lincoln Calling last year. AYGAMG was doing a a solo set (Rebecca Lowry), and we really dug it just like we dig a lot of stuff. However, when she began "Before We Know," we knew. We knew it was one of those rare songs that can only be done by a rare person with a unique experience. The mood is captured thoughtfully, perfectly, and her talent as a vocalist and instrumentalist shines through marvelously.

AYGAMG says this song is about a "crush and grossly exaggerates how it feels to keep it from a fellow who could likely care less." I think this (i.e. the ability to exaggerate emotions and situations) is one element that makes a great songwriter. We are not authors or directors who have unlimited words or images or time, so our only option, in order to pull out emotions of ourselves and our listeners, is to form fantastic scenarios around a simple muse.

In this particular case, the muse is an open-air night and a crush, and AYGAMG paints the muse in an intense, visual mural — glistened by the simplicity of its complexity. I can literally feel the words unsaid as the song calmly rages on, each second creating more and more of a panic and shortened breath while I sit in blissful exile, with only my crush to accompany me on a cool Nebraska night. A lover creates happiness, but a crush creates happiness and despair.

As the song concludes, the listener is made aware that this is not a flash-in-the-pan development — this is something much deeper and more complicated than what was, perhaps, anticipated:

"And lo and behold
Before we know
We've been sitting here
Stalling what to say
For years"

Remarkable. Can't wait.

Before We Know by All Young Girls Are Machine Guns from Ingrained on Vimeo.

Take Cover Lincoln at Vega

Saturday, Jan. 25 at 9 p.m. // $7 cover

Lineup includes:

Gerardo Meza (Mezcal Brothers)
Heidi Ore and Jon Taylor (Domestica, form. Mercy Rule)
Jon Dell (Universe Contest)
Eli Mardock
C Balta (Once A Pawn)
Jim Reilly (LIFE is COOL)
Aaron Parker (Gordon)
Lucas Kellison
Cory Kibler (The SleepoverDemos)
Freakabout
Dave Socha (Bolzen Beer Band)
Craig Reier (Low Horse)
Manny Coon
Eric Nyffeler, Jon Augustine, Daniel Nickel (Bus Gas)
Orion Walsh
Luke Sticka (Tsumi)
Liz Hitt (form. The Terminals)
Chance Solem-Pfeifer (Little Marais) and Michael Todd