No, this is not a blog on the ethics of war. This is actually about a band called The Middle East and their song called Blood.

I think I need to retract my belief that opening bands are usually lame. Maybe it’s because I live in Portland and people here demand good music…but whatever the reason, I have recently been impressed with Ivan & Alyosha, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, Seabird and last night’s The Middle East.

They opened for Mumford and Son’s who made music using every fiber of their beings. The title of their song “I Gave You All” would best describe their playing style. They give their all…and then some.  The lead Mumford even tried out some new songs which entailed playing the drums while singing. There was a lot of sweat flying across the stage.

You feel like you are standing in an Irish pub and everyone should be linking arms and clinking glasses. Note to self: Strangers at concerts don’t enjoy linking arms. Either does my friend, Leah.

But…back to The Middle East.

A band from Australia with 6+ members. You get multiple bands in one because half of them take a stab at lead vocals and most of them play more than one instrument. “Blood” was their closing song, and my friend, Leah (the one who doesn’t like linking arms and getting swung around for a dos-e-doe), told me about the video. It’s kind of a cross between stop animation and South Park-esque drawings. (But far more beautiful…)

Lyrics: Blood

Older brother, restless soul, lie down
Lie for a while with your ear against the earth
And you’ll hear your sister sleep talking
Say, “Your hair is long but not long enough to reach
Home to me
But your beard
Someday might be”

And she woke up in a cold sweat on the floor
Next to a family portrait drawn when you were four
And beside a jar of two cent coins that are no good no more
She’ll lay it aside

Older father, weary soul, you’ll drive
Back to the home you made on the mountainside
With that ugly, terrible thing
Those papers for divorce
And a lonely ring
A lonely ring
Sit on your porch
And pluck your strings

Oh, and you’ll find somebody you can blame
And you’ll follow the creek that runs out into the sea
And you’ll find the peace of the Lord.

Grandfather, weary soul, you’ll fly
Over your life once more before you die
Since our grandma passed away
You’ve waited for forever and a day
Just to die
And someday soon
You will die

It was the only woman you ever loved
That got burnt by the sun too often when she was young
And the cancer spread and it ran into her body and her blood
And there’s nothing you can do about it now