Bandway! Kings!

Last night Raleigh witnessed two of the most highly anticipated events in recent memory: Kings and Bandway both returned from the dead in one magical moment. I don't have to tell you that Bandway ruled (though I wish they'd played "Are You Mad at Me?"), and that the sold out audience pretty much went crazy over it. Check out the videos of "King Kong" and a new song that had something to do with recycling. See more photos.

Bandway - "King Kong" from Mann's World on Vimeo.


Bandway - "Recycling is Here to Stay" (?) from Mann's World on Vimeo.

We ended up hanging out at Remedy beforehand, so we only caught the last bit of the Dynamite Brothers.


The Dynamite Brothers from Mann's World on Vimeo.

But the big news, for those of you who weren't there last night, is that the new Kings sounds amazing. Seriously. I understand that a good bit of the work that was done in that space was done to improve the sound, and that the club owners invested in top notch sound equipment. All that work and money paid off because everything, even the Billy Joel CD being played beforehand, sounded amazing. And it's true that no matter where you are in the club, you can see the band. In fact, there's a slight step up at the back of the club, so even back there you can see perfectly. But watch out for it because I ended up tripping on it.

And it looks good too. It was so packed there last night that I didn't get a chance to really look around, but I will tell you the old Kings wooden crown is on the wall over the new bar, and the lit "KB" sign is back. But everyone was talking about the two gigantic Statler and Waldorf Muppets dolls (I had to look them up to find out their names) hanging to the right of the stage, seemingly ready to heckle the band. I was told that they actually move, too, but I didn't see that.

But the best part of the night was seeing just about every person I know in Raleigh, together again and happy. I'm looking forward to many more shows there.