Concert Review : Snow Patrol, Ok Go, and Silversun Pickups in Tulsa Oklahoma

In Tulsa , Oklahoma there is a place called Cain’s Ballroom; a small venue with an old fashioned art deco style neon sign in bright colors that you can see from the highway. It greets each fan, welcoming you and letting you know that you have arrived.

The Cain’s is famous for lots of reasons. When you walk through the front doors and onto the old hard wood floors you can feel it. Among the rough rafters in the center of the large hall is a red neon star with a small disco ball hanging in the center. Large sepia tone photographs are spaced along the walls, close to the ceilings, tilted down so that you can see them. Men in cowboy hats, holding fiddles, and grinning perfect white smiles watch each show that comes through. Among these faces is Roy Rogers, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Hank Thompson, Earnest Tubb, Tex Williams, and Bob Wills; one of the leaders of the Light Crust Doughboys, a band that came to Tulsa from Texas and played their first regular radio broadcast from the Cain’s Ballroom on February 9, 1934.

I had come to the Cain’s for the more recent legends. The Sex Pistols played here as well as the Police, Garbage, Huey Lewis and the News, Talking Heads, INXS, Van Halen, Cake, Marilyn Manson, and Crystal Method. There are countless other bands and singers that come to Oklahoma to play the ballroom but tonight my friend and I had come to see the Silversun Pickups, Ok Go, and Snow Patrol.

The show started at eight with L.A. ’s Silversun Pickups. Brian Aubert (guitar/vocals), Nikki Monninger (bass), Christopher Guanlao (drums), and Joe Lester (keyboards) came out onto the small stage waved, picked up their instruments, greeted the sold out Cain’s crowd and played.

I had never heard of the Silversun Pickups before this show and I wasn’t sure what kind of music would blast my ears but what happened when they played was brilliant. This band is worth seeing. I can tell you right now that they are going to be huge. Sadly though they only played five songs before their set was over and the stage was being set up for Ok Go.

Article Author: Katie Trattner

Ms. Trattner works for a non-profit agency where she is thankful for any internet time she can squeeze into her day. In her free time she reads one of the thousands of books stacked in her tiny apartment.

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