State Radio Goes Acoustic

Last night at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA, Chad Stokes Urmston of State Radio preformed the second of two acoustic sets, the first being on Saturday night. Both shows were part of a five day celebration in honor of the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Universal Human Rights. The Anniversary, officially this coming Wednesday, will also be commemorated by a panel who will speak about their personal experiences with human rights abuse.

This festival also marked the foundation of a new organization, "Calling All Crows", run primarily by Urmston's girlfriend, Sybil Galagher. The purpose of this society is to call attention to, curb, and eventually eliminate violence against women worldwide. All proceeds from ticket and merchendise sales from both shows were donated to "Calling All Crows".

Urmston preformed not only songs that he has written with his current band, State Radio, but also some that were made popular by his former band, Dispatch, which broke up in 2004. Fan favorites from the Dispatch era like Flying Horses and Bats in the Belfry got a rousing response from the 200 fans at the concert on Sunday. Urmston also played songs that will likely be on State Radio's next studio album, including Calling All Crows and Mansin Humanity. State Radio is currently in-studio recording this album, but neither a track listing nor a title for the record has been released as of yet.

What set this show apart from other State Radio or Dispatch concerts was that the audience was shown a glimpse into Urmston's personal life and the stories and motivations behind his songs. For example, Mansin Humanity delves into the controversial topic of the Armenian Genocide of 1914. It became a running gag throughout the night for Urmston to play the first few chords of a song and then stop suddenly to explain some lyrical detail.

Since State Radio almost always preforms electrically and with a full band, this was a rare and different experience, even for those who have attended their shows in the past.