Two-fer today. I couldn’t pick a shot of just one of Saturday night’s bands; you get ’em both. Top: Bowerbirds; bottom: Megafaun.

About 18 months or so ago, after a killer Weakerthans show at the Cradle, Perry Wright of the Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers told t. that Megafaun was about to be her new favorite band. It took us six more months to get with that program, but right now, I wouldn’t have traded Saturday night’s final-night-of-a-two-month-national-tour-holy-crap-we’re-glad-to-be-home Megafaun/Bowerbirds double bill for anything.

I feel particularly protective of and proud of these two bands that we’re lucky enough to call “local” because 5/6ths of them are, like me, not natives of North Carolina generally or the Triangle specifically. (Bowerbirds’ Beth Tacular being the exception.) They’re people who moved here and fell in love and stayed, who chose to call the NC home and make their music here. Choosing North Carolina is something I understand deeply and truly, in ways that I talk about a lot and in ways that are a lot more private and close to my heart.

The show finished with a two-band cover of the Rosebuds’ “Hold Hands And Fight”, and I would sell the cats for a clean audio copy of that cover. (Watch it here, it’s sloppy and awkward and joyous and amazing. Thanks, Chronic!)