Patriarch Reunion Show – Uptown Theater – Kansas City

March 14, 2014

Though known mostly for the band which shares its name, Kansas has a long tradition of birthing great music, thanks in large part to its thriving Jazz community, Kansas has produced several bands, which never reached the iconic status they deserved, Shooting Star and Patriarch among them. Performing a homecoming show, together for first time in 26 years, Patriarch took the stage at the Uptown Theater on Saturday night, with Shooting Star providing support.

It was noted, during their introduction, that without Shooting Star, there may have been no Patriarch. Born out of a group of music students at the University of Kansas, who heard each other playing the piano and violin parts of “Last Chance” through the walls of the practice hall.

This reunion was made possible by Google Fiber, whose high speed connection allowed the band members, now located across the country to rehearse for the show they gave on Thursday evening. A short video, explaining their history, played before they took the stage, and is watchable here:

Update 4/21/2014: Patriarch has launched their new website, which is linked below. Also, Google has released a long formversion of the video linked above, and you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quOOYbDxhIE – Several of Patriarch’s songs, both off their albums, and from the reunion show, are available through iTunes, and CD Baby.

Though (more than) 10 years ago, the members of Patriarch put up their instruments, and went their separate ways, taking up different careers across three states, they took to the stage for the fist time in nearly three decades, to a capacity crowd at the Uptown Theater. Many in attendance were also at Patriarch’s first show so many years before. The energy brought to the stage, and boundless enthusiasm from the crowd, would leave one surprised that these men had not played together since the late 80’s. Being at the theater that night was certainly a historic moment.

Google has revolutionized every aspect of our life from email, to augmented reality and self-driving cars. Though working at the cusp of cutting edge technology, Google can also don a black suit, sunglasses and say, “We’re putting the band back together.” No word yet if they were on a mission from God.

Links for more information about Shooting Star, Patriarch, and Patriarch’s music, are below the photo gallery.