u/MagdalenaBayCRJ

Follow the Leader as it was originally presented on Mercurial World is a great song, but seemingly should not have been one of the more "live suitable" tracks in Mag Bay's discography. While the production does feature Matt's usual escalation of layers and harmonic detail over time, it's (by their standards) fairly repetitive and minimalist. The song's approach is more about creating a specifically haunting vibe through establishing a huge, otherworldly groove and just letting it sort of saunter around than what you would find in a more usual pop song format.

In this live performance, Matt and Mica both make very specific choices and additions that elevate the performance into a truly special art piece with a completely different energy than both a.) the other live songs bookending it for this show and b.) the album cut of the song.

Matt's shimmering arpeggiated clean tone guitar lines add a sound that reflects almost a bit of tentative hope to the suffocatingly mysterious atmosphere of the song. When he kicks on the distortion (I think also maybe an octave pedal here to cover the bass frequencies) while performing the synth line on guitar in the chorus, you FEEL rock/metal genre energy coming out of the performance and transforming the entire mood of the song into something new. When he rips into the sickest guitar solo that you've probably heard this week out of nowhere before the quiet vocal outro, you know he's just completely having fun out there.

Mica wears the bunny mask and completely eschews her usual high energy M.O. of dancing, strutting and skipping around the stage to perform a very precisely stiff, stationary and chilling minimalist arm/hand movement dance designed only to emphasize certain lyrics. She BECOMES the rabbit from the lyrics and takes herself out of her own mannerisms much in the way she would go on to wear the mask and physically contort herself during the Tunnel Vision outro live. The stiff and precise physicality perfectly mirrors the gentle vocoder effect singing and its rhythmic, but spaced out phrasing -- and it's all a perfect foil to the extra energy work that Matt's instrumental choices are adding that were absent on the album cut. Both of them are doing things that completely contrast with established expectations. It's massive sounding, yet intimate. It's haunting, yet beautiful.

TLDR: this rules, and I think about it and revisit it all the time. Every Magdalena Bay fan should see it at least once.

UVA Assistant Coach Bryce Crawford is a character at summer practice

This feels like it came out of the same universe as old Mag Bay videos

If I was the President, currency bills would look like this.

Most common response to telling a co-worker that Carly is your favorite singer?

Have you heard of this new band Michelina's Bae? They are the hot new thing on the RYM these days, and they have my new favorite song, Watching T.V. Dinners.