Originally taken by courtney

One of the many perks I get as a Wired intern is to share event invitations with friends. Last night, I invited a slew of pals to the Wired Rave Awards at the Fillmore — many of which were fellow SF Metbloggers Jason Schupp, Jason DeFillippo, Courtney Patubo, and Min Jung Kim (I should also mention that my cohort for the evening was the very affable Niall Kennedy, lest he feel left out of the list).

Most of them couldn’t get in until the concert at 9:30, but they didn’t miss much. The first couple of “cocktail reception” hours consisted mostly of mingling and snacking (which was fun admittedly; it was like a mini-reunion with several people I haven’t seen in a long time).

But the real fun began when my friends were allowed in and the Polyphonic Spree took the stage. It truly was a sight to behold, as the 20+ band members made their way to the stage through the crowd. They manned a harp, two drums, a theremin, a funky recorder, a flute, three horns, a couple of guitars, a keyboard, and heaven knows what else. They simply overwhelmed us with pure unadulterated sound — so much so, I thought my ears were going to burst. A “symphonic pop band” indeed! Eight or so members acted as the backup singers/dancers, and the lead singer roused the crowd like an evangelical spreading the word of hope. One of the drummers even broke out into the crowd a couple times, standing on tables and drumming his heart out (almost knocked me and a couple friends over too!).

In the end, it was a good time had by all. Here’s a few links to several photos of the awards as taken by the folks I invited.