I'm going to introduce you to the OTHER musical couple that I primarily listen to, Us the Duo. They are a husband and wife team, Michael/Mike and Carissa Alvarado.
These two are really adorable, and it's beautiful to see these two who are so genuinely meshed together musically AND romantically. You can tell they love each other very much in each song they sing. While looking them up (for the purposes of this blog post), I also found videos to their proposal and their live wedding song (also my favorite of theirs). Go check them out. Mike's proposal was TOO CUTE.
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I first came across them when they opened for Pentatonix at a concert that I attended in St. Louis in April 2016. We had essentially "run away" from the first opening act because it was loud, they were practically screaming into the microphone, and the drums were murdering my eardrums. Then the second act, Us the Duo, came up.
I was standing out in the hallway when I first heard them introduce themselves.
To start with, I loved the mellow resonance that their voices gave in the arena where the concert was held. I looked at my friend who I was with and told her that we had to get ourselves BACK into the arena and sit down. STAT.
When the music start to play, I just laid back in my seat and enjoyed it. It was beautiful. It was tasteful (PTX is an a cappella act, so I had hoped their opening acts would have instruments, but still remain mellow in volume so that PTX could really shine later). And it was, to my absolute amazement, JUST THEM on stage.
Just the two of them! Carissa handled most of the drumming and percussion stuff and Mike was handling guitars, keys, etc. Carissa DID pick up the bass at one point and my love of female bassists flew out the window. Also, Mike beat-boxed and I was just fangirl-ing all over the place. Such a talented couple.
If you hadn't figured it out yet, this is a prime example of couple goals for Ariel. :P
Anyway, it was just the two of them, supremely talented in their voices and their instruments, and their lyrics were well thought out. Not your typical pop song that has just one or two lines that you really remember and then "oh"s for the rest of it. Us the Duo's songs stuck in my head and the "oh"s were (for once) doing what they were meant to do, serve as tasteful vocalization during parts that didn't need words.
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I died laughing when they started singing THIS song on stage.
Carissa is so adorably sassy that I was crying in my seat from laughing at the lyrics.
There came a part during their act where Michael asked the audience "how many of you are here on a date?" and many in the audience raised their hands. Then he asked "how many of you WISH you were here on a date?" The audience started to laugh and he just kinda went "Nah, my dudes, I'm not gonna out you like that. I got your back."
He was just so...chill. They both were.
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This next song I'm about to share with you is the song they sang during their act that kind of solidified things for me as a fan of their music.
You may or may not know, but when my dad met my mom, he had JUST (coincidentally) written a Chinese worship song that had a lot more significance (linguistically) that everyone in the room, except Mom, was missing. He caught her attention with his ability to use the words he did and she caught his attention with her ability to understand the words he wrote.
In their wedding video (link earlier in the post), Mike and Carissa were sharing about how this song was essentially their vows. I love this song...so much. I love what it means to them, and I love how it highlights BOTH of them in all the right places :)
If you haven't heard of them, you should definitely check them out!
They are...impeccably talented and I can't wait for their next album!
I bought all of their songs on iTunes within a week of getting back from the concert and then pre-ordered their new CD (at the time), Just Love.
And I've...just loved their music. <3
Fun note! At the end of Pentatonix's performance, they came out and sang "If I Ever Fall in Love" (blog post about that here), and Kevin took on Jason Derulo's part with the crazy high notes. Which meant someone else had to beatbox and I just about fell out of my seat when I realize that Mike had taken over the beatboxing. I was just sitting there like an idiot going, "...WHAT."
All the Socials: @UsTheDuo
Website: http://www.ustheduo.com/
Their Tours: http://ustheduo.co/tour iTunes: http://ustheduo.co/JustLove Apple Music: http://ustheduo.co/JustLoveAM Amazon: http://ustheduo.co/JustLoveAmz Spotify: http://ustheduo.co/JustLoveSp Google Play: http://ustheduo.co/JustLoveGP
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Had you heard about Us the Duo before this blog post? What song?
Or better yet, comment below with which one of their songs is YOUR favorite!
I'll be giving you all a run-down of what all I'm up to for the semester in the next #WeeklyWednesday, spanning across school, church, and creative projects!
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Hope you liked the music!
Byee~
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