Watch: Mission of Burma performing "Einstein's Day"

This past Memorial Day weekend, I got to see and photograph Mission of Burma in Portland, Maine. It was an unforgettable experience. During the one song that I could actually contain myself from moving around too much, I whipped out my Canon point-and-shoot camera and shot the band performing an incredible version of "Einstein's Day" off of their album Vs. Of course, I'm an idiot and left my camera in the car that my brother and I borrowed from our parents, so I didn't get to post this video with the original photos and review. But anyway, the performance is pretty amazing, and now you have the chance to see for yourself above.

Photos: Mission of Burma @ Space Gallery (Portland, ME)

Mission of Burma @ Space Gallery, May 28th, 2011

It goes without saying that I'm a Mission of Burma superfan. Ever since randomly stumbling upon the band's phenomenal performance at the 2004 Siren Music Festival in Coney Island, I've caught MoB live every chance I've gotten. They are easily the one band I've seen live more than any other out there and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. So when I heard they were playing a somewhat reasonable five hour drive away (reasonable for an obsessive Burma fan I suppose), my brother and I plotted our trip to Portland, Maine for an epic Mission of Burma Memorial Day trip. And of course, it was totally worth it.

The venue itself was perfectly fitting for the band. The Space Gallery is a nonprofit art gallery and performance space located in Portland's art district, probably didn't hold more than 300 people, and sounded wonderful. While getting a drink at the bar before the opener went on, I spotted Eric M. Van, who you may know from the excellent Mission of Burma documentary This Is Not A Photograph. Van is not only a Burma superfan like myself, but a legitimate Burma historian. Surprisingly, he informed us that Bob Weston would not be on tape loops for the night, and he wasn't for their show two nights prior in Rhode Island either, but assured me the trio had figured out ways to mimic Weston's unique contributions. Another piece of information Van passed along was that the band was planning to enter the studio in June to begin work on their fifth full-length album (their fourth since reuniting in 2002). This news filled me with a sense of great joy that could only be topped by having Mission of Burma rock my face off yet again. And that's exactly what happened nearly an hour later.