Local Kansas City radio station, 96.5 the Buzz‘s annual Buzz Under the Stars concert series promised to be bigger and better than ever for its kickoff performance. In the past, an average of three bands graced the outdoor stage, but this year started off with five bands: The Offspring, Taking Back Sunday, The Used, Alkaline Trio and Anberlin.
City Market is an outdoor venue that can hold nearly 10,000 people. Get there early enough before a show and one can catch it in its true state: not a concert venue, but an actual market complete with vegetables and a steamboat. Okay, so maybe a steamboat isn’t typical of an actual market, but in Kansas City that is one of the highlights of the City Market. It was inside the Steamboat Arabia’s museum that the day really began. In a tiny hallway covered in Buzz banners, a small gathering of radio station winners eagerly awaited two very special acoustic performances.
Three members of Anberlin joined the winners and played through three of their songs. Plugged in the guys are moving around so much, I think they sometimes get a little winded. Here, there was a clarity and a crispness brought to hits like “Feel Good Drag.” I would almost dare to say that they were better acoustic than plugged and hopefully they’ll release an acoustic album in the future.
Anberlin is comprised of some really chill guys and before they left the group, singer Stephen Christian gave the crowd a tip, “Make sure when Taking Back Sunday gets here, you ask Adam [Lazzara] if you can see his bad ass Harry Potter tattoo on his leg,” which of course prompted a chuckle. With that, Anberlin rushed off and Taking Back Sunday replaced them on the stools. TBS obliged a request with MakeDamnSure. While deciding the next song and getting sidetracked by some Vitamin Water, the truth of Lazzara’s tattoo came out. Before lifting his pant leg, Lazzara asked a crowd member to turn off their camera…apparently his love of Harry Potter isn’t quite up to a pride level where he can allow photographic evidence. His bandmates were just as shocked as the crowd. A rather large tattoo of Harry Potter facing some dementors canvassed his leg. After geeking out for a moment and citing the chapter that the tattoo was from, Lazzara quickly redirected the attention back to the music and the band played current single “Sink into Me” acoustic. The song sounded especially fantastic when they reached the latter half with the breathy and rapid “ah” bit. This was also my first and I assume many others’ first experience hearing new guitarist and backing vocalist Matt Fazzi and he sounded incredibly solid on both the old and new song.
From here, it was out to join the masses. Usually it seems like a lot of people wait to show up at a show in time for the headliners, but City Market already had a decent sized crowd in the thousands when Anberlin started the show. Given a short set time, the band ran through several of their songs and took just a few breaks to thank the crowd. Though the sun was still out and many were listening from beer lines, the band was visually entertaining even without the security blanket of a live show. Every member jumped and ran around the stage giving 110% both musically and energy-wise.
Set List:
The Resistance
A Whisper and a Clamor
Breaking
Paperthin Hymn
Godspeed
Feel Good Drag
I hadn’t heard anything from this band in awhile, but the seasoned musicians in Alkaline Trio were the next act and the last time I saw them, they killed it. Considering this was a radio show and they have had plenty of radio hits on the Buzz, I kind of expected them to play something that, oh, I don’t know, had been on the radio? Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that there are bands that shy away from the hits for a reason, but they couldn’t have thrown in at least one? Time to Waste was huge on KC radio. Nonetheless, they sounded fine, but they didn’t offer much in terms of visual entertainment. The live show did little to better what a CD could offer and this sadly ended up being the least memorable set of the evening.
Set List:
Calling All Skeletons
If We Never Go Inside
Burn
I Found Away
2 Lips
The Poison
All on Black
This Could Be Love
I am not going to be able to do The Used justice, since I was off interviewing Anberlin during part of their set, so I didn’t get to see much, but I could hear them. They pleased the crowd with many of their singles: “Take It Away,” “Taste of Ink,” “All That I’ve Got,” “Bird and the Worm,” and a few new songs like “Blood on My Hands.” The crowd started moshing and crowd surfing and all of this must have pleased the band because they decided to play an extra song after what they had announced to be their last song. Not pleased though were the people up front who suggested that a questionable substance was on lead singer Bert McCracken‘s shirt.
Following the Used was the band I was most curious to see: Taking Back Sunday. Their new album, New Again, drops in two weeks and I was eager to hear the newest member, Fazzi, in a full band setting. Fazzi did not disappoint and Taking Back Sunday played very cohesively together. My only qualm with this band is that singer, Lazzara, can sometimes get a bit of a raspiness in his voice. Maybe he needs to drink more tea?
The older songs like “Cute Without the ‘E’” of course were crowd favorites and the band even dropped out to let the audience sing. With a toss of his mic high into the rafters and an impressive catch from behind his back, Lazzara jumped back into the song with more vivacity than before. The new songs stood up just as well to the old songs and “Sink into Me” sounded just as good plugged in as it did earlier that day. The climax of this set though was during “A Decade Under the Influence.” Toward the end of the song, Lazzara started to work in the lyrics, “Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it,” and almost as a collective being the audience’s dumbstruck expressions went into a gasp of comprehension before some people started busting out some moves as Beyonce’s popular dance floor hit “Single Ladies” became a part of this Taking Back Sunday classic.
Set List:
Error Operator
Set Phasers to Stun
You’re So Last Summer
New Again
Liar
Cute Without the ‘E’
Sink into Me
Decade Under the Influence
What It Feels Like to Be a Ghost
MakeDamnSure
After Taking Back Sunday, the crowd was well-geared up for headliners The Offspring. While waiting on the band, a weird house mix played over the speakers and the antsy crowd burst into a sing-a-long of “Hey Yeah,” by Outkast. This vocal warm-up proved necessary for the audience because I think even the casual music fan quickly realized that the entire crowd knew far more Offspring songs than they realized. In fact, I don’t think the Offspring played a single song (well, unless you count “Chopsticks”) that hadn’t been played on KC radio at some point or other.
The Offspring’s set was a big dance party. If you couldn’t realize that by watching the audience, it was just as easy to see on stage where the band was joined by several of their friends on the stage. At one point during a sort of intermission, the band’s friends formed a conga line and danced around a juggler and a person on a pogo stick before the band returned for more songs.
Fun is probably the best adjective to describe their set. It was hard not to dance or sing an “uh huh uh huh” during “Pretty Fly for a White Guy.” The band had fun, too, and messed around with the crowd for a bit. “Yes, I am a serious musician,” said lead singer Dexter Holland after a piano was brought out on stage. “I am playing piano on this song. So, fuck you. I am playing piano goddammit,” and after all this convincing the crowd that he was a serious pianist and meant business, Holland began a rousing rendition of…”Chopsticks.” He soon chuckled and the band began the real song, “Gone Away,” a real highlight for the set.
Set List:
Gonna Go Far Kid
Bad Habit
Come Out and Play
Hammer Head
Staring at the Sun
Gone Away
Kristy
Intermission
Americana
All I Want
Pretty Fly
(Can’t Get My) Head Around You
The Kids Aren’t Alright
Want You Bad
Self Esteem
Before the show, I had been questioning the choice of the Offspring as headliners, but now I can see that they deserved the headlining spot and they owned it. In general, this line up was a killer way for a summer concert series to get its start.
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