popwreckoning

Tuesday, April 13, The Spill Canvas released Realities. A day later, The Spill Canvas hit fans with the cinematic music video for “Our Song.” It literally is cinematic as it puts a spin on Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, Night of the Living Dead, Titanic, Say Anything and more.

The band begins a tour on April 21 with Tyler Hilton, AM Taxi and The New Politics. Full dates are available at theSpillCanvas.com.

Dear Internet,

Why must good things always come to an end and why is that when it rains it pours?

The same week that late night TV fans had to bid adieu to CoCo, Kansas City was bidding farewell to JoCo.

The Beaumont Club Saturday night was as packed with people as the line up for the final Josephine Collective show was as packed with bands. In what might be a Kansas City first, people actually showed up early to see all openers, which might have been in part to most of the openers being the new projects of Josephine members.

Though all information listed 5 p.m. for the show, the first band actually started at 4:45 p.m., so showing up at 5:10 meant I missed Holy Mountain, but based on the size of the crowd and hum of kind words about the act when I arrived, it seems like it would have been a great set. They’re local to KC, so I’m sure I’ll get another chance to review them.

The first act I did catch was amazing and set the bar high for the rest of the groups. I had no idea this sort of group-this sort of music-existed in Kansas City. The group seemed to have the recipe for awesomeness down. They had the basics: drums and guitar.  Then, they made it a little unusual by rounding the foursome out with a violinist and a cellist. But what really made them unique was what the drummer, Jared Bond did on the first song.

Jared already had me excited when he came out on stage because he is also the drummer for Josephine Collective and his group was the first of the offshoots that I was seeing. I guess he was inspired by the string players in his new group and he thought, ‘Hey, why not bow the drums.’ Can you imagine the shock of seeing someone whip at a bow to run along the cymbals? That’s something you don’t see every day.

The group’s sound, abetted by the Americana folk-style vocals and the driving riffs on the cello, was reminiscent of Murder by Death. They were all very skilled, but perhaps too much so — Chaski Zapata: loosen up. This isn’t a school orchestra concert. Granted, the group has only been together since fall 2009, so stage presence has room to grow, especially when the musical talent is already there.

The only real problem with this act is that they’re a little difficult to track down on the webs. At this show, all the promotional material billed them as Dolphin Lounge, but on stage it sounded like they kept introducing themselves as Root & Stem and then when I tried to track them online, they appeared to be known as Casa Real. I could understand being confusing and hiding if you are a shitty group, but these guys are good and I’m trying to shout about them from the mountaintops…well shout about them from the laptops at least. I’ve tried to contact them about their real name, so hopefully I’ll be able to update soon.

The indie pop trio Sailor Sequence followed the mystery band name group. I’ve talked about these guys before, but that show was colored by a drunken interference. It was kind of exciting to go from the folk rock into their cool piano melodies with crashing cymbals. They played five songs with each song better than the last. They’re like Explosions in the Sky meets Postal Service meets Twilight Sad.

They group glided through their five songs, taking just a few brief moments for singer Noffy to thank the crowd and sadly say that this would be the last in Kansas City, for awhile at least, while they adjust as some members move to Nashville. This group is fairly new to the scene, and already one of its greatest rising acts, so I’m sad to see them go. I look forward to seeing where the future brings them though.

The show was about midway through and it was time for two of the most anticipated openers. Ninety-Four and Black Oxygen. These two groups are the side projects of Josephine’s two lead singers, Alexander Sandate and Dillon Devoe, with Alex leading the Atlanta-based Ninety-Four and Dillon helming the Kansas City-based Black Oxygen.

Watching both groups, it was pretty obvious that the Josephine spirit would at least live on. Heck Ninety-Four practically looked like they were Josephine with six members swarming the stage. The same sort of energy and crazy intense rock was present in the acts. Ninety-Four leaned a little toward the harder metal with screaming more prevalent in the band’s first few numbers. Black Oxygen has been around for awhile, but they’ve gone through a minor rehaul since Dillon has joined. Regardless of their changes, I think they’ll still leave metal fans gasping for more. I felt Black Oxygen had a bit more consistency and control than Ninety-Four, but I think any Josephine fan will easily be pleased with what will come out of either band’s camp in the near future. At least the audience at this particular show seemed equally pleased with both bands and responded with appropriate fist pumps, moshing and claps to the beat.

After the taste of Josephine given by the side projects, the audience was geared and ready for JoCo, but while the singer’s got a rest before their final performance (and time to change their shirts), a final opener took to the stage: Kansas City’s popular alternative rock group Queen’s Club.

This is about the third or fourth time I’ve seen these guys and I just didn’t get it. To me they’re like the KC Nickelback if Nickelback added a dance beat to all their tunes. What I mean by this is that I just don’t get why the music is popular and yet it inexplicably is. The kids just ate that shit up. They danced, body surfed and I was in disbelief over the amount of fists pumping the air. Seriously? I want to like these guys. My friends say I should, but I just don’t get it and this is one club I won’t be joining.

I love getting more bang for my buck and at $5 a ticket, this show easily gave buyers their money’s worth, but all these bands later and I was getting extremely anxious for the headliners. When the full Josephine Collective (including Bond) finally came out, it was complete chaos, but in a good way. The band already has a bajillion members, but their close friends and the other bands surrounded the group as well serving as cheering sections. If you’ve ever had the privilege, it was like being at Girl Talk show minus the toilet paper and instead of electronic remixes, it was heavy rock tunes in the vain of The Used, Say Anything and Taking Back Sunday that got the bodies moving. Even during some of the band’s few slower numbers, moshing and crowd-surfing ran rampant.

Josephine Collective know how to throw a going away party. As they blasted through songs from their Living EP and We Are The Air, crowd-surfers ran rampant causing security to sweat, but Josephine to smile as Alex and Dillon hardly missed a beat as they dished out hugs and high-fives to the kids landing on stage.

One of the highlights of the set came early with the popular single, “Living.” When the guys sang, “It just stops,” the entire mass of bodies intensely moshing, surfing and singing froze before jumping back into the chorus as raucous as ever. Other great moments included an impromptu and jokingly sung tune about this being the band’s final shows that included mentionings of mustaches and other things. I also loved when one of the Sailor Sequence guys joined for a tune, and of course, I loved the colouration that the softer “Lye,” brought to the set.

“Josephine, Josephine, get back together,” Alex and Dillon quipped back and forth. But then they pointed at that much like an ex-girlfriend, you can get back together and, “Yeah, the sex is great, but then you start dating and you remember why you broke up.” Sad, but understandable.

We wanted the show to keep going, but with their entire catalog pretty much done, the boys had to let the final tune fly.

“Freebird.”

Yes, the group began to play “Freebird,” but sans special appearances of Will Ferrell and co. It was all in good fun before they began their final song of the evening and of their band’s lifetime: “Pray for Rain.”

January 23, 2010 – Josephine Collective reunited and ended it the way it should have ended. They will be missed, but with Dolphin Lounge/Casa Real/Root&Stem, Fire for Effect, Ninety-Four, Sensational News Commentary Groove and Black Oxygen, we can all still continue the JoCo love for years to come.

While listening to Miniature Tigers‘ Tell It To the Volcano, the two adjectives that seemed to stand out the most in my observations were awkward and endearing. Ironically, the latter adjective was used to describe their debut EPs, Black and White Magic by music magazine Death +Taxes. I wish not to sound repetitive, but I don’t honestly think there is a better way to illustrate this band verbally.

They’re cute, quirky, and comical (musically, that is…I’ve never met them personally to be capable of assuming so), and all of the typical adjectives associated with their roots. Two years prior to the release of their aforementioned dual disc EP, Rolling Stone gave them a nod on their list of the “25 Hottest Bands On MySpace.” Not to classify them as a “MySpace band” or anything to that extreme, but let’s be straight; MySpace has helped a lot of bands make it big and many of them sound stylistically similar to Miniature Tigers. Examples include Hellogoodbye, Say Anything, and Plain White Ts….you get the picture. It’s not that they are essentially the same, they just noticeably came from a similar mold. It’s not just the catchy indie-pop tunes, it’s the “awkwardly endearing” quality.

Their lyrics are heavily sardonic (similar to the aforementioned Say Anything), laden with extraneous metaphors, and over dramatized exaggerations. Their instrumentation, however was very difficult to throw myself into. Maybe it’s their somewhat mellow nature; whimsical and slightly redundant, punctuated by often strange noises (very Hellogoodbye-esque, except Hellogoodbye is a bit more up tempo and diverse), but they just didn’t personally get me going. If you happen to dig the typical “MySpace indie” sound, then I would definitely recommend this album to you. The band has been recognized by various publications, including SPIN magazine’s “9 Hottest New Bands Playing CMJ 2008″ and has toured with the likes of Ben Folds and Popwreckoning favorite Kevin Devine, as well as substituting their own lead guitarist with Phantom Planet’s Darren Robinson in the earlier part of this year.

The band is currently touring to promote the album.

Track listing:
01. Cannibal Queen
02. Like Or Like Like
03. Dino Damage
04. Tell It To The Volcano
05. Hot Venom
06. Tchaikovsky & Solitude
07. The Wolf
08. Giraffe
09. Annie Oakley
10. Haunted Pyramid
11. Last Night’s Fake Blood

Miniature Tigers: website | myspace | @ electric factory | @ jackpot

Do you remember when…

Lloyd Dobler lifts a boombox over his head beneath his love Diane Court’s window, pouring his heart out through Peter Gabriel’s timeless hit:

“In your eyes
The light the heat
In your eyes
I am complete
In your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution of all the fruitless searches…”

Experience the iconic film scene all over again (or even for the first time) when Say Anything 20th Anniversary Edition arrives on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on November 3. Starring John Cusack, Ione Skye and John Mahoney, and with an eclectic soundtrack featuring the classic “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel as well as “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour, “Taste the Pain” by Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Stripped” by Depeche Mode and more, it is a must-have for movie and music lovers alike!

Say Anything 20th Anniversary Edition: amazon

Ah, Warped Tour… every teenage scenester’s festival of choice. A sensory overload in the oft-blistering heat, as well as a bit of a surreal experience as it is sometimes difficult to believe one is seeing so many exceptional bands in one day.

Shwayze

I began by checking out MTV darling Shwayze, accompanied by the ever-greasy Cisco Adler at the Hurley.com stage. The two work well together, psyching up the crowd with their cheesy, yet fun summer-friendly tunes. The hip-hoppers had an obvious backing track for their sung vocals, but the audience didn’t seem to mind. They cheered and sang along with every song despite the juvenile subject matter. Every song they performed was about, as the boys put it themselves “drinkin’, fuckin’ and weed!” I couldn’t bring myself to stay for the rest of their set, as truly stupid lyrics annoy me

Anberlin

At the MySpace tent, I managed to catch a couple songs in Anberlin’s acoustic set. For a Christian band, they show no preachy messages in their music and lead singer Stephen Christian has a truly beautiful voice. I’m torn on the idea of having acoustic sets in the MySpace tent as being a good one or a bad one. While the small, intimate, and toned-down setting is a nice change, the tent itself is much to small for most concertgoers to catch much more than a small earful of these sets.

Katy Perry

America’s beloved new sex-kitten (and Gym Class Heroes’s Travis McCoy’s girlfriend) Katy Perry emerged onstage to the intro of Heart’s “Barracuda,” and did not disappoint. Her energetic and entertaining stage demeanor was kept up throughout her entire set, including the bit where she insisted that it was so hot, that everyone should take off an article of clothing, Perry herself humorously shedding a shoe. On her recordings, Perry’s vocals tend to have a lot of production behind them, making me fear that her vocals could not deliver. I was very glad to hear the strong, pretty voice she had to offer us, with no backing track to be heard. The crowd for her set was fairly calm, but still clearly enjoying her performance, as she pranced her way through her songs, including “One of the Boys,” “You Can’t Afford Me,” and “Ur So Gay,” even strapping on a guitar for a few of the songs.

Schlepping back to the Route 66 stage, I caught ska legends Reel Big Fish. Being one of the oldest bands on the Warped Tour ticked, I was surprised to see that they had an even bigger crowd than the recently radio-friendly Gym Class Heroes and Katy Perry. They prove that they’re seasoned pros, tackling some wonderful harmonies. Spanning their catalog from “Everything Sucks” to “Suburban Rhythm,” their set is fantastically entertaining, peppering their onstage banter with quotes such as “I’m so rich! I was on MTV one time!” RBF is definitely a band that’s showing these youngsters how it’s done.

Reel Big Fish

Now, I know you had already gotten a review of Chicago rockers The Academy Is… from our Kansas City Warped Tour coverage, but I decided I needed to see them for myself. TAI does not need to take lessons from RBF. They know how to play a show and work a crowd, playing as much for the audience as they do for themselves. Opening the set with “Neighbors” and going into this Popwrecker’s personal favorite “Slow Down” frontman William Beckett is all over the stage, wielding his microphone stand like a weapon.

The Academy Is...

His vocals are impressive and clear as a bell, sounding better than they do on the band’s studio albums. Going into “Big Bang” and “Black Mamba” the whole audience is singing along as guitarist Michael Guy Chislett demonstrates his formidable guitar chops. Bassist Adam Siska, or as Beckett refers to him “Sisky Business” is almost a match for the svelte singer’s onstage manner. I was grateful that the band was awarded an extra 10 minutes for their set and cheered with the rest as they closed the set with “Almost Home.”

Staying at the Route 66 stage and pushing my way forward, I snagged a front and center position for one of my most highly anticipated bands, Motion City Soundtrack. Being a Warped Tour virgin, and not using my head, I realized this was a bad idea. The crowd rushed the stage the moment the band began to play their opening number “Attractive Today” and I was continuously assaulted by crowd surfers for the entirety of their set. Although, I wasn’t exactly able to see them most of the time, the band did not disappoint, playing songs spanning all three of their studio albums. From “The Future Freaks Me Out” and “My Favorite Accident,” to “Everything Is Alright” and “Broken Heart,” every song was completely en pointe.

Motion City Soundtrack

Finally, I caught the up and coming Ludo closing the show at the Hurley.com stage. Earlier in the day the band and I sat down for some witty banter. As a matter of fact, attempting to interview these St. Louis boys gives you nothing but an exchange of witty banter. This year is their first time being on Warped Tour for longer than a week and they are absolutely loving it.

Frontman Andrew Volpe is the mouthpiece for the most part, saying, “This is the best tour ever. We get food, shows, a bus—it’s a better experience than we’ve ever had before.” The band, named for the loveable yeti-like character from ‘80s cult classic Labyrinth want their music to be “a home for runaway teens.” Volpe says, “We have this whole idea of our music entertaining people without making them stupider. But I think we’re failing. I watch people walk away after our shows just looking dumb.” He’s kidding of course… I think.

Ludo

Although, keyboardist Tim Convy and bassist Marshall Fanciullo seem to be nodding in agreement. Volpe continues, “We get to be on the road with all these great bands: Reel Big Fish; Say Anything,” the rest of the band begins adding their favorites, including Oreskaband, Relient K, Story of the Year, Dr. Manhattan and The Aggrolytes. Convy picks up where he leaves off, “but we tend to listen to as little rock as possible in our down-time — a lot of old, acoustic stuff, trying t balance everything out.” When queried about their greatest moment as a band together, the band answers jokingly, “This right here. In this room. Doing this interview. With you.” As I laugh Convy adds in, “getting to do this…cool tours, with touring getting easier. We couldn’t ask for more.”

But Fanciullo seems to somewhat disagree. “I think you should recycle: glass; plastic; aluminum.”
“What about paper?” Volpe interjects.
“Nah. Fuck paper.”

Ludo’s set is just as entertaining as the one-on-five time I got to spend with them. The relatively young band has the stage presence of a group that has been around for much longer. Volpe’s vocals are fantastic, dripping with wit. Convy uses the entire stage when he’s not anchored to his keys, which seems to be as often as he can get away with. Their creative song-writing is comparable to Blue Album-era Weezer combined with Harvey Danger, including delectable lyrics such as, “You taste good tonight.”

If you combine 4-part harmonies with a sense of humor, you’re good to go in my book, and Ludo does just that. The 5 piece closes the show with a cover of Faith No More’s “Epic,” and while it was flawless, I wonder if it was the right choice for the crowd at Warped Tour. Although there were a few people here and there rocking the hell out, most of the younger, emo-concious listeners seemed confused, clearly not recognizing the tune.

I can’t lie. I was glad to leave when Warped Tour wrapped up for the day. I was hot, sweaty, tired, hungry, and overloaded with everything I had just seen, heard, and experienced. While festivals are a great idea, giving music fans the opportunity to catch so many of their favorite bands in one day, it’s definitely not something I, personally, would go for on a regular basis. I prefer evening breezes and longer sets to the sweltering mid-day sun and 30 minute previews that Warped Tour gives us.

Written by: Sara Bellum

Here is the third installment of the Warped Tour Rundown. Enjoy.

5:45 P.M. to 6:15 P.M. Katy Perry – Hurley.com Stage

I would be lying if I didn’t confess that I became relatively nervous while making my way to the Hurley.com stage for Katy Perry’s premiere Kansas City performance. PopWreckoning had worked with her several times (Review, Interview) in the past without fail, but following a fairly awful performance on Last Call with Carson Daily , I was somewhat unsure of exactly what type of a show I would be in for. It could honestly swing either way. She could turn out to be an amazingly talented woman with the ability to command a stage and capture the love and attention of the crowd, much like No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani. However, she could also turn out to be a talentless figure head with a pretty face standing in front of a group of world class musicians with the likes of Avril Lavigne. Either way, finding out the answer to these questions seemed like kind of a big deal.

The truth is Katy Perry did not let me down. While she remained a little pitchy and yelled instead of singing more often than she needed to, Katy’s set was pretty damn good. Her stage actions are fairly amusing and her songs are really entertaining. The presence of personality that she brings to the stage is completely responsible for her new found fame. She interacted with the crowd as well as anyone I had seen that day. Bottom line is, Katy Perry won me over. She is the real deal and worth your time.

Grade: B+

5:50 – 6:20 Cobra Starship – Highway One Stage

Rumor is that Cobra Starship is kind of a big deal. Everyone I met at Warped Tour had their name on the tip of their tongue, which says something about the group considering the hype from the movie Snakes on a Plane has long died down.

Instrumentally, the group has a tight set. For being known for providing the song to such a cheesy movie, they surprisingly have really interesting instrumentals, partly thanks to the addition of a keytar player. However, instruments may not be enough to win over the entire audience because you either love or hate lead singer Gabe Saporta’s cocky antics, which range from dancing around the stage to brushing his own shoulder off.

The jury is still out on this group. Those of us here at PopWreckoning can’t decide if we want to give this group two fangs up or down.

Grade: B

6:50 to 7:20 Say Anything – Highway One Stage

PopWreckoning reviewed Say Anything when they passed through Kansas City two weeks prior to Warped, but was left desiring a little more energy and enthusiasm from the group. After getting a second chance to see them, I feel the early assessment was pretty accurate.

Their songs are well-known and loved in Kansas City because of the heavy radio play they get here, but the group’s singer Max Bemis, seems to have lost his enthusiasm for their songs. It is a shame that the quirky lyrics weren’t enough to save this group from delivering a boring set. Although it was fun to see Say Anything joined by all their “friends” like Cobra Starship’s Gabe Saporta on “Belt.”

Grade: B

7:20 to Apocalypse Gym Class Heroes – Route 66 Stage

Gym Class Heroes, much like their previously reviewed Fueled By Ramen labelmates The Academy Is,  have greatly improved over the years and they delivered one of the most impressive sets of the day, until it was sadly cut far too short by the apocalyptic thunderstorm that broke out during the Gym Class Heroes’ tour of the Papercut Chronicles.

Actually, the band could have sounded like shit and they still would have been entertaining. Travis McCoy is one of the most entertaining frontmen in the industry with his great crowd interaction and wild facial expressions. Fortunately, the group sounded great, so it was a pleasing experience for both the eyes and ears.

Grade: A

Katy Perry: website | myspace
Cobra Starship: website | myspace
Say Anything: website | myspace
Gym Class Heroes: website | myspace

Continuing a series of Warped Tour interviews at the Bonner Springs show on July 2, 2008, Bethany had the chance to talk to Christian metalcore group Norma Jean.  Below is their conversation:

Bethany, Popwreckoning: Hi. My name is Bethany. Can I get you guys to state your name and role in the band?
Norma Jean, Cory Brandan Putman: I’m Cory. I sing a lot.
NJ, Chris Day: I’m Chris and I play guitar a lot.
NJ, Chris Raines: I’m Chris and I play drums sometimes.
NJ, Jake Schultz: I’m Jake and I play bass.
NJ, Scottie Henry: I’m Scottie and I play guitar usually.
NJ/CP: What is this interview for?
PW: This is for popwreckoning.com. It’s a webzine.
NJ/CP: Popwreckoning. Ok. Cool.
PW: You guys have openly stated that you are committed to bringing a different sound on each of your albums. Why do you feel this is an important thing to do?
NJ/CP: We just have a lot of ideas. We have really, really good ideas and like to use them all. Next question, just kidding.
NJ/JS: Stagnant music is really boring.
NJ/CP: We just don’t want to do the same thing over and over. That’s too easy. We want to push ourselves and challenge ourselves. Our fans have caught on that that’s going to keep happening. So, it’s kind of cool how that’s working out.
PW: So of all your albums, which do you think has been the best received and why?
NJ/JS: Our last one.
NJ/CP: I would say the last has been received the best. I don’t know why. I think the newer one is better than that one. It’s heavier than Redeemer and has a lot more melody than Redeemer as well, so I think it balances itself out maybe.
PW: So you guys were on Ozzfest for a tour. How does that compare to Warped? Is it fairly similar or is one better than the other?
NJ/CD: They’re just totally two different tours. Ozzfest was primarily heavy bands only and Warped Tour has heavy bands and not heavy bands and dance bands and all kinds of music going on here, so it’s two totally different settings.
NJ/CP: Ozzfest is a lot more banging of the head. I want everybody to have a bangover.
PW: Do you prefer the fans for one of those tours? I’m sure the fans are different between Warped and Ozzfest.
NJ/CP: Yeah, they’re different. I don’t really have a preference. It doesn’t matter, they’re rowdy kids. If you come to a Norma Jean show, you kind of expect that.
PW: Rowdiness all the way? Ok. Well, rumor has it that you had to change your original name because it kept getting confused with Ludacris, do you really think that was an issue? It’s kind of like apples and oranges, right?
NJ/CR: We just didn’t like the name anymore, so we changed it.
NJ/JS: That kind of gave us an excuse to do it, though. The label wasn’t liking that we wanted to change it at first. So we were like, “Well, this guy got huge and it’s the same name, so let’s change.”
PW: Who are your favorite bands on this year’s tour that you’ve either made friends with or discovered through it?
NJ/CP: I like Every Time I Die, Against Me, Say Anything.
NJ/CR: Maylene
NJ/JS: MC Chris
NJ/CD: Is Pearl Jam on this tour? I’d say that would be pretty sweet.
PW: Has any really amusing thing happened so far this year on Warped or has it been pretty mild?
NJ/SH: Yeah, we saw a dog yesterday.
PW: Wow.
NJ/SH: Yeah, it was awesome. It was like a German shepard.
NJ/CR: There was a shed. I saw a Boxer in a shed.
NJ/SH: I didn’t see a Boxer.
NJ/CP: We beat up the guitarist from Katy Perry’s band.
(Pretty sure Putman was joking, but he delivered it so matter of fact dead pan, I must admit I had some doubts that he was lying.)
PW: Why would you beat him up?
NJ/CP: It was like, you know, that kid back in high school who picked on you? One of those guys and we felt like doing that back to somebody else so we picked him randomly. We’ll start some beef here with Katy Perry’s band.
PW: Is that true?
NJ/CP: We didn’t. (laughs)
PW: I’m going to go find Katy Perry’s guitarist and tell him you said you could take him in a fight.
NJ/CP: Ha. You could.
NJ/SH: Don’t do that. (teasing) This is all off the record. Next interview. Now we can start the interview. Are you recording this? No, you can print that all on your site.
PW: Finally, if you could take this space to talk about any issue right now, what would you talk about, what would you say to your fans? (Blank stares) Maybe a political view?
NJ/JS: We’d say our record is coming out August 5, so buy it.
NJ/CR: Listen to music. That’s about as political as we get right there.
NJ/CD: Vote for our new record. Vote for The Anti Mother.
PW: Well that’s all I have. Thanks you guys. Nice meeting you.
NJ/CD: You too.

Norma Jean: website | myspace

Kansas City’s Power and Light District does this cool little thing in the summer where they offer a free rock concert every Wednesday night. A good idea in theory, but not as effective in action as was evident at the Say Anything show June 18, 2008. It might have been an off night for the band, but the venue is also partly to blame for their lackluster performance.

In the past, Say Anything fans have been some of the most active audience members I have ever seen at a show. For this free 21 and over show, however, the audience seemed more interested in their drinks than what was occurring on stage. It made me feel sad for the true, but underage fans that could be spotted standing outside the entrance, trying to listen in. It made me feel especially sad for the band that usually feeds off of the energy of its crowd.

Max Bemis and crew kicked off the show with “Woe,” quickly followed by “Skinny, Mean Man” before they jumped into their first radio single “Alive with the Glory of Love.” The audience showed a little more interest in this song and consequentially, the band did as well.

The band’s older songs seemed to fare better than the ones from their most recent release and “Every Man Has His Molly” off of …Is a Real Boy stole the show with the help of a hilarious introduction by Bemis. “This song is about a girl,” Bemis said, “And I got the last word.”

The band needed to depart quickly to catch a flight and Bemis bought his band mates extra packing time by performing a solo encore. It was refreshing to see Bemis show that he not only sings but can play guitar, as well. He performed a stripped down version of “Baby Girl, I’m a Blur.” As interesting as this was, it was not the raucous and energetic closer I expected from a band like Say Anything.

It really wasn’t a bad performance, it just seemed like both audience and the band didn’t really care that a concert was occurring there. Perhaps when Say Anything returns to Kansas City in two weeks with Warped Tour and have the opportunity to play for people who care, they will deliver the energetic set I’m used to seeing.

Setlist:
Woe
Skinny, Mean Man
Alive With the Glory of Love
Yellow Cat / Red Cat
Shiksa (Girlfriend)
Every Man Has His Molly
Retarded in Love
The Futile
Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too
We Killed It
The Church Channel
Belt
–encore–
Baby Girl, I’m a Blur
I Want to Know Your Plans
Aww (new song)

Say Anything: website | myspace

by Bethany Marie