Over the last month lots of stuff has happened. and 3 100% confirmed, big announcements!
1. I am now a intern at CFNY, 102.1 The Edge In Toronto. Officially having my first shift last Tuesday at the Nine Inch Nails show. I'll post my review on that later. I can't wait to get the chance to job-shadow[working along side] with some of brightest and most professional radio on-air personalities in the Country among other exciting stuff. I will be at the No Doubt show next Tuesday at the Air Canada Centre.
2. June 23rd, I will be Interviewing a band who's first single off of their fourth album rose to number 1 on the US rock charts and a RTW favourite:
ANBERLIN. Super stoked for this. Any questions, send them my way!
3. Once again I will be doing press at the the longest running annual rock tour in the US, Vans Warped Tour. I am super stoked to be doing this once again and to give the fans of my radio show and others the chance to pick the brains of their favourite artists apart.
4. I am in the works organizing some other stuff so stay tuned......
On to the Reviews of the shows, starting by most recent:
[img]http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-blender/files/2009/01/aptour.jpg%20[/img]
AP TOUR 2009
First of all, I wanted to give props to Fearless Records for hooking me up with a ticket to the show!
When I walked up to the venue around 6pm I was surprised, the line-up at the kool haus was wound around to queens quay[the street perpendicular to the venue]. Luckily for me I was able to cut through this to get my ticket at will call.
When I got into the venue, I felt like I had to show ID to see if I was under 16. There were so many young teens it made me feel so old. At least all the sight of all the moms and dads made me laugh.
By the Time I entered the venue I caught the last A Rocket To The Moon song, a band I had heard of, but was largely unfamilar with. I can't really give a fair assessment, but the mostly girls between 13-15year old crowd went batshit for it.
HIT THE LIGHTS
For those unfamilar with the band, many have dubbed these guys "New Found Glory Jr." for the similar sound. If you like NFG, your almost guaranteed to like these guys. They played mostly stuff from their new record, Skip School, Start Fights. The absence of Omar Zehery on guitar due to a family emergency saw a variety of guitarists from A Rocket To The Moon[Nick Santino], The Maine[Jared Monaco], my buddy Derek Mount[Chapstique] from Family Force 5, and even Vocalist Nick Thompson assuming his old role in the band by playing 2songs. They capped their performance off with their lastest single and one of the catchier songs on the record, Drop The Girl. Overall a tight, clean live performance and one of my favourites of the night.
FAMILY FORCE 5
Introduced to me last year while in New Jersey at Bamboozle by one of my friends, I couldn't get over Family Force 5 and their live performance. It was like a bunch of kids with A.D.D were given the keys to a candy store. The only way to describe the band's performance and on-stage antics is: fucking crazy. Maybe it's because there are 3 brothers [soul glow/solomon,Crouton/Jacob,and Phatty/joshua olds'] in the band, or the fact they just love to get-down and entertain the crowd.
While their new, more "dancey" album is not as well recieved by fans as their first more rock/rap fused record, their set, as always was entertaining. Playing some of old favourites such as Numb, Supersonic, Earthquake, and Luv Addict and New anthems Radiator, Wake The Dead, and Dance or Die. I would have liked to see "first time" performed live, one of the more "rock" songs on the record, the set was still great. They played about 11 songs. I'm happy this set was third, which you'll find out why a bit later.
3OH!3
A group I discovered in February of last year with their hilarous, homemade video for Holler Til You Pass Out, 3oh!3 have changed [in what i feel] for the worst. A group I was into as I took it them as more of a joke/fun as opposed to an actual "serious" group, everyone who has supposedly "been a fan since the start" takes them seriously and actually takes them seriously. Holy shit. Are you serious?
As they come on stage with the starting track of the album WANT, Tapp a Garage Band made beat, screams and screeches could be heard from Bay Street. They cut right away into "Punkbitch" as various whiteboys do their best Dr.Dre impression and for 3minutes, are "hardcore" rapping gurus....in their minds.
As the song comes to a close, Nate Motte speaks. "Were the band 3OH!3!" Woah, woah, woah. What the fuck. I try to hold back, back at least I shout "YOU GUYS AREN'T A ACTUAL BAND!"
Just because you take a Bassist and drummer who are there for looks and aren't actually playing out on tour does not make you a band. When Snoop Dogg takes a drummer out on tour with him, does that make him a actual band?
No fucking way.
The worst in all of this, the playing wasn't even believable. The drummer was doing hi-hat hits when clearly, the song is not making a hi-hat sound. These are Garage Band made beats, yes they are possible to play on a drum kit. Was the drummer? No way. 3oh!3, as they did when I saw them at Bamboozle in May 2008, had a beatmachine, in which they play all their beats off of, what those in the business call a backing track.
The drummer is all over the place, doing his best impersonation of playing the drums. Much of the same for the bassist. Just standing there, as a prop looking good. It also made me think, how much do they get paid to pretend play instruments while out on tour?
3oh!3 played pretty well all the songs off of Want, with the exception of the few that were my favourites on their debut record. No Chokechain. No Holler Til You Pass Out, No Say Dem' Up. Lame.
They ended with the song that has made them very popular with "the kids", Don't Trust Me, and prior to played a new song. It sounded like Don't Trust Me Part 2, they should have just played it with a extension.
I sound like a bitter douchebag whose band "sells out" on him and are no longer cool to like because everyone else likes them, or maybe i just grew out of 3oh!3 a bit too fast. The performance was nowhere near as good as when I saw them at Bamboozle, or the 5Warped Tour stops I was at. I was very disappointed.
The Maine
I have never really been into The Maine, but had never seen them live, so I decided to stay for most of their performance. Having only one record out, they didn't have a whole lot to choose from as far as song choice was concerned. Much to the delight of the thousands of anxious and energetic teeny boppers, they played favourites such as "Girls do what they want" and "Everything I Ask For".
Like The Maine or not, I will give them one thing. They love their fans and treat them like gold. They realize they are popular/famous because of the fans who buy their record, and I respect that a ton. Too many bands get big and forget what/who got them there, Fan Support.
Overall the show was okay, Hit The Lights and Family Force 5 were highlights of the night. I wasn't overly impressed with 3oh!3, and The Maine was alright. It might just be because the show a week earlier was one of the best shows I have ever been to....
Talked about the New Found Glory/Bayside/Set Your Goals show all throughout the first season of RTW,getting more pumped as the day neared. Fireworks, a Pop Punk Band from Detriot reminiscent of a Young New Found Glory subbed in for Shai Hulud, who dropped off the tour for the final 3 weeks. Special thanks to Keith at Epitaph Records once again!
Let's get to the bands:
Fireworks: I didn't expect anyone in the pheonix to know Fireworks, but when they opened with Detriot[my favourite off of their new record, All I Have To Offer Is My Own Confusion] at least 30-40 kids began sing-along and going somewhat crazy[you know, how most hardcore kids do] It seems Fireworks already had a following up north, which I thought was pretty awesome.
They played 6-7 songs, mostly off the new record with a few from their old EP. Overall a great performance, I was pretty impressed!
Setlist:
Detroit
Michigan Boys Need To Get A Clue
Cardellini
I Support Same Sex Marriage
Again and Again
Closet Weather
Show Me Your Vanishing Act One More Time
From Mountain Movers to Lazy Losers
Set Your Goals: Having just recently getting into these guys over the past 10 months, I was excited to see them live for the first time[i counted and i had 8! count'em 8! chances to see them between bamboozle/warped tour last year, boy am i pissed about that]
Succeeded my expectations and then some. Fucking awesome. Kicked it off with Flight of the Navigator, where by the end of the song I have to confess that I had to make my way from the back of the crowd to the pit at this point, I couldn't miss out. In addition to the usual songs and a couple of Rock The Walls favourites, they played two new tracks I unfortunately didn't catch the titles to. I'm positive one was This Will Be The Death Of Us[Title Track from their new album out July 21st] and one titled "summer jam". Was very impressed and really into it like most of the crowd was. Lots of SYG supporters in Toronto, alive and well. Can't wait to see these guys once again on the gig life tour.
Setlist:
Flight of the Navigator
Goonies
The Fallen
This Will Be The Death Of Us
Work in Progress/We Do It For the Money
Summer Jam
Don't Let This Win Over You/Echoes
To Be Continued
Mutiny
Bayside: I wasn't sure what kind of a reaction and/or fan base they would get/have in Toronto but that was quickly answered as Bayside hit the stage with a loud group of cheers, Louder then both SYG and Fireworks. Fittingly they kicked it off with Hello Shitty and transitioned into Boy as the Pheonix went nuts. Hands down the most crisp and cleanest live guitar playing I have ever seen live in person. Jack O'shea is a absolute beast. When they came to the solo in The Walking Wounded, he absolutely killed it and the pheonix practically blew up. A absolute wizard, doing much the same in Rochambo. One of the best live performances i've seen from a band period.
Setlist
Hello Shitty
Boy
The Walking Wounded
They're Not Horses, They're Unicorns
Carry On
Duality
Masterpiece
Mantauk
Rochambo
Linoluem
Blame It On Bad Luck
Devotion and Desire
Then came time for the main event as the undisputed Pop Punk Champs New Found Glory took to the stage.
NFG showed why they have been and continue to be one of the biggest pop punk bands ever. It was hard to imagine before the set NFG topping Bayside's set, but they did. For next 75minutes I found out first hand as my NFG live cherry was popped. They kicked it off with their lastest single and the song I played when I featured them and Not Without A Fight as one of RTW's Most Anticipated Albums of 2009.
They played all the favourites you'd expect them to with a few unexpected surprises such as Story So Far and 2's and 3's[by request]!Before the encore they played a cover from Soundtrack To Your Stereo Part 2,[Don't You] Forget About Me which seemed to send the crowd into aw and it calmed down.
As they came back out they played Better Off Dead and the pit was going nuts. This was seen as a last stand- and went apeshit. After 2's and 3's, they started the beginning of intro,and the pit got even bigger. They all knew what was coming next! a song we all remember wether we were 8 or 20, My Friends Over You. Cue one of the loudest crowd sing-a-longs you'll ever hear and the only way to end a NFG set.
Setlist:
Listen To Your Friends
Understatement
At Least I'm Known For Something
Forget My Name
Right Where We Left Off
All Downhill From Here
Sincerely Me
Hold My Hand
Truck Stop Blues
Truth of My Youth
The Story So Far
Tip Of The Iceberg
Failure's Not Flattering
Dressed to Kill
Don't Let Her Pull You Down
Hit or Miss
Don't You (Forget About Me)
Encore:
Better Off Dead.
2's & 3's
Intro
My Friends Over You
What a show. I really wish this was after the mess that was AP Tour, but clearly none of the bands on that bill come close to NFG [or Bayside for that matter] in terms of musicianship and stage presence. These bands[ NFG, Bayside] have staying power the run-of-the-mill neon electro punk crap will never have. As NFG has already proven they are more then a one hit wonder, and will be around for years to come.
It was also amazing to the diversity in the crowd. From 20 year old decked out hardcore kids to 25-30 year old men and women and 14 year old boys and girls barely into high school. I find it amazing that a band can bring so many different people together at different stages in their life to all get that same feeling when they are watching their favorite band up on stage.
Just as Motion City Soundtrack is to me[and always will be] my favourite band due in some respects the fact that being introduced to them introduced me into the "scene [punk,ska,hardcore]" i'm into now and will eventually get into for the rest of my life. This is what New Found Glory is to so many kids, especially the hardcore crowd. New Found Glory is the band that introduced them to bands such as Have Heart and Title Fight.
Getting lost in music is a special and amazing thing. I absolutely love it. Living in a day and age where so much stuff is accessible to us and millions and millions of artists on the internet, anyone can find anything for them.
phew! that was way long, and took me over the course of 2-3 sittings all within the past few days. Now I can get on a normal schedule for updating blogs, expect them to come fast and furious now, maybe even featuring some videos?
Working Away and Still not believing the Penguins are The 2009 Stanley Cup Champions,
Patrick
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