Show Review

This was a tour I was excited to see for one reason: Saves The Day. I think I might have been the only one there who felt that way.

Unfortunately, due to the early show start time we missed Emanuel, but I've seen them before and they likely were pretty kick ass, with a lot of energy and emotion.

The Early November were playing when we arrived, sounding pretty weak. Ace Enders, the singer of TEN, announced they would be playing new songs that sounded "different" than their other stuff: the new songs sounded the exact opposite of that, and were pretty boring. All in all, they weren't as good as the last time I saw them (which was years ago), and their guitars being out of tune didn't help, but I could tell that most of the kids were enjoying their set.

I was super excited to see a band I have loved for what seems like almost all of their existence. Saves The Day, the timeless pop band who have redefined themselves with every release, put on simply an outstanding show, playing an array of jams spanning all of their releases. "You Vandal," "Holly Hox Forget Me Nots," and of course "At Your Funeral" and "Rocks Tonic Juice Magic" all were heard, and all with Chris Conley's perfect voice, without any strain as he hit every note, high and low. If you have never seen Saves The Day, you are simply missing out on an amazing show that has been just that: amazing, forever. The new jams they played from their forthcoming album "Sound The Alarm" to be released March 2006 were truly and genuinely brilliant, mixing the fast drums and punkiness of "Can't Slow Down" with the more melodic feel of their newest (and most underrated album) "In Reverie." Though I was disappointed they didn't play some songs I consider classics like "Sell My Old Clothes, I'm Off To Heaven," "A Drag In D-Flat," or the brilliant closer of In Reverie "Tomorrow Too Late," they played a lot of amazing songs that I loved including as "Cars And Calories" and the classic "Ups & Downs." Truly an amazing band with a set too short.

Somehow, Senses Fail was headlining, which just didn't seem right to me, but I didn't worry about it too much; after all they are "co-headlining" the tour together. Senses Fail are one of those bands I thought would be decent and get plenty of attention, but certainly not this much, not so soon. Their singer is rather weak live, unable to hit many of the notes, but their guitarists are pretty on key. Anything involving vocals, in fact, was pretty poor: the "growler" sounded pretty terrible (as usual). I was anything but impressed by this band, and just wish I could've seen Saves The Day play a longer set.

All in all, Saves The Day are worth sitting through anyone for, and blew my mind at this show, I just wish that Say Anything hadn't dropped off.

review by Andrew Martin