Show Review

Needless to say, I’m am enormous fan of the three main bands playing this show—Saves The Day and Circa Survive have found themselves at the top of my playlist for some time now. After hearing the new albums from both Saves The Day and Moneen on the same day, they haven’t left my player since—so I went into this show with high expectations.

I had attended the show the night before at The Glasshouse, and while I missed Pistolita this night I’ll briefly mention their set I saw the night before. The were playing songs in support of their recently released “Oliver Under The Moon” (East West) release, and while I think their style is one that hasn’t been done in the same fashion before, they seemed to lack anything special. Their vocals combined two singers and pianos with raging guitars to form a sort of Ben Folds meets The Mars Volta kind of thing, but without the melodies or chaos (respectively) to follow-suit. As creative as Pistolita is, I simply found myself more bored than anything with their dry sound—though their musicianship was something to speak of.

As Moneen finally took the stage, I was overly ready and prepared for their onslaught of heavy guitars and raging vocal battling. This band, it seems, has always been one to be ignored: but not on this night, it seemed. Their energy was not to be missed, as the guitarist/singer stormed the stage, bouncing off the walls. They played an array of tunes, spanning their previous record “Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now?” and, thankfully, a few from their upcoming masterpiece, “The Red Tree.” The sonic, raging guitars and vocal melodies of Moneen are truly something else, and I was yet again impressed with their stage energy. If people haven’t finally gotten into this band by the time “The Red Tree” comes out, I’ll be beyond surprised.

In 2005, I saw Circa Survive some 8-10 times, and it seems they got better each time. On the night before this, bassist Nick Beard hurt himself somehow after they played “Handshakes At Sunrise” and halfway through “Holding Someone’s Hair Back.” With paramedics storming the stage, singer Anthony Green took the stage with an electric guitar, playing in the vein of the few “acoustic” shows he played awhile back. Needless to say, I was disappointed—but thankful I had the chance to catch them the next night at the Troubadour. Beard seemed to be in full-swing, and the band played an amazing set of songs from “Juturna,” one of my favorite records of 2005, all with adept energy and motion. Though most people might consider Circa Survive the Anthony Green band, I found myself enjoying the guitar work and excellent transitions between songs just as much as Green’s stellar voice. Key moments of their set, as opposed to the numerous occasions I had witnessed before, included the performance of “The Glorious Nosebleed” and an insane “Act Appalled,” in which the kids on the floor absolutely went nuts and Green’s voice sounded better than ever. If you miss Saosin with Green, there’s no way you can’t love Circa Survive with him, and this band always play their sets with a certain professionalism and talent that only comes with due experience playing countless shows in former bands. Circa Survive is the kind of band that, even when you’ve seen them in numbers that are two digits in frequency, you still enjoy and get into their set as much as the first time you saw them.

Chris Conley and Saves The Day were somewhat written off after releasing “In Reverie,” and while it took me awhile, I now fully embrace the band for constantly reinventing themselves. “Sound The Alarm” is an impeccable recreation of a band who got their start playing Lifetime style punk songs, and Conley’s voice is simply too unordinary to cast aside.

I’ve seen Saves The Day a few times now, but these two night were easily the most enjoyable nights I have seen them play. It might have been the attitude I carried with myself that night, or the fact that I’ve recently been spinning “Sound The Alarm” on repeat—or the fact that after rediscovering “In Reverie” last year I hold the band with an absolute dignity. Regardless, the band’s set consisted of songs I have lived and loved for some time, and they obviously played a show for their fans, as trite as that sounds. The band played songs spanning all of their releases, and Conley’s voice sounded better than I have heard it sound—ever. He hit all of the notes he wrote, and they even played crowd favorites “Nightingale” and Holly Hox Forget Me Nots,” as well as the old-fan favorites “Jodie” and “Deciding.” I was amazed at how much old(er) material they played, and even more impressed with their decision to close with “Tomorrow Too Late,” perhaps my favorite song of all time by Saves The Day.

The band also was selling a rather overpriced but cool acoustic tour EP that was limited edition called “Bug Sessions: Volume 1,” and in support of this EP they donned acoustic guitars and played a few songs from it. This was perhaps the one moment during their set that I was absolutely appalled and struck with glee—and that might just be because I’m never a real sucker for the acoustic guitar anymore.

These two nights were an incredible experience; and it was even more exciting to see the band changed their set list a bit each night. If you’re a fan of any song Saves The Day has written, you likely won’t be disappointed at all with these shows—as it seems Saves The Day are out to play for the fans and played literally all of the old favorites from all their records.

My hat is off to Conley and the boys—not only for releasing another masterpiece, but also for always maintaining a sense of humility and respect for their fans. They’ve held a positive attitude every time I’ve seen them, and it always brings a grin to my face to see Conley politely bow and thank his fans after every song on their set. Saves The Day have been a band I have loved for as long as I’ve loved music, and have never succeeded in doing anything but performing and writing music for their fans: and that’s more than I can say for half the bands I see getting twice their attention. Go see these shows.

review by Andrew Martin