(no subject)
Well, now that I've put off sleeping long enough I can feel secure in typing for a long time and not feeling any worse for it when I wake up at seven later this morning. As promised (however immaterially) is the DC concert review and possibly some vague ramblings if I feel like it. I might be long, so again, click below if you'd like me to suck up a few more minutes of your life.
So the concert was...what can I say? AMAZING. I can't say enough about it. But naturally, I'll try.
Arrived around 6:45 and found our seats without any trouble. They were pretty good - I could see everything throughout the entire show. By the way, the Chicago Theatre is gorgeous. It felt a little incongrouous to be there listening to alternative/emo music, particularly when Say Anything was playing, but it worked, and you could tell the performers really liked it.
Ben Lee started playing about five to seven, and he was surprisingly good. Apparently at the beginning of the tour he was a little angry at how empty the venues were since a lot of people that buy tickets for DC concerts show up just for DC. But I guess by Chicago he was used to it, because he joked about playing "the best file-in music possible" and getting everyone warmed up and all. Musically, he reminded me of Josh Joplin or Maroon 5, with maybe a tad of John Mayer at times. Nice catchy pop, with fun lyrics. He was definitely a pleasant opener, if nothing else.
Say Anything followed within ten minutes of Lee, and they launched right into a bunch of songs off their album "...Is A Real Boy". Max (the lead singer) was larger than I expected. He has a voice sometimes eerily similar to Tom Green's, so I was expecting him to be kind of small and frail. But nope. He ran around the stage as the three (yes, three) guitarists and extremely long-haired bassist went generally crazy for about half an hour. The stage presence was great, and all the guys did a great job of playing the songs well while mixing things up as compared to the record. I loved a move Max did with the mic. It had a cord, so he would grab the cord, swing the mic around by it above his head, and then slam it into his hand just in time to sing a line. It looked really cool. My favorite part was in the middle of "Slowly, Through A Vector", when they launched into the awesome bridge of that song, and all six guys on stage where just going nuts, jumping off things, and running around, and it just looked awesome. Max also smartly got everyone up on their feet during the second song, as people were sitting for Ben Lee and hadn't stood up for SA, with the exception of one goof a few rows in front of me who stood up as soon as SA came out and sang along with every song and did goofy little dance moves to them and such. He had serious guts doing that as he was literally the ONLY person standing in the entire theatre for the first ten minutes or so of the set. But hey, all the power to him, 'twas a good set to rock out to. I ended up getting a shirt after the set since I had and was wearing a DC shirt. I think the only thing SA could have done to be better was play "I Want To Know Your Plans" because I love that song, even if it might not have meshed with the rest of the set quite as much. Oh well.
Then DC came on. During set up the techies put up a giant sheet covering the entire stage, which I thought was just so they could drop it right when DC came out and make it more dramatic, but it stayed up as they started playing their first song "Heaven Here". The band was standing near the sheet and there were lights on the opposite side of the audience that were flashing on and off so that the silhouettes of everyone flashed in one place, faded, and then showed up somewhere else on the sheet, making for a really cool effect. Then at a crescendo in the song, the curtain dropped (well, mostly - it got hung up in the middle for a second until a techie pulled it down) and the band finished off the awesome opener. The stage set up was really cool. There was a giant screen behind the band with a brick wall grid on it with windows (sort of like the side of a building), and the bricks would change colors and there were tree silhouettes in the windows. There were also these things that looked like giant pumpkins hanging on strings from the ceiling that lit up and changed colors as well. Not to mention all the spotlights and all. A great set up, and then DC went straight into another new song, "Rooftops and Invitations", and then "The Good Fight", an older song, which was where the crowd really started getting into the show since everyone new the lyrics. The best thing about a DC concert isn't even the guys on stage; it's the fact that everyone there knows most of the lyrics, and everyone sings them at the top of their lungs, and it's just an awesome feeling. Chris then followed up with The Sharp Hint Of New Tears, and an acoustic solo of The Swiss Army Romance, which was greeted with a crazy loud cheer. Next up were The Secret's In The Telling, Ghost Of A Good Thing, and Gone, Gone, Gone a song by Chris' buddy John Ralston who came out and played for us as a "gift". I'd heard the studio version and thought it fairly decent, but it was a really good song to hear live. Then came one of the highlights. Chris played Dusk And Summer. Normally, I don't particularly care for this song, but it was awesome live. Chris has everyone take out their cells and wave them in the air for the entire song, saying "We can pretend their stars, and if you show me your stars for the entire song, I might show you mine", which was cheesy, sure, but I cheered along with everyone else (you could make an argument for DC being a cult sometimes). Most of the way through the song, the tree silhouettes faded away and the windows got dark, and eventually the whole screen was filled with a beautiful shooting star montage, and coupled with the song, it took me right back to canoeing on the Wisconsin River and falling asleep on a sand bar in the middle of the river watching a meteor shower (one of the top five moments of my life). Chris then played Again I Go Unnoticed, and the hugely received hit Screaming Infidelities. Another hightlight of the show was the next song, Remember To Breathe, another song that I'm not a huge fan of normally, but here it was incredible. Max came out near the end and sang a verse from one of his songs, and everyone loved it, and the song ended up being a good four minutes longer than usual and I loved it. So Long, So Long, Stolen, and Don't Wait finished out the set.
But that wasn't all! DC went off for maybe two minutes, with the crowd cheering the entire time. It was so loud, and the only thing I could think to do was stand there and just drink in the noise of five thousand people screaming at the top of their lungs. Then DC came back out, and the noise got louder, though I didn't think that was possible. Chris launched into Vindicated, the hit from the Spiderman 2 soundtrack, and the noise and the feeling of the song was incredible, and I didn't think it could be topped until he played Hands Down. The crowd waits for this song the entire show, no matter where, and when he kicked it off, the vibe was so incredible I found myself just standing there smiling (this is sounding pathetic, I know, but you'd have to be there to understand). The song just kept rocking and rocking, and it ended and the crowd was going absolutely insane, and the band walked off, and Chris walked over to his acoustic, grabbed it, and the entire audience sang the last words "And I knew, that you meant it" over and over, and it was just beautiful. I couldn't believe how amazing the moment was, and I have to tell you I was seriously sad the show had to end.
All in all just an incredible night. I left with a seriously raspy voice because I was singing along as loud as I could for probably two hours. Like I said, I can't really put into words how much I loved that concert. I'm definitely going to all the DC concerts I can from now on.
So the concert was...what can I say? AMAZING. I can't say enough about it. But naturally, I'll try.
Arrived around 6:45 and found our seats without any trouble. They were pretty good - I could see everything throughout the entire show. By the way, the Chicago Theatre is gorgeous. It felt a little incongrouous to be there listening to alternative/emo music, particularly when Say Anything was playing, but it worked, and you could tell the performers really liked it.
Ben Lee started playing about five to seven, and he was surprisingly good. Apparently at the beginning of the tour he was a little angry at how empty the venues were since a lot of people that buy tickets for DC concerts show up just for DC. But I guess by Chicago he was used to it, because he joked about playing "the best file-in music possible" and getting everyone warmed up and all. Musically, he reminded me of Josh Joplin or Maroon 5, with maybe a tad of John Mayer at times. Nice catchy pop, with fun lyrics. He was definitely a pleasant opener, if nothing else.
Say Anything followed within ten minutes of Lee, and they launched right into a bunch of songs off their album "...Is A Real Boy". Max (the lead singer) was larger than I expected. He has a voice sometimes eerily similar to Tom Green's, so I was expecting him to be kind of small and frail. But nope. He ran around the stage as the three (yes, three) guitarists and extremely long-haired bassist went generally crazy for about half an hour. The stage presence was great, and all the guys did a great job of playing the songs well while mixing things up as compared to the record. I loved a move Max did with the mic. It had a cord, so he would grab the cord, swing the mic around by it above his head, and then slam it into his hand just in time to sing a line. It looked really cool. My favorite part was in the middle of "Slowly, Through A Vector", when they launched into the awesome bridge of that song, and all six guys on stage where just going nuts, jumping off things, and running around, and it just looked awesome. Max also smartly got everyone up on their feet during the second song, as people were sitting for Ben Lee and hadn't stood up for SA, with the exception of one goof a few rows in front of me who stood up as soon as SA came out and sang along with every song and did goofy little dance moves to them and such. He had serious guts doing that as he was literally the ONLY person standing in the entire theatre for the first ten minutes or so of the set. But hey, all the power to him, 'twas a good set to rock out to. I ended up getting a shirt after the set since I had and was wearing a DC shirt. I think the only thing SA could have done to be better was play "I Want To Know Your Plans" because I love that song, even if it might not have meshed with the rest of the set quite as much. Oh well.
Then DC came on. During set up the techies put up a giant sheet covering the entire stage, which I thought was just so they could drop it right when DC came out and make it more dramatic, but it stayed up as they started playing their first song "Heaven Here". The band was standing near the sheet and there were lights on the opposite side of the audience that were flashing on and off so that the silhouettes of everyone flashed in one place, faded, and then showed up somewhere else on the sheet, making for a really cool effect. Then at a crescendo in the song, the curtain dropped (well, mostly - it got hung up in the middle for a second until a techie pulled it down) and the band finished off the awesome opener. The stage set up was really cool. There was a giant screen behind the band with a brick wall grid on it with windows (sort of like the side of a building), and the bricks would change colors and there were tree silhouettes in the windows. There were also these things that looked like giant pumpkins hanging on strings from the ceiling that lit up and changed colors as well. Not to mention all the spotlights and all. A great set up, and then DC went straight into another new song, "Rooftops and Invitations", and then "The Good Fight", an older song, which was where the crowd really started getting into the show since everyone new the lyrics. The best thing about a DC concert isn't even the guys on stage; it's the fact that everyone there knows most of the lyrics, and everyone sings them at the top of their lungs, and it's just an awesome feeling. Chris then followed up with The Sharp Hint Of New Tears, and an acoustic solo of The Swiss Army Romance, which was greeted with a crazy loud cheer. Next up were The Secret's In The Telling, Ghost Of A Good Thing, and Gone, Gone, Gone a song by Chris' buddy John Ralston who came out and played for us as a "gift". I'd heard the studio version and thought it fairly decent, but it was a really good song to hear live. Then came one of the highlights. Chris played Dusk And Summer. Normally, I don't particularly care for this song, but it was awesome live. Chris has everyone take out their cells and wave them in the air for the entire song, saying "We can pretend their stars, and if you show me your stars for the entire song, I might show you mine", which was cheesy, sure, but I cheered along with everyone else (you could make an argument for DC being a cult sometimes). Most of the way through the song, the tree silhouettes faded away and the windows got dark, and eventually the whole screen was filled with a beautiful shooting star montage, and coupled with the song, it took me right back to canoeing on the Wisconsin River and falling asleep on a sand bar in the middle of the river watching a meteor shower (one of the top five moments of my life). Chris then played Again I Go Unnoticed, and the hugely received hit Screaming Infidelities. Another hightlight of the show was the next song, Remember To Breathe, another song that I'm not a huge fan of normally, but here it was incredible. Max came out near the end and sang a verse from one of his songs, and everyone loved it, and the song ended up being a good four minutes longer than usual and I loved it. So Long, So Long, Stolen, and Don't Wait finished out the set.
But that wasn't all! DC went off for maybe two minutes, with the crowd cheering the entire time. It was so loud, and the only thing I could think to do was stand there and just drink in the noise of five thousand people screaming at the top of their lungs. Then DC came back out, and the noise got louder, though I didn't think that was possible. Chris launched into Vindicated, the hit from the Spiderman 2 soundtrack, and the noise and the feeling of the song was incredible, and I didn't think it could be topped until he played Hands Down. The crowd waits for this song the entire show, no matter where, and when he kicked it off, the vibe was so incredible I found myself just standing there smiling (this is sounding pathetic, I know, but you'd have to be there to understand). The song just kept rocking and rocking, and it ended and the crowd was going absolutely insane, and the band walked off, and Chris walked over to his acoustic, grabbed it, and the entire audience sang the last words "And I knew, that you meant it" over and over, and it was just beautiful. I couldn't believe how amazing the moment was, and I have to tell you I was seriously sad the show had to end.
All in all just an incredible night. I left with a seriously raspy voice because I was singing along as loud as I could for probably two hours. Like I said, I can't really put into words how much I loved that concert. I'm definitely going to all the DC concerts I can from now on.