Phew.
Well.
Let me preface by saying that this show was freaking gigantic.
Not only did Say Anything bring along three bands for the tour, consisting of Moving Mountains, Moneen, and Eisley (Whose singer Sherri DuPree is married to Max Bemis, singer for Say Anything…I know, adorable),
But the group also invited the popular rock band from New York called Bayside to play a short set with them as well. The night was most certainly a long one, but oh so worth it :)
Here’s what went down:
Moneen
So maybe it goes without saying, but you really have to start early if you’re going to have five bands playing in one night, on one tiny little stage (for some reason, the show got moved to the stage that is about half the size of the one that has been featured on the past Showtime! posts from In The Venue…the place doesn’t really make that much sense sometimes).
And well, sometimes that’s also much earlier than a faithful blogger can actually fit into his schedule…
Basically, I missed Moving Mountains. I’m sorry. They’re cool though, you should check them out.
Who really knew how to rock their stuff for sure though, were these guys.
Moneen is going on their tenth year of being together, and their performance really shows it. Want proof? Check out the photo down below of the singer walking ON the crowd and still singing with the band. Bamf.
Eisley
Can you say “cutest tour idea ever hatched”? Cause that’s basically what happened here.
Not only does Eisley get major brownie points for being a family band (all five members are DuPree’s), but guitarist/singer Sherri happens to have been married to Max Bemis since April this year, and the night was filled with cute little comments about one and the other (see SA’s section further down).
Ironically, Say Anything has a song on the very end of their debut (and, in my opinion, best) album …Is/Was a Real Boy that happens to be titled (deep breath) “I Will Never Write An Obligatory Song About Being On The Road and Missing Someone”. And, well, I guess this is one way to fix that.
After hearing the great dynamic the band has though, I really hope the two groups do this more often. There were quite a few technical difficulties during the show, what with a faulty mic for Sherri and a bum cord on Chauntelle’s pedal board, but the group all pulled through in the end, even with Sherri’s somewhat panicked repetition that they “needed to hurry considering how behind schedule they were”. Congrats on the holy bandtrimony guys.
Bayside
I’ll be honest: I had never even heard of Bayside before coming into the show tonight.
Maybe I’m just a whole lot less in the know musically than I should be for writing a music blog, but they had just never come up anywhere I’d looked before.
That’s all about to change now though. These guys have earned a very solid spot in my musical interest after their ear-gasmic show, even though it only ended up being about 8 songs (mostly due to a frustratingly long set change).
They were pretty cool guys as well, not just talented jerks thrown up on stage. Apparently, they were planning out their tour and saw that Say Anything was playing that night, so they just went ahead and asked if they could play a show with them for free (or rather, without getting a cut of the ticket sales, a pretty big thing for a band on tour).
Their fan base was a lot more massive than I was expecting as well; about half the fans at the show were there for them, with the other half for Say Anything. Check out their song down here, and just try picturing it live…sooo much fun.
Blame It On Bad Luck - Bayside
Say Anything
As giddy-schoolboy-ish as this may sound, I’d been waiting for this night for a good couple years (missing their 2007 show was a very sad day for me…). There has yet to be a band that captures the same kind of energy that this band does, and experiencing that energy live multiplies it.
What’s even more intensifying is that the show almost didn’t happen last night.
After playing the first few tracks off the band’s setlist, Max Bemis explained that he’d “woken up that morning at around 3 with a fever of 105,” but then continued with a simple “fuck it, I want to play a show anyways.” The man’s a trooper, no doubt about it, which is quite a relief considering the previous disappointment this month involving cancelled shows.
I must say though, I do wish a little more of that first record of theirs, …Is A Real Boy/Was A Real Boy, had shown up on the setlist; there’s something about that album that just seems anthemic. However, it’s not too surprising that they left it to the singles and a couple deeper cuts off of that one. Thinking about it, the last two records the band put out were double disc albums, giving them just under 50 songs from their old material alone, but then they’re also currently on tour for their self-titled album that is set to be released on November 3rd, so it’s to be expected that a good number of those new songs would show up during the show as well. And, like I said before, there were four freaking bands opening for them, so they didn’t really have that much time to play.
Regardless of all of this however, the show was nowhere near unbearable— In The Venue got rocked a lot harder than it usually does. Plus, their new material is sounding really great as well; they haven’t lost any of their touch or talent. One particular song that you should keep an eye out for is “Crushed” that the band left Max to play solo during the encore (see picture). They also did this for the very last song, “Baby Girl, I’m A Blur” (check the other photo) which he dedicated to his wife, saying that although the song was written about no one in particular, “she is exactly like this”.
And hey, they had freaking cardboard buildings set up on their amps. How does that not rock?
I’ll see you guys next time for sure. Thanks for stopping by.
Belt - Say Anything
And thanks to you for reading!
If you haven’t, you should definitely check out the Facebook Page we’ve got set up for The FYI/You! Listen! Now!, complete with extra photos, discussion boards, and more tasty stuffs.
Check back later in the week for Episode 9!
