AFI & The Loved Ones

So...I'm crazy when it comes to shows as of recent. Late last year, we traveled to Canada - but hell, that was probably Boys Night Out's last show ever and they played their first two albums in full.

Oh and what was that we did with going to Iceland for a music festival?

So driving to North Carolina didn't seem too out of the question when AFI and The Loved Ones were on the bill. I wish it had been another festival type thing, but alas it was just one of their tour stops.

We drove through the night and wihtout realizing, avoided all the horrors that went on with the storm that hit North Jersey that weekend...where we all live.

With little sleep, we woke up to get ready for the concert - I went early with my friend who is part of the AFI fan group, so she got to go in early. All would have been good except...The Fillmore in North Carolina is like a mile from the main city and you don't want to walk that mile by yourself and then it started to POUR!

But even with the bad weather, chilly winds...the stupid venue wouldn't let the fan club people in early early - jerks. I hopped off the line to stand against a building, but the poor people on line got drenched and probably chilled to the bone.

So after a quick run for food with other friends who arrived later...we returned!



Scarlet Grey opened and from what I heard online, they were good and my other friend said their set was awesome! But of course, I missed them.



I ADORE The Loved Ones. The sound was great in the venue and made them sound just that much better. They played all the fan favorites, mine being "100K" and then ending on "Louisiana."

Their bassist wasn't on tour with them, so they brought along a member of Paint It Black (I foget his name). The only complaint was that it seemed singer Dave Hause forgot some of the lyrics at times.



AFI became a band near and dear to me over a short period of time. While I'm more a fan of their early work, I now get to see them as a group of polished, talented & older musicians with a lead singer that I feel is the goth/punk Madonna.

They seemed a little out of it, my friend saying it was because they just got back from Australia (which I think was a week prior, but jet lag might take some time). They had done the Soundwave Festival and holy cow I wish I had been there.

They played a lot from the new album, Crashlove, and Sing the Sorrow. The most entertaining part of the evening - watching singer Davey Havok pole dance with his mic stand and basically dance around like he was in Madonna's "Vogue" video.

Well worth the trip and I'm never disappointed with any show by AFI or The Loved Ones, so to see them together...

Plus it was a kickass bonding time with friends - hell, bonding is going to happen one way or another when you're in the car together for almost 24 hours in one weekend.