Blink, AFI, Dance Gavin & Emarosa

What a week!

Well, Blink 182 was a smidge more than a week, but whatever.

So we went to the Blink 182 show at Madison Square Garden and it was so surreal, but awesome. My friend had box seats, so up in the heavens we sat. Only super plus side to it - free sodas & beers, private bathrooms and though other people from her job were there, I could act a fool without a crowd of on-lookers.

Missed Asher Roth, who filled in for All-American Rejects b/c one of them was hurt, bummed, but saw most of Fall Out Boy - my first. They were good.

Blink 182...it was like so surreal b/c I felt as though I was watching a special on MTV about Blink. All the hits, so good. They did play a lot from the last album, which sucked, but oh wells. Travis did a drum solo set where his platform moved in the air, but after that, the sound sucked and made the songs hard to understand.

Oh wells.

AFI. I love them. I stood off to the side of the stage, so while yea, you were on the side, you still were like right there. Plus it's Starland Ballroom - it's mad tiny (in comparision to others), so it's all good.

Gallows were great openers and the lead singer jumped to sing for a bit on the pizza/water bars on the floors - sick. Plus his accent is mad cute.

AFI played some great songs, I'm still not totally familiar with the new album, but they did not play "Days of the Pheonix" or "God Called in Sick Today." What the hell! Seeing them again soon in NYC!

Dance Gavin Dance & Emarosa

Well, School of Rock was like the only area stop for this tour and I was there anyways during the day, so...I chilled to see two of my favorite bands of the moment!

Missed the opening three acts, who honestly, all sounded the same and had similar names. Of Machines, Tides of Men, Of Mice and Men - see?

I had thought DGD was the headliner, but I think Emarosa sold out a previous headlining show, so they let Emarosa headline the evening. I really wish DGD had the last slot.

Before the show, I heard their one guitarist/screamer playing something old on his guitar and got excited. They did "Lemon Meringue Tie" and it didn't hit me until then Jonny Craig joined Kurt on stage and started singing and hugging him. Bro love.

Ugh! I died. "Don't Tell Dave" is my favorite and "Rock Solid" ended the set. Way too short and they had like 'electronic interludes,' which I wish they didn't just so they could play more OR had the last slot.

Emarosa is amazing live. Their singer is insanely talented, but shorter then I thought. I was going to leave early, but kept saying 'one more song...' and then when I was ready, it was over. They did almost 40mins. Jonny Craig made mention his voice was hurting, but didn't give on in his vocals. But if he was sick - let DGD go on and play till 11pm!

Oh wells...

Short and sweet and really good.

Surreal moments going on lately though.

It was like Blink, AFI, interview with the bassist of Paramore, watching DGD from the side/back stage, fitting for a show tomorrow and then we're off to a music festival in Iceland.

word.

Bamboozle: DAY ONE

Where to start?

Well we almost didn't get in - but the lady at the ticket booth got eevrything worked out and I got 'listed.' haha, whatever

Let's see...Heard "Shake It" by Metro Station - Danny Devito and a deformed Cyrus, fun times.

Turned to the left and started to watch Bloodhound Gang. We left after the first song. Why? The sound people had the vocals down and you couldn't hear him and we really didn't feel like sticking around the whole time just to hear that animals song.

Caught a bit of Artist vs. Poet - cute and fun music.

Then looked for band merch. Ok, WTF is this? They basically hearded all the artists for the respective stages into ONE tent, with a few exceptions. I can see how it was a somewhat 'ok, maybe this is cool,' BUT no. No no no

ALL the other tents at the place were fucking tshirt designers. NOW I can't hate on all of them, but seriously, shouldn't this be about the music? Whatever, can't knock the hustle, but I wasn't thrilled about it.

OK!

We get back to the music - waiting for Dance Gavin Dance, we get to see Young Love. Fun dance music. He's dorky on stage, but charming. Like it.

Dance Gavin starts with the first track off the new album (remember, I don't do song titles well) and it's GREAT. Then they start doing those songs I know, but am not uber familiar with. The idiot kids open the pit up and it gets annoying. They do Track 7 from the new album and end with "Rock Solid." So not too impressed, but a decent set.

Turned out two of the most enjoyable sets were Kid Cudi and Asher Roth. Kid Cudi is like what hip hop needs and Asher is just a white boy who is going to be pegged forever as a college/stoner rapper. Both were great.

Ok, BEST SET of THE WEEK - THE HORRORPOPS!
I saw them off to the side before the tech guys set everything up and it seemed like they were a little disgruntled. But they came out and just killed it. Perfect perfect. Music on point, vocals sounded great and they were smiling and Patricia is the one of the best front women ever.

"Freaks in Uniforms," "Where They Wander," "Walk like a Zombie," and a few other ones filled the set and we danced the whole time. They even went to do a signing after the set and being dorks, felt weird going over, but in buying the cd gave a thumbs up on the set as they walked away.

We went over to see Gwar and they were crazy. And the music is pretty darn good. haha. We only stuck around for three songs and yea, they're definately the show stoppers.

Fun times. Day two later...

Senses Fail....my love returns

Did I ever mention I went to the Senses Fail show at Starland Ballroom back in November?

No? Well...It was amazing.

First off, Foxy Shazam is friggin' insane! I was torn whether or not to consider their show smart and genius or just plain retardness. The lead singer was crazy and I love it. He was all over the place, talking non-sense to a crowd that half of 'em loved him, but the other booed and hated him.

He began singing the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song and it was boring, but funny. Some of the crowd standing by me wanted them gone - but they were the same dumbasses who would late 'mosh' to Sky Eats Airplane.

Anyways, later on, the singer threw the microphone over one of the beams above and proceeded to climb up the cord to the ceiling, swing around and then fall back to the stage. Quite impressive. The keyboardist also wanted attention by standing on his keyboard. They are fun.

Sky Eats Airplane is a Chiodos/screamo hardcore outfit that I wasn't too impressed with. Of course, the lead singer on stage looked hot, but that's about it. I had more fun watching the ceiling fans in the stage lighting that this band had set up.

I was so stoked to see Dance Gavin Dance, but they failed to really give me my fill. I'm most familiar with their older album, but since they have a new singer...nothing from that album, just new stuff. Which isn't a problem, but they fell a little flat.

The last song morphed into a jam, progressive kind of thing and was really nice.

Ok, so I had complained about Senses Fail's new album, mainly b/c it felt like the heart was missing. I remember reading in a blog by their old bassist, who left before this record, something along the lines that he doesn't want to pretend he wants to make music like some others.

So I kind of felt like he was right.

Wrong! My goodness, their lead singer was totally on the ball this show. He didn't seem completely intoxicated (like last time I saw them) and his vocals were so on point and the energy was flowing like crazy. He divided his time during the set between jumping into the crowd and rolling out the stage like a madman.

The music just radiated through me. Maybe with now the talent of Jason Black (originally of Hot Water Music) they can really get into that full-bodied, ambient thing or maybe it's all just clicking.

I loved the fact that they played every hit, not sticking solely to the new record and I was completely satisfied with this set.

They're headed out on the Saints and Sinners Tour in '09 (yea, there's no Saints and Sinners Fest, but that's okay b/c if you saw what they did to the inside of the Convention Hall in Asbury, you wouldn't want it there either).

With them is like hardcore screamo cats and Hollywood Undead. If I get in free, you know I'm going.