On a sunny Saturday afternoon in New Jersey’s newly renovated shore community, Asbury Park, the line for Paramore’s The Final Riot! Tour extended for blocks down the boardwalk. Young teenage girls (many with their parents) waited patiently until 6PM for the Convention Center doors to open; a sign on the building reads “Greetings from Asbury Park”, a  nod to Bruce Springsteen, perhaps welcoming those parents who grew up on listening to the legend.

Unfortunately, the Convention Center isn’t a great place to see a show: the floor space is enormous, holding at least 3500, and the sound is poor. Fortunately, however, headliners Paramore and direct-support Jack’s Mannequin are two bands that sound great regardless of the venue. Each band normally puts on a tremendous show; expectations for these two acts were extremely high entering the aging Convention Center.

Nashville’s Paper Route, an extremely dry act with spacey guitars, swooning vocals, and handful of keyboards, opened the evening at 7PM. It’s bland, it’s boring, and it’s been done over the last decade by many other acts who do it much, much better. The band’s sole shining point, though, is drummer JT Daly who kept the band at least somewhat palatable with exciting drum rhythms throughout most of the set.

Phantom Planet took the stage next. The band, around for nearly fifteen years, put on a solid show that was at least entertaining for the half hour or so they were on stage. Twenty-eight year old vocalist/guitarist Alex Greenwald leads Phantom Planet with a certain charisma that carries the band despite their lack of any genuinely interesting songs, somehow connecting with an audience half his age. After four or five songs the band closed with their Al Jolson inspired “California”, the soundtrack to an MTV generation raised on Fox’s The OC. The band played the song well, giving the crowd a chance to sing their hearts out the entire time.

Jack's Mannequin frontman Andrew McMahon during "La La Lie", a song he dedicated to "best friends".

Direct-support Jack’s Mannequin came on next, opening with “I’m Ready”. Although the band played a blazingly quick set (just about forty minutes), they managed to pack a punch during their brief time on stage. Still, it’s unfortunate that the band didn’t get more time, as they clearly shine as headliners–when band leader Andrew McMahon has time to interact with the crowd. “Kill The Messenger” received slightly new treatment, dropping an old live-only verse for a few lines from The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”; the stellar “Dark Blue” was noticeably without its live-only intro. Standard closer “MFEO” received the same U2 treatment as always (lines from “With or Without You”), but the song was shortened up a bit, removing the usual band introductions and solos during the song’s end. “The Resolution”, a song from the upcoming The Glass Passenger, was strong and fit into the older catalog surprisingly well. The band’s set:

I’m Ready
Bruised
La La Lie
Dark Blue
Kill the Messenger
The Resolution
The Mixed Tape
MFEO

It’s fair to say Paramore exploded onto the stage and didn’t stop all night. A few choice acoustic and piano-driven moments aside, the band hit hard for over an hour. Billed as The Final Riot! Tour, it’s not surprising (and extremely satisfying) that the band’s setlist was extremely Riot!-heavy. Pop-rock/arena-rock hasn’t sounded this tight or this good in a long time; whereas most pop-rock bands are bland, gimmicky, and unfulfilling, Paramore does everything right. The stage setup was complete with a glowing “RIOT” sign hung in the rafters and a ramp platform for the band members to run up and down on.

Opening with solo spotlights on guitarist Josh Farro (up on the ramp), and then the rest of the band until vocalist Hayley Williams, Paramore began with Riot! closer “Born for This”, a track that set the tone for the next hour. Partially inspired by Refused’s “Liberation Frequency” (”we want the airwaves back”), the band may play pop-rock but is clearly influenced by great hardcore acts. Drummer Zac Farro’s beats aren’t basic and empty; he’s actively doing over-the-top fills and double-bass drumlines. “Here We Go Again”, regularly infused with part of At the Drive-In’s “One Armed Scissor”, received the same treatment tonight–the results were great, as always. The band also briefly touched on Leonard Cohen’s incredible “Hallelujah” before jumping into their song of the same name (no relation).

Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams, singing in front of drummer Zac Farro. (Photo by Jen Pero)

Things slowed down through parts of the set when Hayley sits down with a keyboard on songs like “We Are Broken”, dedicated to Love146, a charity aimed to abolish child sex trafficking. Josh Farro and touring guitarist Taylor York picked up acoustic guitars for “My Heart”, a nice rendition of All We Know is Falling’s closing track. It’s actually incredible to see how much the band progressed from that 2005 effort to 2007’s Riot!; songs like “Pressure” and “Emergency”, standouts from their 2005 debut, feel empty and hollow compared to most of the band’s latest work, though that isn’t to say the older material isn’t still solid.

Paramore’s final riot was fifteen songs, with two encores. The band first stepped off stage after “For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic”, returning to play three more songs. “Misery Business”, the second encore and band’s biggest single, closed the show.

Born For This
That’s What You Get
Here We Go Again
Fences
Crushcrushcrush
Let the Flames Begin
When it Rains
My Heart
Decoy
Pressure
For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic
We Are Broken
Emergency
Hallelujah
Misery Business

It was a bit awkward being around quite so many young girls and parents the whole evening, and the “pits” opened for some of Paramore’s faster songs may have been the funniest things I saw all weekend. Still, the band put on an incredible show and continues to prove why they lead the pop-rock pack, faltering only once all night: an extremely awkward (and luckily, extremely brief) cover of Flo-Rida’s “Low” tossed into “CrushCrushCrush”. From a mostly pitch-perfect Hayley to a completely tight band behind her, it’s hard not to recommend The Final Riot! Tour, especially with Jack’s Mannequin as direct-support.

Punk rock, in it’s true form, isn’t about three chords. “Emo”, in it’s true form, isn’t about girl’s jeans.

Still, these terms are so misapplied (and the misapplications are so widely accepted and believed) that it’s dangerous even attempting to use them. To put things accurately, however, punk rock was alive in New York City on a cool Saturday night. In addition to the three bands whole-heartedly embodying punk’s ethics at Terminal 5, Manhattan had a handful of other punk shows including Alkaline Trio/The Fashion/American Steal and Circle Jerks/Dillinger Four; Brooklyn and other boroughs had even more.

The 3000-capacity Terminal 5 isn’t quite the venue you’d expect for a punk rock show. To drive that point home, there’s no stage diving due to a massive barrier. It is important to note, however, security was sparse–if in the crowd at all; a nice change from most of New York’s over-aggressive security-packed venues. Also unlike a typical punk show, the venue’s sound was crisp and clear. Many small venues aren’t equipped with top-of-the-line sound systems; Terminal 5’s sound was the best I had ever experienced.

Philadelphia natives Paint it Black took the stage at the 7:30. Although I’m a huge fan of Dan Yemin’s Lifetime (and Kid Dynamite), I had never seen Paint it Black live. My expectations were high; his other bands weren’t slouches, each renowned for an incredible live show. Paint it Black did not disappoint. Only about fifty kids (remember, this is a multi-floor, 3000-person venue!) showed enthusiam, but the band did their absolute best to connect with each and every fan. This isn’t Bon Jovi (who was playing a subway away–that’s one more band playing in Manhattan that night!) styled arena rock; this is a band that thrives on the intimacy of basement shows.

Playing until 8PM, to the best of my recollection their set looked like this:

Past Tense, Future Perfect
Pink Slip
Womb Envy
CVA
Dead Precedents
The Ledge
Ghosts
Atheists in Foxholes
So Much for Honour Among Thieves
Void
Cannibal
White Kids Dying of Hunger
We Will Not
Memorial Day
Atticus Finch

Thursday, recently added co-headliners to tonight’s bill, took the stage after about fifteen minutes, an impressive set-change time. Unusual for a Thursday show, I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to catch up with the band beforehand. I was wondering about their upcoming split with Envy; they answered my unasked question by playing “In Silence” (or is it “In Solace”?), a new instrumental track from that split midway through their set, which contained the Thursday-typical amount of songs, fourteen:

For the Workforce, Drowning
Between Rupture and Rapture
Dead Songs
Paris in Flames
The Other Side of the Crash / Over and Out (Of Control)
Understanding in a Car Crash
Signals Over the Air
Sugar in the Sacrament
At This Velocity
Division St.
In Silence
Jet Black New Year
Tomorrow I’ll Be You
Autobiography of a Nation

I’ve reviewed Thursday a countless number of times; not much new to report. I’m beginning to hope the band begins to shake their setlist up a bit–songs like “Division St.” are feeling tired, and “Jet Black New Year” just doesn’t kick as hard when it’s been played at every show, on every tour, since 2002. It’s nice to see the band taking another stab at “Tomorrow I’ll Be You”, but it was definitely their weakest song of the evening.

The song from their upcoming Envy split was completely instrumental, with Geoff stepping away from the microphone and stepping up to a synthesizer. This makes the second song (of three planned for the release, and possibly four recorded) revealed for the split due this fall. Whereas I am completely stoked for the previous one (unveiled in Poughkeepsie), I’m not overly excited about the instrumental. With an already-short setlist, I don’t feel like there is room in their setlist for vocal-free tracks. Geoff’s lyrics and vocals are a giant part of this band and what makes them the essential post-hardcore/emocore band, especially live.

On the heels of an incredible performance by Thursday, Florida’s Hot Water Music took the stage about twenty minutes later around 9:45 (again, score points for the excellent Terminal 5 for quick set changes). The third and final band of the punk-filled evening, Hot Water Music played a solid set spanning their entire existence. The band wasted no time during their hour-long set with eighteen songs:

Remedy
Free Radio Gainseville
Rooftops
Trusty Chords
I Was On a Mountain
It’s Hard to Know
Paper Thin
Jack of All Trades
It’s Hard to Know
All Heads Down
Moonpies for Misfits
Wayfarer
A Flight and a Crash
Giver
Manual
The Sense
At the End of a Gun
Turnstile

The crowd was certainly stoked to hear their favorite band return from hiatus, with every singalong eliciting full crowd participation. I’ve seen few bands have more fun on stage than Hot Water Music did Saturday night. The band dedicated “The Sense” (the first song on the completely ridiculous and trivial “Emo Game“) to “emo kids”, apparently joking about the fact that much of the crowd either became Hot Water Music fans through that game or only knows that particular song.

By 11PM, the show had concluded and all three bands had proven exactly why they are some of the best at what they do, and why these bands are completely about the music and punk ethic. Early in the night, Yemin took shots at bands in Alternative Press and the publication itself, proudly proclaiming that this scene isn’t and has never been about makeup and dollar signs. While certainly a true comment, his band (in addition to Thursday and Hot Water Music)’s actions spoke louder than those words.

You can listen to the entire new The Offspring CD, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace right here for free! This was the band that got me into music nearly fifteen years ago; I can only hope the new CD is better than their less than stellar 2003 effort, Splinter.

Your thoughts on the album?

Since 2006, The Bamboozle festival has grounded itself outside Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Each year, over one hundred bands play for two days over the course of the first weekend in May. Beginning around noon and ending near midnight, the festival showcases the smallest, unsigned bands to the most popular acts in the country. It’s normally a humid affair–this time, however, the weather was cold and rainy.

I arrived on Saturday around noon to check out the first day of The Bamboozle, heading to the 5 Gum side stage to check out Long Island’s The Sleeping. A post-hardcore act that I’ve caught at Bamboozle in the past, the band performed with Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row), playing a solid set featuring some of Bach’s material in addition to The Sleeping staples such as “If Your Heart Was Broken”. Though later in the evening after fatigue set in I’d chill out to some pop-rock acts, The Sleeping were a great way to kick off the weekend with a crowd that was certainly ready to dance. The band sounded tight; guitarist Cameron Keym’s metal-inspired licks were sharper than ever, and vocalist Douglas Robinson captured the crowd.

Story of the Year were next on my list at 2PM, so I ventured to the Asbury Park main stage. Let it be known that the sound, for both Day One and Day Two, was terrible on the Asbury Park stage–unfortunate because about half of the bands I saw during the weekend set up on that stage. As I’m not a professional audio engineer, I’m not exactly sure what the problem was but the sound was never consistent: bass was either muddy or non-existent, and microphones never maintained the same volume, often cutting out nearly entirely for seconds at a time.

Despite common sound issues that would plague nearly twenty bands on that stage, Story of the Year sounded excellent for the duration of their set. It’s been some time since i caught the band on tour, but their live show had always been their strongest point; it’s great to see they’ve only improved over time. Their set:

And the Hero Will Drown
The Antidote
Anthem of Our Dying Day
Wake Up
In the Shadows
Until the Day I Die
Is This My Fate? He Asked Them

Over half of their set came from their debut Page Avenue, but the band unfortunately included two of their lesser songs from that release in “Anthem of Our Dying Day” and “Under the Day I Die” but did include two of the strongest, opener “And the Hero Will Drown” and “In the Shadows”. The new songs from The Black Swan (”The Antidote”, “Wake Up”) sounded promising, so I’ll need to check out that album soon.

New Jersey ska-stalwarts Streetlight Manifesto were up next on the opposite main stage (which suffered from none of Asbury Park stage’s sound issues). The band played extremely well, with a large selection of songs coming from Somewhere in the Between. The band pleased the crowd with “Dear Sergio”, a song that engaged many people listening who were familiar with Catch 22’s Keasbey Nights but not necassrily Streetlight Manifesto.

At 3:30PM on the Nokia Ticket Rush stage, Vinnie Caruana played a set entirely of The Movielife songs with Set Your Goals as his backing band. Though he stated numerous times throughout the set that “this [wasn't] The Movielife”, you’d be hard pressed to find a single person in the crowd who was concerned with that fact. Vinnie sang like the band hadn’t broken up five years ago, with dead-on delivery of songs nearly a decade old. Set Your Goals’s (a band I wanted to see as well but passed up on to see Saves the Day) guitarists, bassist, and drummer covered each song with precision. Cuts included “Hand Grenade”, “Pinky Swear”, “Hey”, and “Face or Kneecaps” before the near-obligatory closer, “Jamestown”. Vinnie constantly thanked the crowd for giving him the chance to play these songs, but it was really the crowd constantly thanking him for resurrecting the songs of an incredible punk-pop band.

Dressed as cops and coming out to Inner Circle’s “Bad Boys” on the PA, Less Than Jake took the Asbury Park stage at 4PM, opening with “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads”. My first time catching the band live, I was quite impressed with how tight the band sounded. I’m not a huge fan of the band (perhaps getting into them late into their career), but I respect their contributions to the genre and their live show convinced me to give them some more attention. Their full set:

All My Best Friends Are Metalheads
Last One Out Of Liberty City
Overrated
Gainseville Rock City
Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts
Great American Sharp Shooter
Ghosts Of You And Me
Science Of Selling Yourself Short
Look What Happened

I took an hour break between 4:30 and 5:30 to check out various tents and merchandise, picking up a great Refused Shirts For a Cure tee. SFaC is a great project; all proceeds go to the Syrentha J. Savio Endowment. The SSE provides financial assistance to underprivileged women who cannot afford expensive breast cancer medicine and therapy; there are a lot of shirt designs, I urge you to see if your favorite band is there and to pick one up for just $12.

I caught a little bit of theAUDITION and Bless the Fall, two bands I didn’t have much interest in checking out but stayed at for a little bit while talking to some friends. Chiodos played at 5:50 on the Asbury Park stage, my next destination. The band played a balanced mix between their two full-length albums; they sounded decent, and the crowd was explosive the entire time. The full setlist:

The Undertakers Thirst For Revenge Is Unquenchable (The Final Battle)
There’s No Penguins In Alaska
Baby, You Wouldn’t Last A Minute On The Creek
Teeth The Size Of Piano Keys
Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered
The Words ‘Best Friend’ Become Refined
Is It Progression If A Cannibal Uses A Fork

I rushed over to the opposing NowWhat mainstage before Chiodos was finished to catch New Jersey locals Saves the Day, who opened up with Stay What You Are’s “See You”. Chris Conley sounded tremendous: his voice was not only crisp and clear, but he sounded confident and in control of the crowd the entire time. When told the band had time for only one more song (the main stage times were getting increasingly backed up), he asked the crowd to pick between “Ups and Downs” and “Firefly”–”Firefly” apparently was the first thing he heard and played both that and then “At Your Funeral”, upping the count of songs from their 2001 LP to three. The full set:

See You
The End
Anywhere With You
You Vandal
Can’t Stay The Same
Head For The Hills
Shoulder To The Wheel
Firefly
At Your Funeral

It would have been nice to hear “Ups and Downs”, one of my favorite Saves the Day songs, but the band still played a great set nonetheless. The band has too much material to get picky about songs not played, especially when they picked nine great tracks anyway.

Jack’s Mannequin, another casualty of the Asbury Park stage, was next at 6:50; they didn’t start immediately after Saves the Day, so I managed to make it across the parking lot in time to get close to the stage before the band started. “Dark Blue”, with part of the extended introduction, kicked off the setlist which included a song from the upcoming The Glass Passenger (which certainly sounds promising — I was worried after a slew of less-than-stellar post-Everything in Transit tracks) and a cover from Something Corporate’s North. The set:

Dark Blue
Holiday from Real
The Mixed Tape
Suicide Blonde
Bruised
Kill the Messenger
La La Lie
Me and the Moon (Something Corporate cover)
MFEO

The band played well, but their sound was somewhat marred by the stage. Before “Kill the Messenger”, frontman Andrew McMahon commented on the weather; during the song (which features the lyrics “I’m going to send a little rain your way”) the misty rain slowly picked up. Even taking into account projection, the song had never felt so real or so powerful. Aside from the lack of staple “I’m Ready”, I don’t think I could have asked for a better setlist. “MFEO” is an incredible track that stands on its own, but it really works perfectly for closing a set, especially outdoors in the rain, in the parking lot.

Paramore played the Asbury Park stage at 8PM; almost immediately it was obvious just how poor the stage’s sound actually was, as one of the tightest pop-rock acts in the scene today suddenly sounded sloppy and uninteresting. The band kicked off with Riot!’s “Let the Flames Begin”, following it with All We Know is Falling single “Emergency”. Either during that track or during “Stop This Song (Lovesick Melody)”, a b-side from the Riot! sessions, the stage’s sound started to click back together and the band sounded incredible for the rest of their set, which was, in its entirety:

Let the Flames Begin
Emergency
Stop This Song (Lovesick Melody)
Here We Go Again
That’s What You Get
Pressure
For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic
crushcrushcrush
Woah
Misery Business

“Here We Go Again” was sans the At The Drive-In mini-cover, instead segueing flawlessly into “That’s What You Get”. Much like an hour ago watching Jack’s Mannequin amongst teenage girls barely (if at all?) old enough to drive, I felt out of place singing along to every word, but it’s always refreshing to catch other guys mouthing the words: this is great pop music, and I’m glad that these young teens are growing up on true pop-rock, not manufactured radio garbage or Britney Spears-esq bubblegum, even if the band is dominating the radio with songs such as “Misery Business”, the set’s closer.

During the aforementioned hit single, I walked out of the crowd to get to Jimmy Eat World, an act I’m almost embarrassed to admit I had never seen live. The band’s performance was unparalleled by any other act all day, and their forty-five minute setlist was incredible:

Big Casino
Sweetness
Work
Always Be
Crush
Here It Goes
A Praise Chorus
Let It Happen
Dizzy
Bleed American
Pain
The Middle

The rain was a constant mist during their performance; it was a little chilly, but incredibly relaxing. There’s not much to be said about the band’s performance other than that their live sound is a near perfect recreation of their studio albums, from the guitar subtleties to the incredible harmonies.

Snoop Dogg closed Day One, coming on around 9:30. I was a little further back than normal (near the soundboard) for his set, but he still sounded pretty good. I had never seen him live, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but he managed to hold my attention for some time. I left midway through his set to get to a party, but his full set was:

Murder Was The Case
P.I.M.P. (Remix)
Who Am I? (What’s My Name)
That’s That Shit
Gin And Juice
Lodi Dodi
Woof!
I Wanna Fuck You
Snoop’s Upside Ya Head
Beautiful
Nuthin’ But A G Thang
Ain’t No Fun
Deeez Nuuuts
Notorious DPG
Snoop Dogg
My Medicine
Sexual Eruption
Drop It Like It’s Hot

The entire day was great, as I got to see some older bands for the first time live in addition to seeing some of my favorites once again. The weather was great: I’d prefer chilly and rainy to blistering heat and humidity any day. Moreover, cell phone service actually worked, which allowed me to meet up with friends throughout the day. There was room for improvement though: I couldn’t find any time cards (something usually handed out when you walk in), and, to beat a dead horse, the Asbury Park stage sounded terrible. Scheduling was pretty solid: Set Your Goals and Men Women & Children were the only two bands I missed due to conflicting times.

If anyone has any corrections/updates to the setlists I posted (which should be accurate, but there’s always room for error), please post them in the comments.

In early April, Thursday announced that they would be recording a split with Envy, a Japanese hardcore outfit on Temporary Residence Records. I got a chance to speak with Geoff Rickly, Steve Pedulla, and Tom Keely, who shed some light on that record:

Unlike A City by the Light Divided, the band recorded the split completely analog, working with tapes instead of ones and zeros. Three songs were recorded and mixed at Big Blue Meenie Studios, a familiar location for Thursday in their home state of New Jersey. Steve hinted that one more song may be recorded, but that for now they’ll be playing a new track live for the first time (which Geoff would later call “As He Climbed the Dark Mountain”, inspired in part by Cormac McCarthy’s The Road).

I spoke to Tom about the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, a recommendation he made a few months ago to me; he followed it up with recommending The Fountain’s soundtrack. It’s something I’ll need to check out for sure, as Clint Mansell’s work is remarkable. Geoff’s recommendation of Beirut certainly paid off well, and I can only recommend Beirut right back to anyone who is reading this. We talked briefly about the differences between Beirut’s two albums, agreeing that the first one is probably better.

I got a chance to talk to Steve about record labels and the art of releasing music; we spoke about the NIN and Radiohead method, and it being something the band would be interested in if they had the giant fanbase/audience that those bands have. It will be interesting to see what the band does for their next full-length, as Steve said they are “exploring many possibilities”. After mentioning the leak of their good friends’ Thrice’s Alchemy Index, Steve mentioned his disgust for the demos leaking from A City by the Light Divided, an emotion I can certainly understand, though we both agreed we do listen to album leaks from our favorite bands.

For anyone wondering about the band’s Bamboozle chances (Bearfort?), the answer is a resounding “no”, straight from the band’s mouth. I was interested in talking to Andrew Everding about his role in the upcoming split, but he and Tim weren’t around at the time.

God Fires Man, an alternative rock band from New York City, opened the evening. The band certainly had the energy to keep on pace with their good friends in Thursday, but the live act didn’t do much to convince me that the band really stands out. The band’s drummer really sets the pace for their sound, but they try to merge too many styles without really doing anything particularly memorable. They certainly have their punk and hardcore influences, but they never fully embrace them, instead straddling multiple genres and never really defining their own sound. Their debut record, A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun, was just released in February; I haven’t had a chance to check that out yet, but maybe it will open my eyes to what the band is trying to accomplish.

Philadelphia’s Innerpartysystem set up their equipment next, with a rig including lights and lasers. A band I was first introduced to on New Year’s Even (again, opening for Thursday), they blend a handful of styles together that most closely resembles Men Women & Children mixed with mainstream dance. The band comes off strongly as a novelty; they seem to enjoy what they’re doing, but it’s nothing I’d want to see again, already tired of their act from earlier in the year. It’s something I’d recommend checking out once–you really should see their lighting/lasers–but the band seems more suited to opening for a crowd that is ready to dance. They would define the experience I’d love at a club (see what AFI-side project Blaqk Audio is prying at), but they are extremely out of place opening for Thursday.

Envy on the Coast, from Long Island, New York, directly supported Thursday this evening and opened with”Artist and Repertoire”. Vocalist Ryan Hunter sounds like a watered-down Daryl Palumbo, which is nearly a metaphor for the entire band — a watered down version of some sound they are striving to create. They’re trying, which is more that can be said for a lot of other bands that sound similar, but they constantly fall short. That isn’t to say their efforts aren’t good anyway; they write some solid songs with hooks you’d only expect from a band with a lot more experience. On the flip side, the band tries to incorporate effects and keyboard (and for that matter, a level of technical guitar playing), but the result is never quite as strong as the band will lead you to believe.

Nonetheless, the band played well, with Hunter’s voice sound remarkably close to the their debut album Lucy Gray. In fact, most of the instrumentation is recreated near-perfectly, a good indication that the band isn’t drowning in studio magic. Lucy Gray (and consequently their live show, which consists entirely of material from that debut on Photo Finish Records) is so promising, that you can’t help feeling excited that their follow-up has serious potential, as long as the band decides to move away from their sugary pop elements and more towards the technical side they keep hinting at.

The band closed the evening with “Gift Of Paralysis”, probably my favorite song by the band (if not “Tell Them That She’s Not Scared” or “Sugar Skulls” even). The full set is as follows

Artist and Repertoire
Sugar Skulls
(X) Amount Of Truth
Vultures
Mirrors
Tell Them That She’s Not Scared
Suckerpunch
Gift Of Paralysis

Thursday took the stage near 10PM, opening with “Into the Blinding Light” (the first time I’ve seen the band open with this track). Upon first inspection, the band sounds like any local post-hardcore band with tight instruments but with a vocalist struggling to keep up. Luckily for Thursday, this was only the case due to how low Geoff’s vocals were mixed; in this instance, he was completely drowned out by the dueling guitars of Steve and Tom. With the lack of vocals, the song failed to capture the audience.

Geoff stepped down into the crowd for “At This Velocity”, and all doubts of Thursday’s live abilities were immediately put to rest. “Division St.” followed, and Geoff’s vocals were finally more prominently mixed, and the crowd responded appropriately. It’s clear that most fans still prefers Full Collapse and War All the Time, so cuts from those albums definitely got the crowd moving.

Introduced as a song about being forced to write pop-rock songs for a major label, “Dead Songs” was next. Probably the strongest cut on Kill the House Lights, the song interestingly has elements in the chorus that are easily the poppiest Thursday has ever sounded. Even so, their message isn’t convoluted in the least, with Geoff’s delivery as honest as it is passionate.

The car crash pair of songs followed, and though I’ve seen these songs live (especially “Understanding”) many, many times, it’s clear that they are two of Thursday’s strongest live tracks and will remain in rotation for a long time. I was hoping to possibly hear “Panic On The Streets Of Health Care City” (a partial demo of “Other Side of the Crash”) at some point live, but it looks unlikely, and it doesn’t really matter considering how good the A City by the Light product is.

Two more from War All the Time (”Signals Over the Air”, “For The Workforce, Drowning”) were next. Both were performed exceptionally well live, much better than their album counterparts which themselves are great anyway. My favorite live Thursday song, “How Long is the Night?” was next, though this was clearly one of the band’s worst performances of the song. Geoff just didn’t click with the band throughout the song as he normally does. It was nice to see the song reintroduced into the set, however.

The most exciting part of the evening was easily Thursday’s first-ever performance of “As He Climbed the Dark Mountain”. One part The Road and one part a dream Geoff had about the helplessness and sheer terror of losing his father, the song was exactly what you would expect on a split with Envy. The band showcased a side they’ve only hinted at, writing technical, speedy riffs. Tucker pummeled the drums in perfect time, and somehow Geoff managed to sound completely different yet familiar at the same time. The song was dedicated to Geoff’s father who was in attendance.

“Jet Black New Year”, a crowd favorite, rocked The Chance. The band followed up with “The Lovesong Writer”, a great song that unfortunately didn’t appeal to much of the crowd hoping for more older material to close the set. The band walked off stage and came back with an encore of “Autobiography of a Nation” and “Sugar in the Sacrament”, the former being a great way to end a show while the latter not so much so.

A great song live on its own merits, “Sugar in the Sacrament” doesn’t pack the intensity I think the band feels it does, and it’s kind of disappointing to hear them close a show with it, especially when Geoff hinted at the possibility that they would play “A Hole in the World” (a cut I haven’t heard live since War All the Times was released in 2003) after being offered ten dollars to do so by some fans before the show. The full set list:

Into the Blinding Light
At This Velocity
Division St.
Dead Songs
Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out (of Control)
Understanding in a Car Crash
Signals Over the Air
For the Workforce, Drowning
How Long is the Night?
As He Climbed the Dark Mountain
Jet Black New Year
The Lovesong Writer
Autobiography of a Nation
Sugar in the Sacrament

Despite early vocal issues, the band played extremely well the entire evening, especially on the new track, which only excites me more for their upcoming split. There are a few bootlegs of the song from The Chance on Google Video.