Last night, in midst of throes and throes of emo teens and teenage Will and Grace's, Myself along with my family went to a Dashboard Confessional concert. This is my account of the evening.
We got there before most of the cutters and criers, getting in line early for Dashboard memorabilia, which my sister gladly forked her money over for. She got a t-shirt of a flower that bloomed a bomb, made think the art was going for "Yes I am pretty, but you never know when I will explode." it seemed fitting for the teenage demographic. After maneuvering around girls with black tights under their shredded minis and boys unable to see out from under their jet black hair we made our way to our seats and began playing an entertaining game of "lets find someone older than dad." We finally spotted a man who had to be about mid-50's with 2 heavily underappreciated emo teens in tow. Promptly at 7:30 the first opening act hit the stage. He was an Australian pop singer by the name of Ben Lee. His attire was jacked from Seth Cohen but up close he looked more like a creation out of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy. His music was light and very catchy. Mostly unmemorable, but he was an incredibly clever man. His lexicon was full of brilliant words and his quips to the crowd were met with rightful applause. He sang 5 songs about first love and summer flings all the while pointing out how ridiculous rock cliches were. If his CD hadn't been like 12 bucks I may have purchased it.
After his set and after a brief intermission, which I spent hoping to find someone who looked more out of place than myself and my parents. I did not succeed, however I did locate a guy who was having a star trek conversation with himself. He wins award for biggest geek-wad of the evening. Right before the lights shut off for the second group I turned around and spotted a girl in the row behind us clad in a sexy strapless pink dress. Eyes sparkling green and hair a crisp brown flowing down over her tan shoulders. I realized then that I found the girl I was meant to fall in love with for the evening.
Opening act number two looked like a pretty typical garage band. They were youngish looking guys in ripped jeans and many many guitars. The band name, jacked from an 80's movie, was Say Anything. Unfortunately, I wished they had said NOTHING! The lead "singer" really just screamed into the Mic, causing feedback I didn't know existed. His typical lyrics were "old people don't teach us anything except how to die" and "normal people suck." He threw in more than few obsensities and the wristband wearing screamo kids seemed to enjoy this sad excuse for music.After their nauseating set, the lights came back on and I continued to look behind me as often as possible, hoping to get a glimpse of my emo goddess. She had a piercing on her upper lip, that glistened when she smiled and I knew I was hooked.
After about 35 minutes of Jimmy Eat World music, the lights went out and the emo kids united for a chorus of screams that I sure shredded a few vocal chords. Lights hit the stage which was masked by a white scrim. There he was, Chris Carrabba, in a lighted silhouette(sp?). Our camp leader for the evening. The scrim fell to the ground and the stage was flooded with lights. Chris, in a red faded shirt put out his hands in a calming cult like welcome. The crowd was instantly electrified as he went into a mid-tempo song off the CD he just released a few weeks ago. He didn't play during the song. He just walked from side to side on stage raising his hands in hopes of connecting with his followers.Now I had read that his concerts were more like singalongs but until you see it for yourself, you have no idea. 7,000 sreaming, crying, unloved teens singing their emo hearts out to every single song. In fact, there were songs that our camp director didn't sing more than half of the song. Mr. Emo manages to keep the mood light with his quirky sense of humor and almost childlike laughter. He plays songs from every album, often taking long guitar duets between he and his buddy John Rolston.
I have to say this, on the new album there is a song where he goes so high I figured it was all studio tricks, but this guy is for real. His falsetto is beyond flawless and his breath control allows him to hold notes for nearly a minute. He plays the guitar with passion and is learning the piano, not afraid to make fun of himself when he plays the wrong note at the beginning of a song.I am not afraid to admit I sang every single lyric of every song. I was unable to speak this morning but it was worth it. I have seen many concerts for many types of music in every imaginable venue and this ranks up there in the top 5 shows I have ever seen. He was funny and personable. The music rocked the entire venue. Not a single person sat down for longer than 3 minutes and you really feel his music as he sings. Sadly I never did catch the name of my emo goddess, but perhaps it was for the better. It kind of fits the theme of the Dashboard confessional recently released album "Dusk and Summer" An album full of summer love and lingering flings.
No comments:
Post a Comment