a few friends and i are in a group chat and are all pretty huge long time Saves fans and we've pretty much all thrown in the towel on them. i'm not paying to go see them anymore until Chris cleans it up live. there was a point where he wasn't even playing guitar for awhile. the experience everyones described above from the show in Chicago does not seem out of the ordinary for them anymore, especially Chris. idk if he' high out of his mind or it's an act or what, but it's gotten old quick.
I've pretty much come to the conclusion it must be a combo of all three of those things (or maybe even if it's not that he doesn't give a shit anymore but that he didn't give a shit about a free performance at a Chicago Bears block party). I'll still see them next time they come around. Hopefully the new album will help turn things around. And I agree. I can't really imagine the band without them at this point (even though I'm sure there are plenty of people who some of you felt that way about before who i don't even know about given the history of this band).
Seems like reaction to the show is split. Not here, but in general people were either worried/over it or had a good time. Either way, hope he's alright
Always have my concerns with Chris. He's very up and down on Twitter a lot, and this isn't the first out of the ordinary show he's had in the past year. I hope all is well with him, and gets better if it isn't ok.
Yea I could've enjoyed it and had fun with it if I knew for sure everything was ok with him, but I really was not sure.
Kinda where I'm at. I can see people thinking it's funny in a "drunk uncle at the wedding" kind of way, but it definitely seems like the evidence is more stacked on the "this dude might need some help" end. That kinda kills the humor aspect of it for me. If you hop on Instagram and search #savestheday, there are plenty of videos that show weird it was.
I love Chris. I love Saves the Day. Hope he's alright. But if the bands Instagram stories are any indication, they all seem to get along very well. But yeah, can't tell if this is Chris' schtick now or if he's actively losing his mind/on hallucinogens.
Exactly. I'm all for someone being a complete weirdo, but it's just nonsensical at times, and I've already had concerns in the past based on his Twitter. At first I was definitely like oh Chris what a character, but as it went on it just seems like something was actually wrong. My only reservation is honestly just that the band didn't seem to react to it at all, and none of them seemed that off. Arun saved the day (lol) a couple times when Chris was really going off, he would pull it back in with an actual joke (he shouted out the guy working out on a treadmill in the fitness center above the street). But it also seemed like the coordinators shut it down a little early. It was supposed to go until 10, they played until 9:45, said they had time for one more, but then a guy gave them the cut it off sign. So I don't know, maybe he just needs time off, but just hope he gets help if he needs it.
Right?!? When they opened up with All Star Me everyone (Chris included) seemed pretty into it and happy to be there. I didn't end up staying til the end, did they get the power shut off on them or did they actually get to finish the set?
Yea it was pretty decent. I wouldn't have minded a couple more post-Stay What You Are tracks, but I'm being a little nit picky. It was a great crowd pleasing set. Especially since it was a free show. Yea I was in such an instantly great mood when they started. Such a nice night, and the vibes were right. That's why it's such a bummer things took a turn.
Nailed it. I went with some friends who were more excited for LBC than Saves the Day. Most of em had only heard the hits and didn't really wanna stay for them anyways, but I talked up how awesome they'd be and I left the show feeling like a dipshit.
Haha that's the worst. I ended up going alone cus I had to do family stuff earlier in the day and none of my friends who like them were able to go so it wasn't worth me forcing someone to go, and I'm so glad I didn't now, cus I would've been like uhh they're not usually like this I swear.
And I want to be very clear I still love Saves the Day and Chris very much and am very much looking forward to the new album.
Agree with you guys it definitely seems like acid or some other hallucinogens. Even like just couple years ago, he never seemed this weird. He would drink beer and then go do drunk karaoke with fans, just cool little stuff like that. But somewhere things turned a hard right. Was it that infamous where's the band show? Hope he gets help(if needed) but I too have basically quit caring about the band for right now.
Very much this. They started out really strong, but after a while, I know it's been alluded to a few times here or there but, I was really just concerned more than anything else. I really didn't know what was happening and I felt like literally anything could happen next. It was a party where people were drinking ALL DAY and I know the people around me (STD fans and not) were getting very agitated. It's my nature to assume the worst but I thought back to that time he freaked out on stage last year, and I was just hoping nothing bad happened. I'm not a huge drug person but I've been around it and it seemed like more than him just puffing the cheeb. He found himself staring at his hands a few different parts of the set, and just repeating the same thing over and over again. ("Can you feel it? CAN YOU FEEL iT?!") The "Drag in D Flat" thing was sooooo weird too. Between him knocking over his mic then laying on the stage and him leaning up against Rodrigo in a way that I wouldn't call "aggressive" but it seemed a bit more tense than your typical guitarist/bassist leaning on each other jamming, I was just concerned. During the Chicago stop of the TBC tour a few years ago they jammed for a solid 10 minutes - this seemed longer, like 15 or something. The whole thing was very unnerving. But underneath all that worry, I was a bit annoyed. I had this day circled for a while, and I mean, I know it was just some free street festival, and they might be tired of songs written upwards of 20 years ago (by other people in most of their cases) and maybe they liked freaking out the normies, but the whole thing came off as really - and I struggled to find this word and I still don't think it's totally right but - unprofessional. At this point I just got the sense he gave zero fucks which kinda bummed me out. I dunno. This already too fucking long. I just had a lot of thoughts and feelings after Saturday and didn't have a place to put them until I found this forum. Apologies if I come off as whiny. Still love this band and Chris. Just very confused...
Nah I feel you on basically all of this. I mean if he is actually going through a real problem with drugs, then I'm more sympathetic about it all and my one and only concern is that he gets the help he needs, but if it really was just like he took shrooms before this set and he couldn't/didn't want to play, then it's reasonable to be annoyed. I agree I felt really weird after it all. I wanted to say I enjoyed the set, but I really couldn't, and it's all really complicated because again it's really difficult to draw lines between what's concerning behavior, what was a joke, what was planned, what was just him having an off night, what was him just not giving a fuck. I feel complicated about it all too, and there is a really weird meeting point between concern for Chris/the band and annoyance as a fan. And even if it was a free show, it was something we were both (all) looking forward to. I actually went out of my way to be there - I was at a party for a family friend 2 hours away and drove to the city by myself to make sure I could see them. I'm not exactly mad about it, but I really don't know what to say other than that I just had an actual weird feeling in the pit of my stomach when I left. Now I've rambled on too long too and I'm pretty tired so hopefully this is coherent.
I posted this a little while ago, the Chicago incident just adds to this list of disappointments. I'm a die-hard fan like many of you and I'm really nervous about chris conley.
Staring at your hands for a while and being amused by noises along with mood shifts definitely sounds like shrooms. Plus if he was hammered and blazed all at the same time, that's a bit of a trifecta for a disaster. Especially since being drunk on shrooms makes you convince yourself you're not drunk at all, but uhhh.... not the case in reality. But any way, I know Chris has gone through a divorce and I'm not too sure what else is going on. I just really want him to cope properly. And if he is going to do some drugs, please don't do it before going on stage. But who knows what's going on in that head of his. Best of luck Conley.
oh wow im sure that isn't public info but if he is going through a divorce i really hope he's okay. that'd fuck anyone up
No, everything you're saying makes sense. I checked the setlist this morning and if someone looked at it, they'd probably be stoked on it. Lots of old stuff, an obligatory new song (I really like that record, fwiw) and when they played it was great - "Anywhere With You" particularly sounded awesome. But it was a troubling walk home afterward. I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach as well both during and after. I too moved around things in my life to go to this (not driving 2 hours, but still) and I oscillated between being concerned and upset for the rest of the evening. It's hard to tell where being annoyed goes from completely reasonable to somewhat irresponsible and I feel like I'm walking that line now. If he needs help, there is nothing more important than that. I just want him to be OK as a person first.
friend of mine sent me this last night. i'd be really. really. really. mad if i watched this live. at about the 1:45 mark things get really, really weird. edit: things are just weird the whole video