Yeah since John and Shaun re-joined the band, I think there's four, maybe five songs that I ever listen to from those albums.
I miss straylight run as well, and absolutely adored the two LPs and Prepare to Be Wrong...but Happiness Is...and Tidal Wave are absolutely great.
I thought the Straylight Demos and debut were awesome. From there, they kind of adjusted their sound a bit and it was less my thing (although I did like some other songs, which is also how I feel about John’s solo stuff). I gotta say that Nightmare of You ran a similar course for me. Awesome demos, Debut and BanG EP, they adjusted their sound and again not my thing. I actually couldn’t get into Infomaniac at all.
Gonna agree that really nothing after that first album, besides a small handful of songs, really did anything for me. The debut is one of my favorite albums though.
The Needles, The Space is one of my all-time favorite albums. Also think Prepare to Be Wrong has some of their strongest songs. The debut is obviously very good too. But I'd probably put that third behind TNTS and PTBW.
Throwback to when I saw SR on their tour with hot rod circuit, northstar, and say anything in like 04?. They all played an acoustic set in boise because the venue was so small.
Ya I loved TNTS when I came out. Went through it again last year and it's still great. Very lucky I caught a John Nolan solo set and Michelle played some Straylight with him a few years back.
I saw SR headline in 2007 with The Color Fred & Cassino & Dear and the Headlights Then in 2008 when they opened for Bayside Then saw John Nolan with Geoff Rickly solo show in Cleveland in 2013.
I got to see Straylight Run's first show at The Downtown on Long Island and my tickets didn't work. Will Noon did me a solid and snuck me in the back door. When I was at South Side Middle School in Rockville Centre, John, Michelle, and The Starting Line's manager were living in a house on Grand Avenue and I'd always walk by it when I was on my way home from school. They'd always be chilling on the porch and would tell me about how writing the Straylight debut was going. Good times!
I only saw them play once and people wouldn’t stop talking loudly in the crowd. Never went to that venue again because of it.
I remember the first time I saw them in December of 2007, I was stunned at how small the crowd was. It was at The Agora in Cleveland which has both a theatre and a ballroom. I was under the assumption it was going to be in the theatre and I guess I wildly underestimated their popularity because it was in the ballroom and maybe 75-100 people there tops. They were dropped from Universal that same month. Likewise, when I saw John/Geoff in Cleveland in 2013, there was maybe 20 people tops at that show. Granted, it was on Mother's Day, but still. I was like WTF is going on here? (eddie was there in the crowd)
saw straylight open for simple plan in 2005, saw them open for bayside in 2007 or 2008, saw them headline only once i believe in NYC, caught them at warped tour once or twice, and then saw john play solo with michelle on a few songs in i think 2011 or 2012.
I remember seeing BN in an intimate club/bar setting (opening for Face to Face, Moneen and Riddlin Kids) and only one guy was dancing and maybe like 5 of us there watching up front. I’ll be honest. I was really there to see more than just BN (f2f and moneen). Band hit huge weeks later ironically.
Now It's Done is amazing. Unfortunately, it's the one song they didn't play at the acoustic show i mentioned. My friend requested it twice, but she seemed too embarrassed to play it or something. Shawn was quietly encouraging her each time he asked, but she wouldn't budge.
That's funny. I saw them at a sold out show at the Grog Shop with a then-unknown Minus the Bear and The Honorary Title. it was right as "Prom Night" was catching on. The crowd was super hot for them.
what year? I’m pretty sure around the time they released their first album they did actually play the agora theater. There was a ton of anticipation/hype surrounding their first album cycle.