Tour Remembrance and Nostalgia Thread Tour • Page 2

1. Feist @ Brooklyn Bowl, Nashville

2. The Postal Service/Death Cab For Cutie @ MSG, NYC

3. Blink 182 @ Bridgestone Arena, Nashville

4. Gouge Away @ Drkmttr, Nashville

5. Gel @ Drkmttr, Nashville

 

Best concerts I’ve been to:
- Bad Religion @ The Roxy in 2019; played No Control in full
- Charly Bliss Young Enough tour in the basement of a BBQ joint
- Descendents on the week of the 2016 election
- Foo Fighters/Motorhead when I was like 15
- Jim Adkins acoustic set to about 14 people
- The Lonely Island’s first-ever live performance at a hotel in Pasadena
- Phoebe in a 350-cap in 2018
- Weird Al all 4 times I’ve seen him

Worst concerts I’ve been to:
- FIDLAR at Amoeba Music. Terrible venue to hear new songs for the first time.
- The Menzingers on Hello Exile tour when they were playing Casey acoustic. (Show was fine, just thought that was a baffling choice)
- Phoebe in Spokane in the summer. Crowd was so fucking dumb. Saw a person pass out like 2 rows in front of me.
- Modest Mouse sounded like ass when I saw them at a festival.
- PUP also sounded like ass when I saw them at a festival.
- Wet Leg also sounded like ass when I saw them at a festival.

 

Modest Mouse was def one of my least favorite shows. They played the sounds of bees buzzing for 15 minutes before they came on and bro was drunk the whole time

 

Barely recognized Float On when they played it.

 

The second time I saw Modest Mouse they weren’t horrible but they were blown out of the water by Brand New (sorry guys)

 

Didn’t include it in my list, but I was at the show where BN premiered Science Fiction songs for the first time and in the moment it was pretty incredible.

 

Yeah all the BN shows I saw back in the day were pretty incredible. First band I crowd surfed too.

 

WWWY was my show of the year.

Finch playing WIITB in full was club show of the year.

 

I also saw GJ on the Quicksilver co-headliner and I agree, much better performance.

Other worst show experience I couldn't list because it technically didn't happen, but definitely one of the worst trips I've ever taken. I flew out to San Francisco last year (...er, '22) to see Turnstile on Halloween night and Glassjaw do EYEWTKAS/W&T the following two nights. They were both make up shows for me - I had to miss Turnstile six months earlier cuz I finally got COVID, and the Glassjaw shows had been delayed by a year. I got a hotel right around the corner of the venues in the Tenderloin district - I was unaware of its reputation before I booked everything, turns out it's fully deserved! Then all three concerts got cancelled the day of due to COVID. Spent that last day effectively hanging out in my hotel room and out of money. Fun times!

 

I work near the Tenderloin. I wish i coulda gave you a heads up!

 

Thanks! But I wish more that the shows hadn't been cancelled, lol.

 

Best sets of 2023:

1. .moneen. - “Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now” (History Toronto)

2. Finch - “What It Is To Burn” (HOB Chicago)

3. The Early November - “The Room’s Too Cold” (HOB Chicago)

4. Thursday - “War All The Time” (Metro Chicago)

5. Funeral For A Friend - “Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation” (LCR Norwich)

 

Worst sets I’ve seen:

Blink 182 in Minneapolis on the Pop Disaster Tour in 2002. They were just awful, especially coming after Green Day killed it. So bad I left after a couple songs and my interest in them never really recovered. Heard good things about the latest reunion tour so seeing them in Milwaukee later this year

Brand New at the Congress Theatre in Chicago in fall 2007. Didn’t like the venue, didn’t care for openers, then Brand New just wasn’t any good. The weird thing is 6 months earlier they put on one of the greatest sets I’ve ever seen. Must’ve been an off night but that show sucked

Roses Are Dead opening for Bleed The Dream in La Crosse, Wi in 2005. I was front row, no barricade, and someone in the band thought it would be cool to grab me around my neck and squeeze really hard.

Saves The Day on tour with Senses Fail and The Early November in Chicago in 2005. Never listened to them, they were direct support to SF and they played what felt like forever and they were just super boring.

Dashboard Confessional/Say Anything in Milwaukee in 2006. Probably at DC’s height of general popularity, but I hated the direction they were going in with Dusk and Summer and even the old stuff was rearranged and I couldn’t stand it. Say Anything just sucks in general so extra negative of having to sit through them.

The Devil Wears Prada opening for Silverstein in Milwaukee in 2006. This might have been TDWP’s first national tour. They were not good, particularly their lead screamer. He kept doing this weird thing with his hands that looked like he was holding an imaginary orb. It became a long running joke with my girlfriend… still surprised they ended up being a pretty decent band once they got more experience.

MxPx and The Color Fred opening for Chiodos in Milwaukee in 2008. I always thought Color Fred was lame, never listened to MxPx and they were real corny and generic. Big part of it is they just felt out of place

Mod Sun doing a quick set on the Scary Kids Scaring Kids farewell tour in Chicago in 2010. Again, out of place and weird

The Story So Far on the Coheed/TBS tour in Chicago in 2018. Way too long of a set for an opener, zero stage presence. I’ve avoided them ever since

Soul Glo on the Coheed cruise in 2021. One of the few times I’ve been like “this is barely music”

The entire crowd vibe on the Emo’s Not Dead cruise was off to me. Almost got in a fight during Emery’s set on the first night. Worst was during the last song of Underoath’s “They’re Only Chasing Safety” set someone got knocked unconscious and I saw her limp body get pulled over the barricade and not move for several minutes. I was convinced she was dead (luckily she wasn’t). I still have a little bit of PTSD from that, first few shows after that were pretty difficult for me

 

Here are the most important shows that I’ve seen:

I was 14 in 2002 and had a friend who knew of Dashboard Confessional. Through him I learned a couple of songs. We were surprised to see that they were coming to Green Bay at an old ballroom that occasionally had shows. Last minute our parents let us go. It was my first club show, and really an introduction to the entire emo scene.

Freshman year of high school was 03-04. I had an A/V class which was mostly juniors and seniors. The people I sat by were big into the scene - Movielife, Mest, Matchbook Romance, Fall Out Boy….they’d play me songs and tell me about shows they went to in Milwaukee. A guy I knew turned out to be a fan of the same music and we made plans to go to Warped Tour in 04. That day basically solidified my taste in music and my love of live music. Even the lows were amusing in hindsight - I was dehydrated and started feeling faint during TBS. I made my way back through the crowd but ended up stepping into the pit. Almost passed out right then and there. We didn’t have money for drinks and a lady selling Gatorade took pity on us.

My Chemical Romance on the first Taste of Chaos in 2005. First time I was at The Rave/Eagle’s Ballroom in Milwaukee, which would become my go to venue in high school. Entire show was great, but MCR was transcendental. One of the most connected I’ve ever felt during a set. I got a natural high that I’ve spend most of my life chasing ever since.

Underoath playing “Define The Great Line” on the Emo’s Not Dead cruise. I’ve seen the album played live before, but being on the barricade, in the open sea, wind blowing, plus the band sounding absolutely perfect… I legit had an out of body experience. Closest I’ve come to replicating the way I felt during MCR.

Funeral For A Friend playing “Roses For The Dead” this past October. In January 2023 my best friend passed away. Probably the lowest I’ve been my whole life. FFAF announced their Casually Dressed anniversary tour, and it became something constructive to put my energy into planning and to give me something to look forward to. The Norwich show also happened to be on the 9 month anniversary of the last time I spoke to my friend… AND it was a Friday the 13th which was something special we always celebrated. The morning we were to depart, my wife’s grandmother died (expected but still). We still went, were front row, and then they pull out Roses during the encore. Singer was very emotional. We sang through our tears. It was an extremely healing experience, it really helped me emotionally

 

Who’s the most famous person you’ve seen at a small venue?

my big one is when I was touring with ‘68, we played a show in Memphis the first week of the band and this band the star killers opened, who was fronted by Julien Baker. Couldn’t have been more than 15 people watching them. We loved them and had them play with us a couple months later. Then I saw them again in Nashville at The End for like 50 people when they were Forister. After that it was a wrap. Next time I saw her was headlining a 500 cap sold out room

 

For me it's probably Little Big League (Michelle Zauner pre-Japanese Breakfast) in a living room in Knoxville, TN in 2014. My band was on tour, and the band we were touring with played the show but there wasn't any time for us so we just watched and still had a great time.

 

Jim Adkins solo in front of like 15 people

 

Definitely My Chemical Romance at the Middle East Upstairs here in Cambridge, MA on June 9th 2004. The venue capacity is just shy of 200 people and it was the day after Three Cheers came out. Boys Night Out opened.

It was also inarguably the worst I've ever seen My Chem live. As I remember it much of the band was extraordinarily fucked up and a little all over the place. Hah.

 

Not necessarily in a small venue, but I saw Paramore play a noon opening slot at a festival in 2006 to like 40 people and Dua Lipa a noon opening slot on a festival in 2017 (to 5k or so, New Rules had just blown up).

 

Adele doing an acoustic set in front of like 15-20 people.

 

Tenacious D going a DJ set in front of like, a handful of people

 

I guess I also saw Fun. play like a 500 cap in Billings, MT on the Some Nights tour

 

as one of my fav bands of all time i will say glassjaw went through a pretty long diva phase of not giving a shit about putting on good performances, mostly through the late 00's and early 10's which is a bummer. i saw them 2 nights in a row opening for brand new in 08/09 and both nights they played the entire show in a circle, all facing towards each other like it was god damn practice, never once facing the audience. but since i saw them at riotfest 2016 they were great and have been insanely good every single time since, which has been 4 or 5 times

 

I saw Glassjaw at the Brand New holiday show at Nassau Coliseum in 2009 and they were by far the worst live act I have ever seen.....I also saw Colour Revolt open for Brand New once and they were nearly as bad but not to the same level as Glassjaw

 

Ive been to that venue and holy shit what a line up for that