As I walked up to the venue, the line was already insane and the girls were going crazy. Every time Christopher Drew of Never Shout Never fame would even walk outside of his bus or the venue, girls would mob him and just grab at him while The Cab and Every Avenue would walk by in groups to head to Fenway. After I finished my first interview of the night, I was told how crazy every night had been but after one with the boys of Never Shout Never, I found out that this had to be the craziest one thus far!
Honestly, going into the night the only band I had seen before was Hey Monday, so I was curious to see what would come from the other acts! First up was The Summer Set and I was really impressed! They came out with a bang starting out the show on "Punch Drunk Love" with Jess Bowen starting up the music on the drums. I was stoked to see a girl drummer in this band and she absolutely killed it. The crowd was loving it and the band clearly had some big fans in attendance, which created for a large boost of energy to kick off an amazing night. Despite the brace on lead singer Brian Dales, he didn't let it bring him down and was jumping and dancing around on the stage through tracks like "Toxic" and "The Boys You Do (Get Back at You)". For every song, the band would fool around with each other on stage even asking where the floozies were in the crowd, in the words of John "Do you know what a floozy is? It means you're a slut. Looks like we have a lot of sluts in the audience!" but the crowd just ate it up. The band is definitely one to entertain telling stories about seeing a lady give birth on television while singing their track 'Toxic' at the show the night before in Buffalo, and talked about how 'This song is about giving birth, so thank your parents for fucking cause you're here". Definitely a group to entertain, and ending the set on their most popular single at the moment 'Chelsea', they definitely got the crowd stoked to see them at Warped this summer!
With a little more rock edge to their music, Every Avenue took the stage next! It was clear they were known by the crowd, and they started off with the title track off their latest record with 'Picture Perfect'. Right from the beginning of the set, it was clear why Dave was selected as one of the frontmen of the class of 2010. His energy was undeniable and just got the kids more excited to jump around and mosh.
At this point in the set though, it became clear why the AP Tour is what it is. It's a tour that brings a little bit of everything but it made for some so called party poopers in the crowd. One girl was next to me even who had a professional camera around her neck, was in little heels, a summer dress, not taking pictures at all but instead when seeing the moshing said "They're fighting! I don't want to get hit!' as a reaction to the moshing. It didn't affect the majority of the kids though as they kept rocking through. The band slowed it down a bit when it came to 'Girl Like That' but right away after, the crowd picked up with one of their fan favorites "Tell Me I'm A Wreck" which the kids were singing every word too. After this track, someone threw a belly shirt on to the stage and the kids loved it.
When Dave pushed Josh to wear it, Josh quipped back "I'm gonna save that oufit for when me and Dave are alone tonight!" and the kids ate it up. Ending on their two last tracks with 'Mindset' and 'Where Are You?', Dave jumped into the crowd body surfing to end the set!
Next up was The Cab! I've heard a lot of good things about this band over the years and now they are definitely a force to be reckoned with. Right before the band went on, the girl in front of met was talking about it was her FIFTH time seeing the band which is a crazy accomplishment. Through everything I've been doing, I am learning about so many bands and talking to so many people that have a following I couldn't even believe. They definitely lived up to the hype though and started off the set with a bang!
With last night being the two year anniversary of their first record Whisper War (and the next one coming at the end of the summer!), they were on fire, and so was the crowd! Opening the set with their track 'Take My Hand', they even had Cassadee come out on stage to really start off the show with a bang! They then moved into a quick cover by lead singer Alex DeLeon of the song 'Use Somebody' made famous by Kings of Leon. Through out the beginning of this set and when it continued on, he definitely puts on the sex appeal with the crowd that is around so much with lead singers now a days, but the crowd loved it.
After the cover, they went right into a new track from the upcoming record, which was incredibly dancy and made for a great number. Next they slowed it down a bit with "Vegas Skies", introducing the song when Alex said "Raise your hand if you're gonna be in love". Everyone was singing along to the track and they just continued on for the rest of the set as they quickly went into one of their more famous tracks 'Bounce' with DeLeon remarking 'We were surrounded by hot temperatures, casinos and sex so we wrote a song about it". Catch this band's dynamic on all of Warped Tour this summer as well!
Next up was Hey Monday, who I was first introduced to back in May of 2009 on the last Fall Out Boy headlining tour before the break up. I knew when I first heard the band play, they were going to always make a party in the crowd and it was just bigger and better this time around! Now that the band has grown so much in popularity, the kids knew every song and were singing their hearts out, as was vocalist Cassadee Pope! They jumped into "Run, Don't Walk" and swung right into several tracks off their debut album 'Hold On Tight' with "Obvious", "Josey" and "Candles" right after each other. With 'Candles' which slowed down the set quite a bit, Cassadee busted out the acoustic guitar for it and during the song, fans got a glimpse of their headliner that night as Christofer Drew came out to slow dance with Mike Gentile a bit!
Right after Candles, they jumped into a genius cover of 'Slide' by the Goo Goo Dolls and continued on to the end of their set with two of their bigger hits in "Homecoming" and "How You Love Me Now". Once again, Hey Monday proved their staying power and hopefully this just continues on with their new record and their sets on Warped Tour this summer!
Last, but definitely not least was Never Shout Never. This band has been all over my radar lately, but until last night I had never had the chance to check them out, and the crowd and band really did blow me away. While the band walked on stage, Chris immediately called for some peace signs and the crowd happily gave in to his request. When Chris said 'Shout a little a louder, with a whole heart', he happily jumped into "Trouble" with his friend Frederick, the ukele! Between every song, the band would come together and do a huddle complete with high fives which was great. He had the crowd wrapped around his finger from the first track on and continued to do so the whole night! He rocked a grand cover of "Across The Universe" even lighting his personal lighter on stage.
Something really great about the set as well was that he whipped out so many different instruments like harmonicas and kazoos as he worked through his set that included beautiful stories and a slew of songs off "What Is Love". It was a little sad to begin as he explained he had written the track about his parents' divorce with the first verse dedicated to his mother and the second to his father. For every track it seemed, he explained the story behind it be meeting a girl who was so beautiful that all he could say was thank you ("Jane Doe") to a song he wrote about a girl he loved more then any other ("I Love You 5").
After doing a slew of tracks of What Is Love, he broke out some old favorites with "Can't Stand It" and ending on "Big City Dreams". At the end of Dreams, he made his way over to the crowd in the pit, but clearly his manager was needed along with several security guards because girls were going wild, even trying to body surf to him!
He went off stage to come back on a minute later for his encore of "The Past", an amazingly sad but melodic song about the past three years of his life in regards to dropping out of high school, leaving his brother, home behind. It was a great, heart wrenching end to a great night of music!
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