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The Loved Ones took the stage promptly at 8. They opened with a couple songs off their EP before playing a new song, that was on teh slow side and reminded me a bit of the new Against Me! songs I've heard. They played another new song that reminded me of old Green Day, only more uptempo, before closing their set wtih the other two songs off their EP. Their set was short (not much longer than 20 minutes), but their simple pop punk style is a good and fun listen.
I felt like I was about to pass out before the show even started, but I thought it would pass if I kept filling my water bottle up with tap water from the bathroom sink. That probably wasn't the healthiest idea ever, but I'm poor and couldn't afford five or six drinks at $3 a pop.
Comeback Kid was able to throw some life into me with their energetic set. The floor was pretty packed, but there wasn't as much dancing as I thought there'd be. A pit would break out here or there, but there was mostly crowd surfing and sing alogngs. They played a good mix of new and old songs (I'm guessing the songs I didn't know were off their first album that I don't own). Vocalist Scott Wade is a good front man who let the crowd join in on the fun by giving them the mic as often as possible. I enjoyed watching them.
From Autumn to Ashes got people into it, which was surprising because I thought their popularity was on the way down (especially after seeing the crowd reaction at Sounds of the Underground). They put on a good show, even though the sound was very muddy and hard to hear. The crowd ate up teh singing parts like it was a vegan cake, and there was some hardcore kicking during the breakdowns.
I found the songs that Fran Mark did lead vocals on odd because their lead singer, Benjamin Perri, flat out left the stage with nothing to do. Some random dude filled in on drums for those two songs. It'd make mroe sense to me if they either omitted those songs from their set or gave Perri something to do, even if it was a tamorine or dressing up as a butler and sweeping the stage; anything would have been better than him not on stage. Mark was entertaining to watch live because he had all these funny moves that made him look like he ws dancing on an invisible pole. I still would have rather seen the five guys in the band play every song.
Rise Against came on stage, did their thing, and left. There was no pump the crowd up intro music and no encore. I couldn't have been happier. They played an hour straight of tight punk rock that had the majority of the crowd singing along. They played all of my favorites, leaving me very happy. You don't need to read a live review to know that Rise Against is a tremendous live band, but this was their best set I've ever seen.
Written by: RF