Douchefest 08!

Ok the title is a bit of an exaggeration, but its still a fairly accurate description of the crowd at Rise Against last night. I went primarily to see Gaslight Anthem and Alkaline Trio, and both delivered.

I was bouncing with excitement for the 30min wait between my arrival at the Fillmore and when Gaslight took the stage. I told everyone around me who cared to listen about how the opening band was going to to trump every other band they would see tonight From the second they busted into "Great Expectations," I could tell that I was one of a handful of Gaslight fans in the audience. From what I could see, there was only one other dude in the audience singing along (I happened to run into him again while boarding the bus back to Boulder, funnily enough) but I didn't fucking care. I sang as loud as I could, and I'm sure everyone around me was getting annoyed. The set was '59 Sound heavy, as expected, but I went to the show so I could hear just that. Still wish they would have played "Drive" though. It was weird hearing them over such a loud system, as opposed to say, Asbury Lanes' or the Marquis Theater's. It seemed they won a good portion of the crowd over, and hopefully they hooked the Rise crowd enough for them to buy merch. I wasn't expecting to buy anything, but I couldn't pass up on the shirt that was a mockup of the Asbury Lanes' sign.

Great Expectations
The Patient Ferris Wheel
The '59 Sound
We Came to Dance
Old White Lincoln
Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis
Angry Johnny and the Radio
The Backseat
(this may be out of order in a couple places)

I used to really like Thrice back in the day, but I stopped listening to them after The Artist in the Ambulance. The opened their set with two songs from that album ("Hoods on Peregrine" and "Melting Point of Wax") and then proceeded to bore the shit out of me for the rest of their set. Although the cover of Helter Skelter was pretty cool...

Alkaline Trio played a phenomenal set filled primarily with oldies, but I wish they could have played longer. Matt Skiba's new look is a bit weird, but whatever, they fucking played "Cringe!" The pinnacle of the night was when they brought out Brian from Gaslight, and played a fantastic cover of "Astro Zombies" Goddamn that was amazing. Not too many Misfits fans in the house though...

Private Eye
Calling All Skeletons
I Lied My Face Off
I Found Away
In Vein
Emma
Cringe
Sadie
Goodbye Forever
Astro Zombies

I'll give it Rise Against, their recent material may kinda suck, but they still know how to put on a good fucking show. The amount of lighting they have seems to grow exponentially every show, and it adds a lot, to say the least. I stayed towards the middle of the crowd, near the pit, because I didn't feel like getting crushed while listening to mediocre new material. I had to leave early to go write a paper on Gandhi, but the set was surprisingly good despite a couple songs. As I made my way to the door, Tim started talking about the crowd not knowing their first album, and as their guitarist nonchalantly played a chord in the backround, I said audibly "no fucking way." My suspicions were correct, and they went into "Everchanging." I was on a tight schedule to catch the bus, but I couldn't miss this song. Thankfully I made the bus (with only seconds to spare) and got back to Boulder, rubbed the Misfits cover in my roommate's face, and finished my crappy essay about non-violence.

New Song (I think its the first track off the new album)
Give It All
State of the Union
New Song
Ready to Fall
Re-Education (Through Labor)
Chamber the Cartridge
Everchanging

I wish I knew what else they played...


and to top it off, I found the greatest news ever

http://brooklyndiy.blogspot.com/2008/11/jerk-house-110808.html

Blake Schwarzenbach is back and ready to unleash his musical fury on the world once again. (and with Aaron Cometbus none the less!)