ouch, terrible review of a concert in Boston, MA…

Some things to clear up…
- Say Anything is not 1 CD in, (counting independent full-length releases).
- DC is 6 years old but it’s not his only band. You can say that his musical career is close to two decades.

…and uh, I lost my train of thought… on to the next thought:

However, I did agree that Say Anything’s 30 min set outshone DC’s performance (stop right now and drop that stone you’re going to throw at me). It’s not the same as it was 2 years ago that last time I saw them perform at the Greek Theatre here in LA. Don’t get me wrong I’m still a fan, if not, this site wouldn’t exist.

Anyhoo, tomorrow is the last night they will be performing on this summer tour in Wisconsin. They were suppose to play there last month but was cancelled to appear on The Today Show.

During Say Anything’s opening set for Dashboard Confessional, notoriously mouthy frontman Max Bemis felt compelled to heap praise on the night’s headliners.
‘‘If you respect bands that have worked hard from the beginning,” Bemis told the Sunday night capacity crowd at the Opera House, ‘‘Dashboard is definitely one of them. It’s no flash in the pan.”
Never mind that Bemis, 22, is just one CD into his career and Florida’s Dashboard Confessional is only six years old. Veterans they’re not. But it’s Bemis’ defensive tone that’s telling. The fact that Say Anything easily outshined the headlining band is further evidence that Dashboard’s live performance failed to live up to the smart guitar-pop of its polished new CD, ‘‘Dusk and Summer.”

Starting with a clumsy version of the new collection’s closer, ‘‘Heaven Here,” frontman and focal point Chris Carrabba began a set that pandered to teenaged confusion. Nothing wrong with that, but Carrabba’s self-serious press ramblings portray a man who aspires to greater artistic heights.

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DC stopped by New York City and the Radio City Music Hall for the second to last stop in the current tour. Here’s a review of that show from Newsday.

It’s not easy for an indie-rock band to merge into the mainstream without losing its fan base or its dignity. But Dashboard Confessional made the move masterfully, picking up momentum without leaving anyone behind.

Chris Carrabba and company accomplished it Saturday night at Radio City Music Hall by acknowledging the past with the emotional, painstakingly detailed sing-alongs that still make its live show unique, while still looking toward the future with the big, broad, stadium-ready rock anthems that dominate the new “Dusk and Summer” (Vagrant) album.

Early Dashboard Confessional shows would feature Carrabba and his acoustic guitar backed by the audience, who would try to deliver every lyric as expressively as he did. He hasn’t left that behind, embracing it in older songs such as “Screaming Infidelities” and “The Swiss Army Romance,” which he ends by essentially playing the guitar while the audience sings.

But the development is in the new songs. “Heaven Here,” which sounds big on the album, is massive in concert, with echoing drums and a pulsing U2-like bass. Carrabba rides the sound well, his voice soaring even higher as he works the crowd.

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I was messing around with Google Analytics and looked at the map. Do you know the top ten places where the visitors of this website are coming from? They are (in order) US, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, unknown, Philippines, Mexico, France, and Spain.

Well, I was interested in where Dashboard Confessional fans are. Maybe there’s enough of you out there to get them to come to your country… anyhoo, I made a map on Frappr.com. Please add yourself. (i know, i know that there is already one but that isn’t looking nice)

http://www.frappr.com/duskandsummer

ContactMusic’s David Adair has reviewed the single Don’t Wait.

and David, I (and hopefully most) have accepted the lost.

There once stood tall and emotive giant, Christopher Ender Carrabba whose songs were built up like Sears Tower, whereby he would throw his voice and emotions too, with the power and feeling of a pissed of pitcher. Now, he has decimated into a clichéd cheese purveyor who tries to force feeling out in his songs, rather like Homer Simpson trying to force up his flies. The result is that the number just gets taken over by lazy guitars hooks and token percussion. The 4th September 2006 is sad day; please use it to remember what we have lost.

Rating 2/10

LINK

Washington Post has a write up on Wednesday’s concert in DC.

Also, someone yelled out “You Suck!” during Stolen… BLASPHEMY! heh, seriously what are you going to do to the dude that yelled that and ruined the song for you especially when they are standing right next to you.

If you pick up a copy of Washington Post today, could you please scan/snap a picture of that article? It’s on page C02. Just upload it in the gallery.

Dashboard Confessional shows are as much about the crowd as the band. Charismatic lead confessor Chris Carrabba could get his followers to sing a trigonometry assignment.

Carrabba employed several devices Wednesday at Constitution Hall to encourage screaming from the few fans who weren’t already doing so — and to spur the rest to scream the lyrics even louder. He would quickly step back from the microphone mid-song. Or he’d step sideways. Or he’d spread his tattooed arms wide and turn his palms up. Or he’d point to the rafters. Or have a crew member flicker the house lights.

Whatever the trigger, the result was similar and instantaneous: The crowd volume would swell like a tsunami.

Carrabba, backed for most of the 80-minute set by a rocking quartet, wasn’t asking the flock to recite something as simple as “Kumbaya,” either. A typical Confessional tune is chorus-free, and although Carrabba is 31, he comes off as an adolescent writing in his diary about just meeting or being dumped by Miss Right. “She smiled in a big way, the way a girl like that smiles when the world is hers,” everybody sang on “Dusk and Summer,” the title track on the latest Confessional CD, proving that the power of 3,000 or so young voices in unison is undeniable.

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