The show opened with Lydia, a mellow band featuring a very talented group which included a female vocalist/pianist. Ill admit that I really wasn’t in the mood to listen to this type of music at the time, but this band has had constant play in the old itunes since this show. Great stuff, definitely worth a check out.

Metro Station’s dance beats weren’t good enough to keep me from hanging out with all of my long lost friends outside. It was a very nice Sunday evening and well, these guys were just too out there for me. Sorry. Its like a serious Cobra Starship, but not as good, if that’s at all possible.

I’ve heard a lot of things, good and bad, about Set Your Goals. They seem to have reached a semi-cult status in the indie/hardcore scene and I had to see what they were all about. Their music is a fast-paced melodic hardcore sound reminiscent of Fastbreak, Good Clean Fun and early New Found Glory. What I didn’t realize is that the band has two main vocalists!? There is a tall chubby one and a short skinny one. Their music and presence was what I expected, but I would be lying if I said I could take these guys seriously after seeing the dueling vocals on stage. Its beyond silly. At least play paper, rock, scissors and make the loser play an extra guitar. I mean I wouldn’t even care if it was plugged in. The crowd definitely went off for these guys. While us old school guys are somewhat skeptical, they definitely are stealing the hearts of the new generation.

Armor for Sleep took over after Set Your Goals. I really dug these guys a few years back, but its another case of playing nothing but new songs. They had the energy, but I was really hoping to hear some earlier stuff out of these guys.

I did not even bother taking photos of Saves the Day. Partially because the last few times I have seen them Chris has had pink hair, but primarily because I wanted to be able to enjoy it with my friends. Saves the Day has progressed, or evolved or whatever other nice word you want to use to explain their blatant change from their fast-paced melodic roots to a very experimental sound of late. Its been a gradual change, but one that makes us cringe and hesitant with each new release.

While each new album does have its own stand out tracks that really remind us that Chris is an incredible writer and musical mind, we yearn for the days of old and songs that were the soundtrack of a more carefree era in our lives. I know I speak for the majority of my friends in saying that we were thoroughly disappointed by their showing this night. We heard one song off their debut release, one song off of their sophomore release (Through Being Cool; which is still on my top 10 albums of all time) and one other earlier song that we really enjoyed. We definitely lived it up during those 3 songs, but for the majority of the set we were fed a lackadaisical offering of newer, even entirely new tracks that dulled us into disappointment.

Chris seemed annoying and even had bouts where he heckled the crowd back when propositioned to play older material. The icing on the cake was finding out the set lists were listed online and seeing that the Austin and Dallas crowds heard entire sets of all of the older songs we were hoping to see. I saw these guys do an acoustic set late last year in Denver and it was amazing, what happened?

Dear Saves The Day: We still love you, but you need to make it up to us. Find Eben.