The first act for the evening (which happened to be Super Bowl Sunday) was Ace Enders. While he too brought a new band with him, most people would know him as the former front man for the Earl November. His new group sounded very much like the Early November, though the addition of two female keyboard players gave it some distinction. The group was only allowed to play for twenty minutes, but they made the best of it. The only problem that I had, and this goes for every new band, was teaching the audience the words to the song so the would sing a long. When an audience is taught to sing a long, it lacks authenticity and feels contrived. But with that aside, it was a solid twenty minutes of enjoyable pop.

Next on the bill was another familiar face with a new band. The Color Fred, fronted by the former guitarist for Taking Back Sunday, played rock and roll songs and sang about people who couldn’t drive. Luckily Fred left his screaming with Taking Back Sunday, and my ears thank him for that. While he still has some things to learn about being a front man, he played his new part pretty well. He covered most of the bases by running around the stage, interacting with the audience, and telling stories about his songs.

The third band to play was Meg and Dia. I had been warned by my friends to avoid seeing this group if possible. Sadly, my friends were right. They seemed really awkward on stage, and sounded like a band the Disney Channel would have created and marketed. While most of the audience seemed to enjoy their set, I found myself unable to stay inside during the set.

Once it was time for the night’s headliner, Angels and Airwaves, I made my way back inside. After watching a lengthy set up process, I was excited to see how their set would go. It was clear the set would be fun from the moment Tom Delonge, accompanied by his band, took the stage. From that point on the noise behind me was deafening, as a near capacity theater screamed at the top of their lungs.

The set continued on, including singles like “The Adventure”, as well as tracks off of the latest album, “I-Empire”. The audience was even treated to Tom playing songs solo, and telling jokes and stories about the songs.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening, with a show that was much better than I had anticipated. Aside from the awkward girl group, non-stop talk of the football game, and inevitably being bugged by sixteen year olds while trying to take photos. Angels and Airwaves are no Blink-182, but they are still worth going to see.