The Meridian has partitioned off a section of their property outside of the venue for the smokers. With the weather as nice as its been as of late this area is actually a nice escape between bands when you are hauling through a 4 hour show. Most nights The Meridian hires a catering service that sells food and snacks in this outdoor section.

I regret that I did not arrive in time to see Steel Train however since their rearrangement after their second release I just have not been excited as I used to be. The original singer had an epiphany one day and did not want to be a front man. After that, one of the guitarists moved into that spot, leaving the original singer a spot behind a keyboard to the side. In my opinion they went from being fresh and original to just another boring poofy hair, vest-wearing band with this shake-up. I’m not holding my breath, but I hope for a switch back sometime soon.

Four Year Strong is plays into the poppy, melodic, fast-paced trend of bands in the same realm of Set Your Goals, et all. They are more ridiculous in their base lyrics and gimmicky presence, but I definitely like their melodies more. I really wasn’t into this. Id rather just listen to old Fastbreak. I spent most of this set outside, and only half of that reason was because they are Red Sox fans.

Bayside and The Starting Line were great as usual. Bayside tore into a nice long set of great songs, and as usual failed to play anything off of their debut release, Sirens and Condolences. Nevertheless I like their other, later, releases so its fine by me.

The Starting Line was a band I was into years ago and honestly I still am. I guess they are a guilty pleasure. A really poppy guilty pleasure. I have reviewed and seen these guys many times before and I will say it again…they totally transformed over the years, which made me a little sad to hear that they were breaking up. I guess that explains why their whole set was full up with old songs. Their newest release, Direction, is a little different, and one would expect for a band to play a lot of new songs in support of a new release, but with nothing on the line, these guys played what they liked, or what we liked, or what I liked. Either way it was awesome. Good luck to the newly formed Person L.