Samstag, 8. Sep 2007, 16:41
I've been meaning to use this journal as a bit of a concert blog (with music reviews on the side, if I felt like it), but I haven't caught up. I'll have to do that.
In the mean time, on this past Thursday night, I was dragged an hour and a half away to Des Moines to see The Academy Is..., along with their three (THREE!!?!) openers, Sherwood, The Rocket Summer, and Armor For Sleep.
Sherwood was AMAZING! I loved them and plan on getting their CD as soon as possible. They were really good, their songs were awesome, and their keyboardist stole my heart with his "dancing." He flailed like nobody's business. It was love.
The Rocket Summer was good. I really liked them. Maybe not as much as Sherwyn, but they were still very good. There were definite songs that stuck out, but hell if I know what they were. I just remember thinking, "Hey, I like this one!" every so often. And the lead singer is ADORABLE with that blonde mop and aw. I got to touch him, which was nice.
The last opener before TAI came on was Armor For Sleep. Now, they didn't suck, which is how I WANT to describe them. It's too simple to say that, and doesn't get my point across, because they were not bad at their instruments, they didn't sound out of tune or did their singer's voice sound like fighting cats. They just sounded like every other crappy generic band out there right now. Shitty. They weren't enjoyable, an their fans are douchebags, to put it simply and to the point. I don't like to make generalizations about fans of something, but there was not a person in that place that was there to see them that WASN'T a huge jerk about everything, especially while in the pit.
Oh, and before I get to the awesomeness that was The Academy Is..., I must speak of the pit. The first thing that was very wrong with it was that I was probably one of the oldest people in it. By, like, 6 years at times. We saw a ridiculous parade of minivans and the like dropping off concert goers outside before the concert, so I knew this was going to suck from the start, but I'm a masochist. Or something. Anyway, most of the people didn't know what to do in a pit, they looked at me funny when someone fell down and I yelled for who ever could reach them to help them up, and got a glare from the guy that bashed the hell out of me with, "It's a concert, what do you expect?" with the tone of, "You're a loser" in his voice. Yeah, I go to concerts to hurt and get hurt. I enjoy harsh pits. But when there are huge (douchey) guys causing a lot of ruckus around a billion 15 year old girls, there's a problem. They looked miserable. It was ridiculous.
And, to top it off, I got kicked in the head so hard during Armor For Sleep by a crowd surfer, that I blacked out for a few seconds. It was awesome. But did I leave the pit? No. Why? Because that's how pits work. Don't whine, just watch out for other people. It also helped to show that guy what I'm capable of taking. Douche.
AND FINALLY WHAT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!
The Academy Is... was fantastic. They really surprised me. I wasn't expecting them to sound that good. I've been a growing fan of them since my friend Jenny (who was the one that got this concert adventure rolling in the first place) kept listening to their albums in the car. I only have Santi on my computer, so I'm the most familiar with those songs, but I've heard their earlier album (the name escapes me right now) enough to know the songs. My favorite song off of Santi is "Everything We Have." That song gets me so bad, and it was BEAUTIFUL live. William Beckett is gorgeous, and it looked like he was a tinge heavier, which made me happy. He's too thin most of the time, I worry. Throughout their set, they all gave a great show, and William seemed to give it his all. I like that in a singer.
All in all, it was an amazing concert, and I'm glad I got dragged along.