Modern Minstrels

Rocking the Grog Shop

Apparently I never wrote about the Fall Out Boy, Mae, Motion City Soundtrack, Rufio show at the Grog Shop 2 weeks ago. Dana and I got to Coventry around 6:30 since both our tickets and the Grog Shop website said the show started at 7. However, when we got there, the people at the Grog Shop said the doors didn't open until 7, so we wandered around Coventry for a bit. Almost everything was closed though, even Big Fun. Then around 7 we went back and got in the Grog Shop. We looked at the merchandise stands for a bit. I really wanted to get a Fall Out Boy shirt, but I didn't really like any of the ones they had. Then we went and got right up in the front row and then we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally at 8 o'clock Fall Out Boy took the stage.

This was the third time I've seen Fall Out Boy, and they get more fun each time. They played just about every song off their album Take This To Your Grave and they played a new song. Seeing the crowd, you would have thought Fall Out Boy was the headliner. The highlight of their set, was at the end when Pete climbed up the wall and across various bars and pipes on the ceiling and hung upside down singing the chorus to their final song. They said they would be back in December with Less Than Jake, so I'm looking forward to that.

Mae played next and also put on a good set. Their music is not nearly as rocky as Fall Out Boy's, but it was really nice to listen to. The keyboard player had 3 different 3 keyboards that he played. I'm glad I got to see them live, and it's made me want to listen to their CD some more.

Motion City Soundtrack played third and were excellent as well. Their keyboard player had an Apple logo sticker on his keyboard. They played most of their songs off of I Am The Movie, including my personal favorite The Future Freaks Me Out.

After Motion City Soundtrack played, Dana and I went over to the merchandise area again. I was able to get everyone in Motion City Soundtrack to sign my CD cover from their CD that I bought over the summer. And I found all but one member of Fall Out Boy and got them to sign the baseball card I had which came with their CD.

After that Dana and I got some seats by the bar and sat and watched game 6 of the Cubs-Marlins series with the drummer from Fall Out Boy which was fun.

Apple Retail Stores and Live Music

I've been checking the Apple Retail page for news about the Cleveland Apple Store opening and though I haven't found anything about that, I have seen something called Music Nights. On October 15th, Thrice will be playing at the store in Santa Monica, CA and Thursday will be playing at the SoHo store. Very, very cool. I've bought both of the bands' recent albums from the iTunes Music Store. I'm hoping they release some live recordings from their performance on the ITMS, like Less Than Jake did a month or so ago. I'm also hoping the Cleveland store has some bands playing at it after it opens. Cleveland does have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after all.

New Music

I've picked up 2 new CDs in the last 2 days. My preorder of The Early November's album The Room's Too Cold came on Monday. It came with a DVD and a signed poster of the band. Ace told Sarah at the concert last Saturday that it took them days to sign all of the posters. Overall, the CD is good stuff. There's a nice mix of slower, acoustic songs and faster, rock songs. The DVD that came with it includes a documentary, a live performance of Every Night's Another Story, and an acoustic song.

Then today while we were at Wal*Mart in a somewhat impulse purchase I picked up the new Coheed and Cambria album In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 which came out today. I had read really good things about it on Absolute Punk, but wasn't really planning to pick it up. But after seeing it for $10 at Wal*Mart and the fact that it came with a DVD, I decided to buy it. The CD is 12 tracks (including the bonus track) and just under 1 hour and 10 minutes long. I've listened to it once tonight and like it a lot. I'm not quite sure how to describe the music, other than to say it fits in with the types of music I generally listen to, though it definitely has a distinct sound. Now, I've purchased the most recent Thrice, Thursday, and Coheed and Cambria albums, I really should go to see the three of them at the Agora October 18th.

I also want to mention the new Death Cab For Cutie album, Transatlanticism, which also came out today. Definitely one of the best albums of the year. Ben Gibbard is a lyrical genius, and I think everyone needs to hear this album.

The next music purchase for me will be October 21st when Something Corporate's North comes out. The Punk Goes Acoustic compilation also comes out that day, so I may end up picking that up as well.

Drive-Thru Invasion Tour

Dana, Kurt, Sarah, and I went to the Drive-Thru Invasion Tour at the Agora Theater last night. It was a really fun time. The line up was The Early November, Senses Fail, Allister, Homegrown, and The Starting Line.

The Early November is a really good live band. They said they'd be doing a headlining tour soon, so I'll probably go see them when they come back. Their new album, The Room's Too Cold, comes out on Tuesday. I already preordered it, because by doing so you get a DVD and a poster. It shipped last Thursday, so it should be here Monday or Tuesday.

Senes Fail was also really good, though the mosh pit got really crazy during their set. Sarah left partway through because some guy tying his shoes bit her leg. Dana and I ended up going to the back of the pit shortly after that because there was too much crowd surfing and neither of us really wanted to have our glasses knocked off.

Allister played next and put on an excellent performance as always. Unfortunately, all the bands played pretty short sets (6 or 7 songs) so it wasn't as good as when they played after Finch last year, or during their headlining show. After Allister played apparently Sarah and Kurt went out to the merchandise stand and Scottie (the lead singer/bass player of Allister) was there. Sarah had Scottie call my cell phone from her phone, but I was inside the theater, so I didn't hear it ring :( . I'm still mad I missed out on meeting Scottie, especially because I had my Last Stop Suburbia CD cover and a Sharpie with me.

Homegrown played after Allister. They were decent, though I only knew a couple of their songs, so their set wasn't as fun as the others.

The Starting Line were the headliners for the tour. This was the first time I've seen them live, and they were great. They played a bunch of songs off of Say It Like You Mean It, as well as a couple new songs that will be on their upcoming album. They also played Make Yourself At Home off of their acoustic EP which will be out November 25. I can't wait for that to be released, it's going to be really good. They also did one of the better encore's I've seen. They played their "last song" The Best of Me, which is their most well known single. A lot of bands pretend they are done before playing their most well known song, so you know they're coming back. There were a few chants of "TSL, TSL, TSL" and "One more song, One more song" but the lights had come on and people started to leave, so it didn't seem like they'd be coming back out. But after a couple more minutes they came back on stage to do their cover of Jennifer Lopez's song, I'm Real. Before they played that, Kenny (the lead singer) was trying to get the guys in the crowd to sing to some Justin Timberlake song, but it wasn't going so well, since no one really knew the song.

All in all, another very enjoyable concert.