Modern Minstrels

Screaming is for Babies

Went to the Screaming Is For Babies tour tonight featuring: The Starting Line, Copeland, Gatsby's American Dream, Cartel, and New Atlantic. What an amazing line up. Got to Slim's right at 7 and was able to park less than a block away. No line at the Will Call window, and the line to get into the show moved quickly, though I did miss most of New Atlantic's opening song. On with a review of the show:

New Atlantic
AP.net has been posting downloadable demos here the last couple weeks, so that gave me a good idea of what to expect. They played a good set and the crowd as a whole seemed into them. A great way to open the show. I definitely plan to pick up their album when it comes out.

Cartel
I've been totally digging Chroma for about the last month, so needless to say I was stoked to see these guys (and they said this was their first time in SF, so that was neat). I loved the seamless transition from Say Anything (Else) into Honestly. They sounded great live and I ended up picking up their album after the show for a mere $10. I'd say I was disappointed they didn't play Minstrel's Prayer, but I already knew they weren't playing that on this tour. As for the songs they did play (not quite in order:)

• Luckie St
• Runaway
• Say Anything (Else)
• Honestly
• If I Fail
• Burn This City

Gatsby's American Dream
Volcano is another CD that has been in heavy play the last couple months. After reading Mike's and Meri's respective posts on the NYC show, I had some pretty high expectations for Gatsby's live performance. They did not disappoint in the least. The lead singer definitely knows how to handle the stage and get the crowd going. They were all just really fun to watch. The one thing I did notice was how short most of the songs on Volcano are. The album itself is only 33 minutes and most of the songs clock in at under 3. I hadn't really noticed that before because Volcano is one of CDs that you just let play all the way through and the songs transition nicely from one to another. I was hoping they'd play Your Only Escape, but alas they did not. That said, Shhhhhh! I'm Listening to Reason was a great song to end the set with. And now to steal Mike's setlist since it looks about right for what they played tonight:

• Theatre
• Pompeii
• The Loosing Of The Shadow
• (new song #1)
• A Mind of Metal And Wheels
• Recondition, Reprogram, Reactivation
• Fable
• (new song #2)
• Shhhhhh! I'm Listening To Reason

Copeland
Not too much to say about these guys. I was only vaguely familiar with them beforehand. Their set was really low energy. That's not to say the set was bad, it's just a result of the type of songs they play. I think they would have fit in better as the first or second slot. If I had known more of their songs, I definitely would have enjoyed it more.

The Starting Line
I've seen TSL a three times before (twice as openers, once as headliners), but this was without a doubt their best performance ev4r. Loved hearing lots of songs from Based on a True Story live, as well as their classics from Say It Like You Mean It. The crowd definitely had a good time, and was considerably tame. Which made the fact that this over 6' tall security guard would occasionally appear in the middle of the crowd and just stand there for a song or two. So lame, especially considering how tame the crowd was being. My favorite two songs of the night were Photography and Ready. That was the first time I heard Photography live and Wil from Cartel came out and sang with Kenny during Ready. Good stuff. And because naming a song that wasn't played seems to be a running theme, I'll say I was hoping to hear The World because it's got some good crowd chanting parts. Now for some sort of setlist:

• Surprise, Surprise
• Inspired By The $
• Up and Go
• Leaving
• Bedroom Talk
• Artistic License
• Ready
• Photography
• A Goodnight's Sleep
• Decisions, Decisions
• This Ride
• Best of Me
• New Song
• Cheek to Cheek
• And I think I'm missing 1 or 2

This was a great show and one of the best line ups of bands I've ever seen.