Modern Minstrels

Virgin College Mega Tour

Last night Andrew and I attended the Virgin College Mega Tour featuring Yellowcard, Mae, and Over It at San Jose State University. Andrew conveniently lives just 6 blocks from SJSU campus, so I parked at his place and we walked to the venue. The show was held at the "Event Center" which appeared to just be a gymnasium. Surprisingly, the place ended up being only half full, at most. It was a pretty large venue, but probably not a whole lot bigger than the Scene Pavillion in Cleveland where I saw SoCo and YC and that show was totally full.

Over It opened the show and I was definitely looking forward to seeing them. Silverstrand is just one of those fun albums you put on every once in a while. Unfortunately, only a few people in the crowd actually knew there stuff. But I give Over It credit for trying, and succeeding, to get the crowd moving for a few of their songs. ListenWatching Peter sing Partner in Crime was the highlight of the set. I look forward to seeing them again, hopefully in a crowd that actually knows their songs.

Over It Set List (not in order)

• Song from Timing is Everything
• Truth Is
• Shine (I think)
• Waiting
• New Song
• Partner in Crime
• Siren on the 101

Next up was the always excellent sounding Mae. They played a fairly long set with about a 50/50 song split between Destination: Beautiful and The Everglow. The one unfortunate thing about their set was they had to keep changing tunings and that broke up the flow of the songs a bit. A large majority of the crowd knew their stuff, so there was a good bit of singing along. Oh, and I was incredibly entertained at the little mosh pit that broke out during one of their early songs. Mae songs so do not lend themselves to moshing, so it was easily the most tame mosh pit I've ever seen.

Mae Set List (not in order)

• This Is The Countdown
• Someone Else's Arms
• Painless
• Cover Me
• All Deliberate Speed
• Embers and Envelopes
• Soundtrack for Our Movie
• Suspension
• At least 1 or 2 more

Yellowcard didn't get more than 30 seconds into Rough Landing, Holly before I gave up on letting their personal drama influence my enjoyment of their music. Simply put, Yellowcard knows how to rock and its impossible to not have a good time at one of their shows. As expected, they pretty much stuck with songs from Ocean Avenue and Lights and Sounds. However, they did give a shout out to old fans and played October Nights as well as the chorus of Rocket. I was also really happy that they played Back Home. Everyone at the show was definitely there to see YC. There was much dancing and moshing and crowd surfing, but it didn't get too crazy.

Yellowcard Set List (ordered by album)

• Rough Landing, Holly
• Lights and Sounds
• Down on My Head
• Sure Thing Falling
• 1 or 2 more from Lights and Sounds
• Way Away
• Breathing
• Ocean Avenue
• Empty Apartment
• Life of a Salesman
• Only One
• Believe
• Back Home
• October Nights
• chorus of Rocket

Upcoming Concerts

I've been slacking in concert attendance lately, having only attend 2 this year (plus one show in Japan). Fortunately, I've got tickets to an amazing lineup of shows over the next few months.

Yellowcard, Mae, Over It - April 17 @ San Jose State Event Center Arena

Wasn't initially planning to go to this show, but Andrew was interested in seeing Yellowcard so I decided I'd go. Definitely looking forward to seeing Over It for the first time. And also looking forward to hearing Mae play songs from The Everglow live. They always put on a good show. As for YC, as much as I want to be bitter about them and the whole Ben drama, I know I'm going to get into their set. I'm hoping they play more older stuff than things off Lights and Sounds, but that's probably unlikely.

Dredg - May 11 @ The Fillmore

Nick and I had planned to see these guys back in December, but the show sold out before we got around to getting tickets. Definitely looking forward to seeing them as Catch Without Arms was one of my absolute favorite albums last year. I need to go and listen to some of their older stuff before the show though. Also of note is now that Nick lives in SF, he's going to pick up tickets from the box office, so screw you Ticketmaster, you're not getting any lame ass fees from us.

Matt Nathanson - May 13 @ Swedish American Music Hall

Matt and his guitar for an acoustic solo show!! So psyched for this show. Matt is easily one of the most fun people you will ever see live. Still need to pick up his live album that just came out (if I can ever find it anywhere). Did I mention this show is going to be amazing?

Brand New - July 11 @ The Fillmore

Definitely my most anticipated of all the shows. I've been waiting years to see Brand New live. They'd better play for 2 hours.

Those are my confirmed shows for the next few months. I'm sure more will crop up. In fact two other shows I know about that I may go to are MC Lars/The Matches at the end of May and I hear Radiohead is playing at the Greek Theater in Berkeley in July. I've never seen Radiohead before and I've heard nothing but good things about their live performances. So even though I'm not a huge, huge Radiohead fan, I'll probably still go.

Cheap CDs

Made a run to Best Buy at lunch today with the intention of picking up .Moneen.'s new album The Red Tree, since it was on sale for $5.99. Ended up walking out of the store with 4 CDs, all of them under $10.

.Moneen. - The Red Tree
I've heard a few of the songs off .Moneen.'s older album and I liked them, so at $6 I had to pick this up. Listened to it a couple times so far, and I enjoy it. This Is All Bigger Than Me is my initial favorite song. Oh, and you've got to love their outrageously long song titles.

Yellowcard - One for the Kids (rerelease)
They had this on the end of one of their displays for $9.99 (and incorrectly advertised as their "debut album"). I figured I should actually own this since it is my favorite YC album, plus the rerelease has Rough Draft on it. There's also a couple live videos on the Enhanced CD portion. Haven't checked them out yet though.

Foo Fighters - Five Songs and a Cover
This was in the CD display at the very front of the store and only $2.99, now that's just un-resistible. Opens with a live version of Best of You and contains demo versions of DOA and World. The cover is Cream's I Feel Free.

Saves the Day - Sound the Alarm
Knew Mike picked this up the other day when he got the .Moneen. album. I've never really gotten into Saves the Day, but this album has been getting good reviews, so for $9 I figured it was worth checking out. I've listened to the album a couple times already and it's pretty good. I think it'll keep growing on me. Initial favorite song is the opening song, Head for the Hills. Also as I pick up more and more of the lyrics, I think the whole album is a story...which I'm always a fan of.