Show Date: 10/5/14
Line Up: State Champs with Handguns, Forever Came Calling, Front Porch Step, Heart to Heart, and Brigades
Venue: Upstairs Palladium
I’ve been to the Upstairs Palladium more times than I can count, and each experience has never been that great. It’s a small narrow space with the stage at the very back, and a balcony (where I stood for most of the show) that covers only about half of the room. They also have a few bars, one big one on the left side of the floor of the venue, and a mini bar on the balcony where the merch tables are set up. The problem I have with this venue are the kind of shows that go on up there. They book shows that could easily sell out downstairs and put it up stairs, where they just ended up packing people in. This just leads to overcrowding, and everyone practically giving each other a hug while trying to watch a show. This size of a venue is more catered to smaller local acts that have relatively small turn outs, with room to move around, and being able to utilize the no barricade stage. Shows like the one I’m about to review should be reserved for downstairs, where there are going to be a lot of people. With that said, I’m not really of a fan of the upstairs portion of the Palladium.
Rating: 2/5
Band 1: Brigades, who just released their debut EP “Crocodile Tears”, were the first to go on. Being that they were a new band there was not a lot of crowd reaction with the exception of a few individuals who knew their material. Despite this, the band never toned down their energy and kept trying to get the crowd to move around. Their sound is a mix of alternative rock, melodic like vocals, mixed with up beat drums, and guitars typical of a heavier pop-punk band. They are a catchy band, and I did notice that their song “Crocodile Tears ” had a pretty catchy riff at one point. They are a good band, however nothing really stuck out to me as a musician that really made me say “wow”. However, it was still a good start to the night.
Rating: 6/10
Band 2: Heart to Heart, out of Pismo Beach, CA, took the stage next. I saw these guys once before when they opened for The Story so Far on their headlining tour last November. From what I remembered from seeing them before, nothing really changed that much about them. But in this case that is a good thing cause these duded are some of the most passionate performers I have seen live. Their sound can be describe as this melodic, up close and personal punk sound that just begs you to listen to what they have to say. Their first song “A.M.F”, the first song off their new record “Dulce”, started their set off with a nice wall to wall. Which is perfect for a small, narrow venue like this. The bands vocalist, Nick Zoppo, took no time in getting in on the action. In their second song he got into the crowd, and even stood on the bar at one point. He did something similar the last time I saw them, only this time he didn’t have a barrier in his way. This is one of the few bands I have seen that were really trying to connect to their fans on a personal level, which is a really great thing to see. In the fourth song in their set, Nick took out his own personal mic stand that just so happened to light up. I thought this was interesting and eye catching. Later in that same song the crowd got a special treat when Jake from Front Porch Step stepped in to do guest vocals. This was a nice little preview of the set that was to come up next. This band really grabbed me with their stage presence, and despite not checking them out previously, I really felt inclined to do so after this set.
Rating: 7/10
Band 3: Jake Mcelfresh a.k.a Front Porch Step, out of Newark, OH, was definitely the odd one out on this tour. I literally mean one because FPR is a one man acoustic show, and I wasn’t sure how well this change in pace and mood was going to sit with me, being that this was a punk show. However, I would soon be caught off guard by Jake’s performance. From his first song to his last, everyone in the crowd was singing alone, and here I am on the balcony not knowing a single word. So I stand there and think to myself, “How in the hell have I not started listening to this guy yet”, as it was clear that I’ve been missing out on something great. Jake’s sound can be best described as this acoustic vibe mixed with these punk/rough vocals, and emotional lyrical content. I think through out his songs he demonstrated a great control of volume and tone, and really uses his voice as not just a means of sharing his ideas, but to really give his music some depth. His lyrics also caught me off guard, the variations he throws in are slightly unpredictable. The best example of this is probably in the chorus of “Aware”, which also happens to be my favorite song. I did not expect the rhyme scheme he used in that song, but it ended up working really well, and perhaps even better than what I had in mind. He also demonstrates a good use of vulgarity, which gives his songs an attitude that is really interesting to hear in an acoustic project. Jake is a very emotional song writer, and you can feel it. I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t cry like a baby boy every time I listen to “I Won’t Say That I’m Okay”. As different and unusual this set was at a punk show, it was definitely my favorite set all night. After the set I went over to his merch table and picked up his debut album “Aware”, and it is worth a lot more than the $5 I paid for it.
Rating: 8/10
Band 4: Forever Came Calling, out of Twentynine Palms, Ca, would ow have the responsibility of pumping the crowd back after a rather emotional acoustic set. The band just released their new album “What Matter Most Today”, and you can pick that up now at your local record store. I feel its good to have a band who is releasing new material while on tour, in my experience bands like this are extra excited to be promoting the new album and furthermore, playing the new songs for the first time live. This I think makes for just a little bit better of a performance than they would originally put on. Forever Came Calling certainly demonstrated that energy as the crowd took no time in getting moving again after having that more mellow set. This energy would continue on through out their set, and in typical pop punk fashion the band would often encourage movement by shouting “everybody get up”. As cliche as pop punk hype can be, I think it creates the positive atmosphere that pop punk is known for. In the third song in their set the band got the crowd moving even more with a wall to wall, which like I said before is perfect for the kind of venue like upstairs palladium. During song 4 one fan got a little too bold and stayed on stage for a considerable amount of time, and was eventually forced off by security. On a side note, I get you like the band and wanna have fun. But the stage is for the band, by all means get up there and stage dive, but get on and get off, and let that be the end of it. During song 5 the band started the night’s first circle pit; I’m glad somebody did it. In the bands sixth song their lead guitarist, Isacc Taylor, got one of the amps during part of their song and showed some appreciation for the people standing on the balcony, myself included. I had not seen anyone climb around the venue before or since I saw Letlive. at the same venue back in May. It was cool to see him get into it as much as he did, and during song 7 he decided to go for a crowd surf. He was pulled back on stage by security just in time for one last circle pit, which closed out their set. These guys really knew how to work a crowd, and although I did not really get a good taste of their sound, I was definitely going to look into them further.
Rating 7/10
Band 5: This was my second time seeing Handguns, a pop punk band out of Harrisburg, Pa. The first time I saw them was when they were on tour with A Loss For Words at this same venue around this same time last year. I didn’t really get into their set that much the first time, so I was interested in seeing if second impressions were going to be better, and with a sixteen song set list, I would have ample opportunity to do so. They opened their set with a circle pit during their song “I Can”t Relate”, the second band do so that night. It was nice to see things really starting to pick up, especially since I was on the floor in preparation for the headliner. The fifth song in their set, “Scream Goodbye, got a great crowd reaction being that it was one of their older songs from their first EP back in 2011. This song also had a really catchy riff. The eighth song in their set, “Best Excuse”, had a similar affect on the crowd being it was another old song. The ninth song in their set, “Queens”, which is a newer song, had some well placed pauses. There were even some pasue jumps/ steps ups thrown in by the band, which the crowd really responded to, despite it being a fairly new song. The fifteenth song in their set,”A Year in Review”, was another old one. Like most of their set the crowd seemed to respond better to their older material, and I think they did their older music justice by balancing the new and old material. Overall these guys played well, but even seeing them a second time, I still couldn’t get into them as much as I would like to.
Rating: 6/10
Band 6: Finally, the set I was really waiting for. This was my third time seeing State Champs. The first time I saw them was around this time last year when they played with Counterparts, and Chunk! No Captain, Chunk!, and I also saw them over the summer on Warped Tour. These guys had become one of my favorite bands over the past year, so I was really excited to get moving after standing around for the past five bands. Unfortunately the pit for this band was not as good as I had hoped it would be. There were at least three fights that broke out, due to this one dude who thought he was cool by hate moshing at a pop punk show, which is totally unnecessary. It was probably the most negative atmosphere I had ever been a part of at a pop punk show. State Champs had a really good set though, and played a lot of my favorite songs like “Hard to Please”, and “Easy Enough”. They also played several acoustic songs including, “Stick Around”, off of their first record, and “If I’m Lucky” off of their new acoustic EP. I though this was a definite plus because their last two times I saw them they were more concerned with pumping up the crowd. But being that this was their first headliner they could really focus on putting on their own show. This band has come a long way in a short period of time. I remember on Warped Tour 2013 they played the local stage for the Massachusetts date, and now since then have been on the whole tour, and are now headlining this tour. These guys are be something big, and I really wish there was a better crowd for their set this night because it would kind of go on to ruin the experience for me. After all the commotion that went on with security kicking that one dude out, no buddy really moved around as much. I have to say that I had more fun at their set over the summer at Warped Tour. Even though they did not have acoustics during that set, the crowd was a lot more fun, and it was just a better experience. I’m curious to see how my experience will be during their set at Four Years Strong’s annual holiday show at the Palladium this December. Hopefully, they will have just as good a set list, and hopefully their won’t be a punk to ruin it for everyone.
Rating: 7/10 *all thanks to that one dude, good looks bro
Overall Show Rating: 7/10
Check out the Link below to get caught up on new releases from Pure Noise Records, Including State Champs “The Acoustic Things”, Forever Came Calling “What Matters Most” (just released today!), Handguns “Life Lessons”, and Heart to Heart “Dulce”!
Releases
If you were at any of the dates, or are going to be, Let me know how your experience went, or who you are looking forward to seeing on this tour. If you want to know how my rating system works you can scroll to the bottom of my “Concert Reviews” category, or go to the “My Rating System” category. Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more!
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