Top 5 Best Shows

This post is inspired by a conversation I had with Megan from our class. We were talking about going to shows and local venues, which got me thinking…

The Top 5 Best Shows I’ve ever been to:

5. Reggie & the Full Effect with openers: MC Chris, Leathermouth, and David Costa is Dead (September 3^rd 2008 at The House of Blues)

Prior to going to this show, I only really knew of Reggie and Leathermouth. Frank Iero from My Chemical Romance started Leathermouth and since it was their first tour, and the show only cost like 10$ I thought – Why not? It was probably the most eclectic show I’ve been to so far. David Costa is a rapper from Indiana who is surprisingly dark and melodic. Leathermouth is full on screamo. MC Chris is another rapper who writes ridiculously yet hilarious songs with his cartoonish voice. Reggie & the Full Effect is essentially just singer James Dewees paying techno-y, pop, sometimes screaming, funny songs with whatever other instrumentalists he can scrounge up. For going on a total whim, I think I decided to get tickets like the day before; it was one of the funniest nights ever.

4. Kill Hannah’s New Heart for Christmas 5 (December 21^st at Subterranean and December 22^nd at The Vic, both in 2007)

Kill Hannah is a band from Chicago who I have probably seen live close to ten times over the past 6 years. Anyone who knows of Kill Hannah knows that their Christmas show is THE show to go to. 2007 was the first year they changed it into a two-night event. The first night was for 400 people at Subterranean, and the second was a bigger show at the Vic. Since I had seen KH so many times before, my friends and I had started a pretty big KH fan group with other people we had seen at the earlier shows. Eventually our group of 3 turned into a group of like 20. The first night we really just hung around talking, taking pictures, ignoring the first bands until KH came on because it seemed more like a house party then a show. The second night was more legit, and equally as fun as the first night. Like I said, they go all out so they had people dressed up like elves, and Frosty the Snowman, as well as fake snow. They even ended the night with a KH rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy”

3. Warped Tour 2004 (July 24^th, 2004)

This was my first every Warped Tour and my second (or third) concert ever. The bands I saw include: Lars Frederiksen & the Bastards, Flogging Molly, Simple Plan, NOFX, and Avenged Sevenfold. There were probably more but it was a long time ago, haha. I was sketchy on the entire idea of Warped Tour because I didn’t see how a daylong event, out in the summer sun, would be fun. Sounded more tiresome to be honest. The weather actually ended up being overcast and not so bad. The bands I remember most are Lars, NOFX and Avenged Sevenfold. Lars Frederiksen is the guitarist for Rancid but started this band to fill avoid, I suppose. It’s pretty brutal, fast, loud punk rock but what made the set memorable is that my mom came to Warped, went on the barricade with me, and even fist pumped (to “Oi”s not like… Jersey Shore) which was beyond hilarious. NOFX was just funny and the first real mosh-pit I had ever been into. The night ended with Avenged. This was before they became pretty well known and were really consumed with their stage presence; they were covered in make up and extremely flamboyant. My mom described their set as “watching a gothic Queen” which about sums it up. The best thing about Warped is that you can meet your favorite bands relatively easy, see a lot of them in the same spot, and get TONS of free things.

2. Anti-Flag with openers: Big D and the Kids Table (March 16^th, 2007 at The Metro)

I had always been a pretty big Anti-Flag fan since around 7^th grade but right before this show I had started getting into Big D a lot. They’re a ska band out of Boston. Needless to say when I saw they were opening for Anti-Flag I was pretty excited. I had been talking to the saxophone player through MySpace almost daily and happened to mention I would be at the show and that it was how I was celebrating my birthday that year with my friends (by going). During their set the lead singer, David McWane, introduced a song with, “This is for Michelle who’s turning 43 tonight…nah, I’m just kidding, she’s 61!” and went into “Shining On” which, to this day, is my favorite song by them. I was on cloud 9 by the time Anti-Flag came on, and they were as inspirational as always. I feel if you don’t want to change the world by the end of an Anti-Flag set, you obviously weren’t paying attention. Afterwards, that same saxophone player recognized me outside, and we talked for a while as well as the rest of Big D. Pretty iconic way to celebrate my 16^th birthday.

And finally…

1. Big D and the Kids Table with openers: Whole Wheat Bread (November 28^th 2007 at the Metro)

This show was on a Thursday but I knew I wanted to get there early so we could get to the barricade. Somehow my two friends, Tom and Lauren, and I conned our parents into letting us leave school at noon to drive to the Metro and sit outside. The doors opened at like 6 so we had roughly 5 hours to kill in the near-freezing Chicago weather… and of course we were in only hoodies since where would we put our coats once inside? Needless to say we found out about the “coat check” system after that. We were the first people in line nearly all 5 of those hours, saw the bands bringing their equipment in and even the guitarist of Big D, Sean, asked us, “Why the hell are you guys here so early?” Our reply? “Because you are.” Once inside, the opening band was Whole Wheat Bread, which is a group from Florida who mix punk rock with rap. They were amazing. Big D came on and I honestly felt like they were playing entirely for us since we all made eye contact a few times. It was my first time seeing them headline so it was a nice change to hear them play for 90 minutes instead of the usual 30.

…Kind of long but those are mine. Feel free to comment with yours.