6.29.2008

The return for Confessional

… The tour continues.

Tonight, I was back at Summerfest for Dashboard Confessional at the new and improved Harley-Davidson stage … I got my first glance at it Thursday night, but spending some time there tonight proved the worthy changes. Not only are the sight lines about as perfect as you can get, the audience space has been opened all the way back to the lakefront with a cozy park area toward the back. There’s three big screens, including one on the lakefront. And the coolest part is a grouping of motorcycles built into the stage area’s tower and on the stage itself. Pretty cool …

I got there in time to catch the last two songs from Northern Room. The rock band seemed to be a good preview for Dashboard, but the real show seemed to be some 50-something couple sucking face all through the last song. It was enough to have the surrounding crowd sharing squirmy laughter and snapping pictures with cell phones … Ah, the people watching at Summerfest.

Next up, Single File, a rock band out of Denver, came on at 8:30 and played for a half hour … I was thankful it didn’t last longer. Their style could best be compared to a Good Charlotte or Blink 182, but I thought the vocals were out of key and whiny. Most of the crowd seemed to barely notice they were on stage …

Then, the recorded music came on and played a string of songs from Aaron Neville and Phil Collins. In between a concert with Single File and Dashboard Confessional. Random ...

All the while, of course, the excitement for Dashboard Confessional was building. A couple of beach balls were being swatted around and the group of boys sitting next to me ordered a whole pizza that smelled so good I wanted to swipe a piece for myself, or at least ask the kid next to me, “Hey, do you mind if I take a bite of that?

At this time last year, I’d barely heard of Dashboard Confessional; I didn’t have a clue they were so popular. I went blindly into their show at last year’s Summerfest and left totally intrigued. I was struck by how passionately frontman Chris Carrabba sang every line, and even more at the way the crowd hung on every word, nearly drowning out his voice. I’ve been to shows with some darn good crowd sing-alongs before, but never like that …

After last year’s show, I got a hold of the “Dusk and Summer” album and got excited when I saw they were returning this year …

The Dashboard shirts appeared to be selling well, too, because every other kid was wearing one. And I watched another couple arrive wearing hand-painted, matching shirts. The boy was wearing the “D,” the girl wore the “C.”

Mostly, the crowd was comprised of, not surprisingly, teenie boppers, especially girls … But there were some neat looking families there too, including a set of parents with their two tween boys. I would love it if Phoebe and I could do Summerfest like that some day …

At 10 o’clock, Dashboard appeared on stage to piercing cheers and then, as I’d suspected, broke the lid off their set with “Don’t Wait.” A call-and-answer sort of song, Carrabba and crowd were singing passionately and loudly again, just as I’d remembered last year …

After doing “Rooftops and Invitations,” Carrabba told the crowd, “I’ve been waiting a whole year to come back and do Summerfest!”

He then went into “The Good Fight” and “As Lovers Go,” a song he told the crowd was about “a foxy little girl I was chasing around in a bar one night.”

Between songs, Carrabba glanced at the four motorcycles stacked on the stage set behind him and told the crowd “I’ve never had so many motorcycles on stage.” Then he paused and said facetiously, “Usually I have three.” Nice.

From there he went into “Saints and Sailors,” and then had the crowd sing “Happy Birthday” to his friend Gizmo. And that, for a moment, made me realize no one sang it to me yesterday. Dang.

Carrabba went acoustic for “Where There’s Gold” and “The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most.” Then he told the crowd the band was pulling out some old and rare stuff. And boy did they deliver, playing a great cover of Weezer’s “El Scorcho.”



They closed out the initial set with “Screaming Infidelities,” “Again I Go Unnoticed,” “Remember To Breathe” with that sweet pulsating guitar, and then a great “Currents.”

It was about 11 p.m. when the band said good-bye the first time … And they returned a couple minutes later to more piercing cheers. They busted out “Stolen” and “Hands Down.” Again and again, the crowd was singing loud and getting deep into every song …

Here's my clip of “Stolen” ...



Which made what happened next sort of interesting. Carrabba said good-bye a second time and almost half the crowd left … The veteran concert-goers know, though, you never leave until the floodlights come on. And after a prolonged break, Carrabba came out again. All of the fans who had spent the show near the back suddenly filled in the voided spaces and he played an acoustic of “The Best Deception.”

It was a good show, and I was happy I had gone …

On the shuttle ride out, the talk about the other shows tonight was that John Mellencamp was disappointing, Trace Adkins was all right, the BoDeans were good and a beer-bellied man sitting behind me said “Blondie rocked!

I found my car and drove home in a steady rain …

Sleep well.

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