i apologize for my delay.

wednesday night i went to the avalon to see straylight run perform. the opening bands for the night were cassino, dear and the headlights, and the color fred. friends of mine wanted to get there early so the front row is where i ended up. and considering how little standing room seems to be left in the venue after poor re-modeling this was a very good thing. cassino came on first. their music was very chill and relaxing, but their performance was somewhat disappointing. my friends argued amongst themseleves about whether or not the band actually was happy about being there. personally, i'm on the side that they weren't. the most energy from the band came from their drummer. i loved watching her play. apart from that they came on, played, and went off - minus a few attempts at self-promotion. telling everyone the location of their merch was all that they said. i didn't even know who they were until dear and the headlights went on and process of elimination came into play. the other side of this argument was: hey, maybe they have just had a bad night and they aren't really up to playing a show right now. it's possible. the show was moved back an hour and a half to begin with due to weather conditions the bands went through to get to ol' utah. also, the keyboardist was drinking/drunk the entire time. so i guess we'll never know. anyway, moving on. dear and the headlights went up next. from the moment they stepped on stage the entire atmosphere changed. they were all energetic, plus looking very excited and happy. they were a really good surprise. i'd heard the name before, but unfortunately until the other night i've never had the pleasure of hearing them. they have an upbeat indie sound with clever lyrics. this music is also good for some dancing, if you're into that. frontman ian metzger was really getting into it: dancing and clapping, you know - putting off a good vibe. i also really enjoyed watching how pj waxman (guitars, vocals) and chuckie duff (bass, keys) interacted with one another. it was like a brotherly sort of thing and they were just having a good time. needless to say i did purchase the cd and now it's my recent obsession. the color fred was after them and he was another one of those bands i'd heard of but not heard. i was looking forward to it because a side project of taking back sunday has to be interesting, right? and he was very good - an alternative/powerpopish (can i say that?) sound. fred mascherino even played one of his songs acoustic without his band. the only problem i had with this set wasn't anything to do with him at all, just the sound. the mics seemed to be turned down and the guitars were turned up. a very killah guitar solo was thrown in there, but making out the lyrics the rest of the time was difficult. in a way i still have yet to actually hear fred. so to start off for straylight run: i really wanted this show to be better. the last time seeing them was just...alright. nothing compared to what i expected after being in love with their self-titled album that was so powerful and amazing. can i throw in really fast that i find this band beautiful? they came on looking great and responded to the crowd in a very cool, collected, and caring manner. after every song john nolan wouldn't waste time genuinely thanking everyone for showing up and and listening to their music. the set couldn't have been better, unless of course they played "another word for desperate". but, besides that, the set was a good mix of old and new material. their newer songs are more...cheery (i suppose you could say) and poppy than the old, but still very nice and with an upside of more vocals from the ever lovely michelle darosa. my favorite song played was "hands in the sky (big shot)" and an acoustic version of "your name here (sunrise highway)" played solo by mr. nolan. maybe it's just those songs with parenthesis that i like so much. they finished by peforming the songs they would've used for an encore. this way when they actually did come back on for an encore it was more spontaneous. for this spontaneous encore they played "the perfect ending" (i'd say so...ha) and "tool sheds and hot tubs". those are two songs i didn't expect to see live so all in all their set was very much appreciated by myself and the rest of the crowd. the power that was lacking in the last straylight show i saw was made up for in this one by a long shot. i just noticed how long this article turned out to be. sorry for that. if only i could put this much effort into my english papers...