Although the show sold out Irving Plaza in a mere seconds, the band put more tickets on sale day of show; they didn’t sell out those extra tickets, and there were probably about 20-30 tickets people had to sell they didn’t even get to sell. It was far from packed and did not look “sold out” by any means.

Love Arcade was garbage.. think Hellogoodbye-ness, sorta, except worse. Maybe, I doubt that’s possible.

As Tall As Lions, solid, of course. The Honorary Title was better than I remember them being, good job.

The Academy Is… played thirteen songs (the most I’ve ever seen from the band), including Seed, LAX, and the new single. Encore was Attention (which I hadn’t heard in like.. a year from them) and Checkmarks. The band was as tight as I’ve seen a punk-pop/pop-rock band play in a long time, and William was great on vocals. I didn’t realize their drummer does so many vocals, and I’ve seen this band a LOT.. I must have forgotten, or it’s new to their set.

The new songs are good; Seed “means a heap to us” said, William, and it was actually a pretty different styled song from the band. I liked it. LAX is much better live than it is studio, and the single, which I heard for the first time, sounded alright.

Nothing too eventful otherwise, it was a standard show; the crowd was 80-90% jail bait girls, I’d guess there may have only been 100 people over 18 in attendance (holds 1100), so when a “pit” broke out it was hard not to laugh as a bunch of little girls grabbed their ankles and “danced” or whatever it was they were doing. The guys dancing were even more embarrassing though.

Interesting side note, I was standing next to a woman who looked fifty, and I assumed she was there with her little kids; I was going to talk to her and ask her if she ever saw Zeppelin, Ramones, or anyone back in the day, and to comment that “wow Love Arcade sucks compared to real bands I’m sure you used to see”, but I think she was one of Love Arcade’s moms, as she got a shoutout from the band.. for turning fifty yesterday, haha. Glad I didn’t open that can of worms.