Brick and Mortar

Brick and Mortar began just before 8PM, playing cuts from the recently released 7 Years in the Mystic Room EP. The duo, comprised of New Jersey natives Brandon Asraf and John Tacon, combines electronic beats, funky bass lines, and powerful drumming. Unfortunately, the parts are better than the whole, which is all but ruined by Asraf’s vocals. It’s a shame, because individually Tacon’s drumming is absolutely explosive, and Asfraf’s riffs are at least interesting. The pumped in beats take away from the band’s otherwise urgent demeanor, so even when Brick and Mortar look like they might shine, it’s dulled out by the monotonous, pre-recorded loops. It’s hard to believe promoter AEG couldn’t find any better acts to fill thirty minutes.

Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World began their set just before 8PM, kicking things off with their latest single, “My Best Theory”. With Invented still unreleased — and rock radio nearly dead in New Jersey — the song generated little excitement from the crowd. “Bleed American” went next, though, the audience immediately jumping around to the 2001 title track. Clarity‘s “Your New Aesthetic” was a welcomed treat, with longtime Jimmy Eat World fans singing along with frontman Jim Adkins’s impassioned cries of “imitate and water down!”

Bleed American contributed a quarter of the setlist, including an absolutely stellar performance of “A Praise Chorus”. Another pre-millennium cut (the second of four songs from 1999′s Clarity) “For Me This Is Heaven” was fantastic, with additional keys and female vocals coming from Courtney Marie Andrews, transforming the rock-and-roll four-piece into a keyboard-backed quintet for a third of Jimmy Eat World’s set. Her voice adds texture to old favorites like “Hear You Me” and new cuts from Invented like “Evidence” and “Movielike”.

“Big Casino” elicited extra elation from the crowd during the chorus (“I’m the one who gets away, I’m a New Jersey success story”), the song coming to life in a form not realizable in its studio version. Similarly, the seemingly feeble “Coffee and Cigarettes” actually works when Adkins breathes life into the song in front of a crowd. “Blister” polarized the crowd: fans only recognizing the band for singles like “The Middle” stood awkwardly next to the older concertgoers as the latter group sang in unison to the song’s repeating, heartbreaking chorus: “How long would it take me to walk across the United States all alone? / The West coast has been traumatized / I think I’m the only one still alive”.

Jimmy Eat World

A seven minute take on “Goodbye Sky Harbor” beautifully wrapped up Jimmy Eat World’s set with Adkins looping his vocals over the song’s building outro. As the song neared completion, Adkins’s voice filled the sold out Starland Ballroom, yet he stood there silently, lost in a sea of his own looped vocals perfectly fitting the song’s instrumentation. Jimmy Eat World put down their instruments, thanking the crowd while retreating backstage for a deserved moment of rest: the band undoubtedly poured their hearts into their first sixteen songs.

The lengthy “23″ started Jimmy Eat World’s premeditated return, continuing on the placid mood created just before the encore. Futures hit single “Pain” shattered that calm with Zach Lind’s relentless percussion inviting the crowd to once again dance along. “The Middle” kept things moving, with Adkins tearing through the song’s crafty solo. “Sweetness”, with its original demo introduction, ended Jimmy Eat World’s set on the night’s highest note, unquestionably leaving fans wanting more. A classic show business maneuver.

My Best Theory
Bleed American
Your New Aesthetic
A Praise Chorus
Let it Happen
For Me This Is Heaven
Futures
Big Casino
Dizzy
Coffee and Cigarettes
Movielike
Hear You Me
Evidence
Work
Blister
Goodbye Sky Harbor
23
Pain
The Middle
Sweetness

It’s unlikely Jimmy Eat World has ever sounded tighter during their eighteen-year career than they have as part of the Invented tour. The quartet was unrestrained for just under ninety minutes, pouring unbridled emotion into every moment of the setlist, even on now-dated Clarity songs and tired singles. Jimmy Eat World returns to the area for two nights in New York City’s Terminal 5. With the setlist liking shifting to include a few more songs from the excellent Invented, at least one of those nights is a must-see event — even for those who caught the band at Starland Ballroom.

A quartet from Phoenix, Reubens Accomplice looks good on paper: tours with excellent bands (such as The Format, The Weakerthans, and of course, Jimmy Eat World), a pedal steel guitar, a couple of competent singers, and a handful of musicians who effortlessly switch between instruments on stage. Unfortunately, the band never executes as well as they should–the songs are uninteresting and bland. The band played a fairly brief set, offering nothing memorable by the night’s end

Jimmy Eat World began their set with the haunting melody of “Table for Glasses”. Drummer Zach Lind provided the backbone for song, and indeed the entire evening, combining live percussion with the album’s essential samples. Frontman Jim Adkins faithfully sang the album in its original demeanor, which–true to the album’s mood–kept things somewhat somber until “Your New Aesthetic”, which suddenly found the crowd on their feet, singing along: “Make them open the request line, and let selection kill the old, take back the radio!”

Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins.

The bouncy, punk-pop “Believe In What You Want” kept things moving until the sobering “A Sunday” once again moved the show into its somber tone. As it does on the album, Tom Linton’s cutting guitar on “Crush” once again picks things up and keeps the crowd moving until  “12/23″95″ slows things down again. These drastic changes in mood define Clarity, and indeed Jimmy Eat World, experts at crafting both fast-paced and slower songs. “Just Watch the Fireworks” showcases another defining aspect of the album: Adkins’s ability to tell a story with just a few words and expand them across an entire song. At over seven minutes, the song’s few lyrics are constantly repeated but the song never drags; the simple repetition is quite powerful.

The Clarity set ended beautifully with eight minutes of “Goodbye Sky Harbor”. The band departed briefly, returning to perform an encore that consisted of b-sides from the Clarity era and more recent singles. The setlist, in its entirety:

Table for Glasses
Lucky Denver Mint
Your New Aesthetic
Believe in What You Want
A Sunday
Crush
12/23/95
Ten
Just Watch the Fireworks
For Me This is Heaven
Clarity
Blister
Goodbye Sky Harbor
What Would I Say to You Now
No Sensitivity
Work
Pain
The Middle
Sweetness

Surprisingly, nothing from the band’s latest album, Chase this Light, was performed during the encore, but hits like “The Middle” captured the entire crowd. Though billed as a Clarity tour, much of the crowd still knew little from the album aside from warmly-received singles “Lucky Denver  Mint” and “Blister”, with sing-alongs eventually engaging even the casual Jimmy Eat World fan who was experiencing the album for the first time. The band departed with “Sweetness”–a song that dates back to the Clarity-era, despite not seeing an official release until 2001–a defining Jimmy Eat World song that exemplifies their ability to write big choruses.

Executing close to perfection for an hour and a half, Jimmy Eat World showcased why they are one of the strongest pop-rock bands of the last decade. The tour’s last stop in Arizona will be released as a live album on April 7; if you missed this tour, do not hesitate to pick it up and experience Jimmy Eat World at one of their finest hours.

I arrived on Saturday around noon to check out the first day of The Bamboozle, heading to the 5 Gum side stage to check out Long Island’s The Sleeping. A post-hardcore act that I’ve caught at Bamboozle in the past, the band performed with Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row), playing a solid set featuring some of Bach’s material in addition to The Sleeping staples such as “If Your Heart Was Broken”. Though later in the evening after fatigue set in I’d chill out to some pop-rock acts, The Sleeping were a great way to kick off the weekend with a crowd that was certainly ready to dance. The band sounded tight; guitarist Cameron Keym’s metal-inspired licks were sharper than ever, and vocalist Douglas Robinson captured the crowd.

Story of the Year were next on my list at 2PM, so I ventured to the Asbury Park main stage. Let it be known that the sound, for both Day One and Day Two, was terrible on the Asbury Park stage–unfortunate because about half of the bands I saw during the weekend set up on that stage. As I’m not a professional audio engineer, I’m not exactly sure what the problem was but the sound was never consistent: bass was either muddy or non-existent, and microphones never maintained the same volume, often cutting out nearly entirely for seconds at a time.

Despite common sound issues that would plague nearly twenty bands on that stage, Story of the Year sounded excellent for the duration of their set. It’s been some time since i caught the band on tour, but their live show had always been their strongest point; it’s great to see they’ve only improved over time. Their set:

And the Hero Will Drown
The Antidote
Anthem of Our Dying Day
Wake Up
In the Shadows
Until the Day I Die
Is This My Fate? He Asked Them

Over half of their set came from their debut Page Avenue, but the band unfortunately included two of their lesser songs from that release in “Anthem of Our Dying Day” and “Under the Day I Die” but did include two of the strongest, opener “And the Hero Will Drown” and “In the Shadows”. The new songs from The Black Swan (“The Antidote”, “Wake Up”) sounded promising, so I’ll need to check out that album soon.

New Jersey ska-stalwarts Streetlight Manifesto were up next on the opposite main stage (which suffered from none of Asbury Park stage’s sound issues). The band played extremely well, with a large selection of songs coming from Somewhere in the Between. The band pleased the crowd with “Dear Sergio”, a song that engaged many people listening who were familiar with Catch 22′s Keasbey Nights but not necassrily Streetlight Manifesto.

At 3:30PM on the Nokia Ticket Rush stage, Vinnie Caruana played a set entirely of The Movielife songs with Set Your Goals as his backing band. Though he stated numerous times throughout the set that “this [wasn't] The Movielife”, you’d be hard pressed to find a single person in the crowd who was concerned with that fact. Vinnie sang like the band hadn’t broken up five years ago, with dead-on delivery of songs nearly a decade old. Set Your Goals’s (a band I wanted to see as well but passed up on to see Saves the Day) guitarists, bassist, and drummer covered each song with precision. Cuts included “Hand Grenade”, “Pinky Swear”, “Hey”, and “Face or Kneecaps” before the near-obligatory closer, “Jamestown”. Vinnie constantly thanked the crowd for giving him the chance to play these songs, but it was really the crowd constantly thanking him for resurrecting the songs of an incredible punk-pop band.

Dressed as cops and coming out to Inner Circle’s “Bad Boys” on the PA, Less Than Jake took the Asbury Park stage at 4PM, opening with “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads”. My first time catching the band live, I was quite impressed with how tight the band sounded. I’m not a huge fan of the band (perhaps getting into them late into their career), but I respect their contributions to the genre and their live show convinced me to give them some more attention. Their full set:

All My Best Friends Are Metalheads
Last One Out Of Liberty City
Overrated
Gainseville Rock City
Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts
Great American Sharp Shooter
Ghosts Of You And Me
Science Of Selling Yourself Short
Look What Happened

I took an hour break between 4:30 and 5:30 to check out various tents and merchandise, picking up a great Refused Shirts For a Cure tee. SFaC is a great project; all proceeds go to the Syrentha J. Savio Endowment. The SSE provides financial assistance to underprivileged women who cannot afford expensive breast cancer medicine and therapy; there are a lot of shirt designs, I urge you to see if your favorite band is there and to pick one up for just $12.

I caught a little bit of theAUDITION and Bless the Fall, two bands I didn’t have much interest in checking out but stayed at for a little bit while talking to some friends. Chiodos played at 5:50 on the Asbury Park stage, my next destination. The band played a balanced mix between their two full-length albums; they sounded decent, and the crowd was explosive the entire time. The full setlist:

The Undertakers Thirst For Revenge Is Unquenchable (The Final Battle)
There’s No Penguins In Alaska
Baby, You Wouldn’t Last A Minute On The Creek
Teeth The Size Of Piano Keys
Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered
The Words ‘Best Friend’ Become Refined
Is It Progression If A Cannibal Uses A Fork

I rushed over to the opposing NowWhat mainstage before Chiodos was finished to catch New Jersey locals Saves the Day, who opened up with Stay What You Are‘s “See You”. Chris Conley sounded tremendous: his voice was not only crisp and clear, but he sounded confident and in control of the crowd the entire time. When told the band had time for only one more song (the main stage times were getting increasingly backed up), he asked the crowd to pick between “Ups and Downs” and “Firefly”–”Firefly” apparently was the first thing he heard and played both that and then “At Your Funeral”, upping the count of songs from their 2001 LP to three. The full set:

See You
The End
Anywhere With You
You Vandal
Can’t Stay The Same
Head For The Hills
Shoulder To The Wheel
Firefly
At Your Funeral

It would have been nice to hear “Ups and Downs”, one of my favorite Saves the Day songs, but the band still played a great set nonetheless. The band has too much material to get picky about songs not played, especially when they picked nine great tracks anyway.

Jack’s Mannequin, another casualty of the Asbury Park stage, was next at 6:50; they didn’t start immediately after Saves the Day, so I managed to make it across the parking lot in time to get close to the stage before the band started. “Dark Blue”, with part of the extended introduction, kicked off the setlist which included a song from the upcoming The Glass Passenger (which certainly sounds promising — I was worried after a slew of less-than-stellar post-Everything in Transit tracks) and a cover from Something Corporate’s North. The set:

Dark Blue
Holiday from Real
The Mixed Tape
Suicide Blonde
Bruised
Kill the Messenger
La La Lie
Me and the Moon (Something Corporate cover)
MFEO

The band played well, but their sound was somewhat marred by the stage. Before “Kill the Messenger”, frontman Andrew McMahon commented on the weather; during the song (which features the lyrics “I’m going to send a little rain your way”) the misty rain slowly picked up. Even taking into account projection, the song had never felt so real or so powerful. Aside from the lack of staple “I’m Ready”, I don’t think I could have asked for a better setlist. “MFEO” is an incredible track that stands on its own, but it really works perfectly for closing a set, especially outdoors in the rain, in the parking lot.

Paramore played the Asbury Park stage at 8PM; almost immediately it was obvious just how poor the stage’s sound actually was, as one of the tightest pop-rock acts in the scene today suddenly sounded sloppy and uninteresting. The band kicked off with Riot!‘s “Let the Flames Begin”, following it with All We Know is Falling single “Emergency”. Either during that track or during “Stop This Song (Lovesick Melody)”, a b-side from the Riot! sessions, the stage’s sound started to click back together and the band sounded incredible for the rest of their set, which was, in its entirety:

Let the Flames Begin
Emergency
Stop This Song (Lovesick Melody)
Here We Go Again
That’s What You Get
Pressure
For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic
crushcrushcrush
Woah
Misery Business

“Here We Go Again” was sans the At The Drive-In mini-cover, instead segueing flawlessly into “That’s What You Get”. Much like an hour ago watching Jack’s Mannequin amongst teenage girls barely (if at all?) old enough to drive, I felt out of place singing along to every word, but it’s always refreshing to catch other guys mouthing the words: this is great pop music, and I’m glad that these young teens are growing up on true pop-rock, not manufactured radio garbage or Britney Spears-esq bubblegum, even if the band is dominating the radio with songs such as “Misery Business”, the set’s closer.

During the aforementioned hit single, I walked out of the crowd to get to Jimmy Eat World, an act I’m almost embarrassed to admit I had never seen live. The band’s performance was unparalleled by any other act all day, and their forty-five minute setlist was incredible:

Big Casino
Sweetness
Work
Always Be
Crush
Here It Goes
A Praise Chorus
Let It Happen
Dizzy
Bleed American
Pain
The Middle

The rain was a constant mist during their performance; it was a little chilly, but incredibly relaxing. There’s not much to be said about the band’s performance other than that their live sound is a near perfect recreation of their studio albums, from the guitar subtleties to the incredible harmonies.

Snoop Dogg closed Day One, coming on around 9:30. I was a little further back than normal (near the soundboard) for his set, but he still sounded pretty good. I had never seen him live, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but he managed to hold my attention for some time. I left midway through his set to get to a party, but his full set was:

Murder Was The Case
P.I.M.P. (Remix)
Who Am I? (What’s My Name)
That’s That Shit
Gin And Juice
Lodi Dodi
Woof!
I Wanna Fuck You
Snoop’s Upside Ya Head
Beautiful
Nuthin’ But A G Thang
Ain’t No Fun
Deeez Nuuuts
Notorious DPG
Snoop Dogg
My Medicine
Sexual Eruption
Drop It Like It’s Hot

The entire day was great, as I got to see some older bands for the first time live in addition to seeing some of my favorites once again. The weather was great: I’d prefer chilly and rainy to blistering heat and humidity any day. Moreover, cell phone service actually worked, which allowed me to meet up with friends throughout the day. There was room for improvement though: I couldn’t find any time cards (something usually handed out when you walk in), and, to beat a dead horse, the Asbury Park stage sounded terrible. Scheduling was pretty solid: Set Your Goals and Men Women & Children were the only two bands I missed due to conflicting times.

If anyone has any corrections/updates to the setlists I posted (which should be accurate, but there’s always room for error), please post them in the comments.