The Postelles

Supporting their self-titled debut, The Postelles opened the evening at 7PM in front of a hometown crowd. With bright, crunchy guitars and fine-tuned percussion, the quartet was immediately accessible. Songs like “Boy’s Best Friend” — an unplanned request from a rabid group of fans in the front row — epitomize the band’s lyrical content (“On the first night that I met her, I could tell she was my type / Then, she told me that she’d kissed the lips of girls I’d liked / Well I think I know now why she would go”), drawing immediate and favorable comparisons to bands like Plain White T’s. A surprising number of fans sang along to frontman Daniel Balk’s every word, with recent single “White Night” drawing the biggest response from the crowd. The hook-laden “Can’t Stand Still” wrapped up the band’s thirty-minute set.

Looking Glass
She She
123 Stop
Hey Little Sister
[new song]
Stella
Boy’s Best Friend
White Night
Can’t Stand Still

Steel Train

Steel Train walked on stage to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”, beginning their set with the first two tracks on their latest full-length, “Bullet” and “Turnpike Ghost”, back-to-back. Trampoline lead-off “I Feel Weird” followed, the five-piece settling into a solid rhythm. Full of enthusiasm and emotion, frontman Jack Antonoff engaged the crowd with his passionate vocals and exaggerated guitar motions. The New Jersey natives clicked for their entire forty-five minutes on stage.

“Kill Monsters in the Rain” featured The Postelles’s Daniel Balk, and “Firecracker” added Antonoff’s father on guitar, but it was all five members of Steel Train huddled around one microphone for “Road Song” that found the band at their best. “It’s Fun to Dance”, was, well, fun to dance to, and the entire Webster Hall crowd jumped along to the Yo Gabba Gabba tune. Following a sloppy Tom Petty cover, Steel Train ended their ten-song set with a fantastic performance of “SOG Burning in Hell”.

Bullet
Turnpike Ghost
I Feel Weird
Kill Monsters in the Rain
You Are Dangerous
It’s Fun to Dance
Firecracker
Road Song
American Girl (Tom Petty cover)
SOG Burning in Hell

fun.

fun. began with Aim and Ignite opener “Be Calm”, one of the band’s finer songs that is often neglected in live performances. “Walking the Dog” followed, frontman Nate Ruess delivering his trademark vocals over a simple melody backed by clever drumming and tremendous singalongs. Soaring harmonies kicked off the underplayed “Benson Hedges”, with the entire fun. camp contributing to the song’s opening lines: “Holy ghosts, when do you come out to play? / ‘Cause if the Lord is gonna find me, He’d better start looking today”.

fun.

The lighthearted “Roman Candle” went next, Andrew Dost laying the foundation with a cute piano riff that slowly evolved into a full band take on the minor scale tune. Some banter with the crowd lead to guitarist Jack Antonoff playing bits of Rage Against the Machine, the entire band laughing along to “Sleep Now in the Fire”.

fun.

“All the Pretty Girls” was predictably incredible, the six-piece showcasing nearly all of their moving parts in one song including clever percussion, harmonies, and handclaps. “Dog Problems”, from Ruess’s previous band, The Format, was fantastic, but it was “Barlights” that had Ruess delivering his most emotional vocals this evening: “I’m gonna live forever! I’m gonna live forever!”

fun.

Silencing any doubt that the band pays constant tribute to Queen, fun. unleashed a solid cover of the 1984 favorite “Radio Gaga”. Trading vocals with multi-instrumentalist Emily Moore, Ruess was all smiles during the bouncy “At Least I’m Not as Sad”. fun.’s encore began with the band and audience alike popping enormous balloons that showered the venue. After a few failed attempts (pesky balloons!) at actually jumping into “The Gambler”, fun. dedicated the song to Antonoff’s parents and performed a beautiful rendition of the song.

fun.

“Take Your Time” concluded fun.’s time on stage, literally — Ruess, Dost, and Antonoff leapt into the crowd during the song’s final moments, thanking everyone for selling out the band’s biggest show to date.

Be Calm
Walking the Dog
Benson Hedges
Roman Candle
I Wanna Be the One
All the Pretty Girls
Dog Problems (The Format cover)
Barlights
Radio Gaga (Queen cover)
At Least I’m Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)
The Gambler
Take Your Time (Coming Home)

fun.

Opening acts The Postelles and Steel Train added to the night’s value, each unleashing solid setlists that likely drew in many new fans. With a followup to Aim and Ignite coming next year, the Webster Hall date on fun.’s fall tour offered the perfect sendoff to their incredible debut.

Jarrod Gorbel

Jarrod Gorbel, former singer/songwriter of The Honorary Title, started the evening off. Joined by a female violinist who also contributed backing harmonies, Gorbel sounded excellent. Supporting his latest release, Devil’s Made A New Friend, Gorbel stuck primarily to that Burning House Records release. Gorbel concluded his set at 9:30 with “I’ll Do Better”.

Steel Train

Steel Train began just before 10PM, walking out to Dropkick Murphys’s now-famous “Shipping Up to Boston” blasting through the venue’s PA. Trampoline‘s “I Feel Weird” went first, the quintet exploding out of the gates with unrestrained energy.”Turnpike Ghost”, from the band’s self-released, self-titled 2010 effort followed, with some of the crowd reacting to the album’s first single. More from Steel Train followed (“Bullet” and “You Are Dangerous”), the band using the non-headliner opportunity to play much of their new album.

Steel Train

Frontman Jack Antonoff spent most of the set running around the stage and engaging the barrier-free crowd in singing along. For 2007′s “Firecracker”, Antonoff’s father joined the band on guitar and backing vocals, the rest of Steel Train embracing the aged (but still rocking) father in the process. Indeed, the band seems to thrive on their friendships: all five members of the band joined together, arms in each others’ arms, to sing “Road Song” with just Antonoff on clean guitar. An exciting (though somewhat sloppy) cover of “American Girl” was enjoyable, and the band closed their forty minute set with a tight performance of “SOG Burning Hell”.

I Feel Weird
Turnpike Ghost
Bullet
You Are Dangerous
Alone on the Sea
Firecracker
Road song
American Girl (Tom Petty cover)
SOG Burning Hell

fun.

Following a brief set change, fun. began with “Walking the Dog”, frontman Nate Ruess singing to a rabid audience echoing his every word.  Andrew Dost lead “I Wanna Be the One” with its recognizable piano parts, but it was Ruess who brought the song to life with his passionate vocals. Steel Train’s Jack Antonoff, who is also one of three official fun. members,  took “Light a Roman Candle” to new heights with extra-heavy guitars midway through the song, providing dynamics to a normally-straightforward pop song.

fun.

“All the Pretty Girls” was without its standard multiple-harmony live intro, but the song remained backed by the lovely Emily Moore’s acoustic guitar, just one of a number of her contributions to the set throughout the evening. Without question,  fun.’s live show succeeds largely due to the members’ various musical talents; pianist Dost, for example, contributed brass instrumentation to “Barlights”. For a tremendous cover of The Format’s “Dog Problems”, Dost added trumpet parts while Antonoff switched to piano — the band’s members never limiting their roles to just one instrument.

fun.

fun. used the second night of their two-month tour to debut a brand new, electric sign sitting behind the drummer. Flashing the band’s name in various colors throughout the set, the “fun sign” also sparked a lengthy banter about Lit, including the band indulging in a brief cover of “My Own Worst Enemy”. The band also promoted the re-release of Aim and Ignite by playing “Stitch Me Up”, a bonus track included on the album’s new Fueled by Ramen pressing.

fun.

A touching rendition of “The Gambler” was dedicated to Ruess’s sister and performed by just fun.’s core members (Ruess, Dost, and Antonoff). To break the set’s somber mood, the rest of the band returned for “What the Fuck”, a brand new song that sounded absolutely terrific. The song’s disjointed song structure and jarring, brash instrumentals offered a new side to fun.’s indie-pop antics.

fun.

The song seemed to spark some more banter between Ruess and Antonoff, the two recently living together at Antonoff’s parents’ house in New York. As Antonoff explained, Ruess would often steal top-shelf liquor from his room for the purpose of binge-drinking. Besides the obvious tensions arising from stealing a friend’s alcohol, Antonoff was equally discontent with wasting expensive liquor for the sole purpose of getting drunk. Ruess summed up the situation as follows: “Jack likes to buy expensive scotch, and I like to say fuck it to expensive scotch.”

fun.

Clearly best friends, Antonoff and Ruess argued about the latter’s habits of getting drunk and watching birds from the porch using a pair of far-too-expensive binoculars; this continued for some time until the band finally kicked into a solid take of “At Least I’m Not as Sad”. The lengthy “Take Your Time” appeared to conclude fun.’s set, but the band returned to cover The Rolling Stones’s “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” with additional keys provided by Steel Train’s Daniel Silbert.

Walking the Dog
I Wanna Be the One
Light a Romance Candle
All the Pretty Girls
Stitch Me Up
Barlights
Dog Problems (The Format cover)
The Gambler
What the Fuck
At Least I’m Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)
Take Your Time (Coming Home)
You Can’t Always Get What You Want (The Rolling Stones cover)

fun.

The lineup of Jarrod Gorbel, Steel Train, and fun. is one of the fall’s best touring packages. fun.’s hour-long setlist omitted just two cuts (“Benson Hedges” and “Be Calm”) from Aim and Ignite, but those songs will likely appear in band’s set on the tour’s regularly scheduled dates; the three acts return to New York City in November to perform at the much larger Webster Hall. Don’t miss the absolutely phenomenal fun.

All the Day Holiday

All the Day Holiday kicked things off just after noon with selections from The Things We’ve Grown to Love, the band’s stellar debut full-length released on Linc Star Records last year. Opening with the airy “Cheers (You Still Love Me)”, the four-piece explored intricate and spacious melodies but remained grounded by the rock-solid percussion of drummer Mark Ventura. The band’s soaring vocals were provided only by rhythm guitarist Daniel Simmons, who managed to sound not only pitch-perfect throughout the set but also enormous — it’s hard to believe no one else is contributing backing harmonies. “Cities” closed the band’s excellent set, and before the clock even struck 1PM the bar was already set high for remaining bands.

Cheers (You Still Love Me)
Autumn
Real Time
Greener
2000 Winters
Cities

Steel Train

New Jersey natives Steel Train took the Skate and Surf Stage next, though it was unfortunately difficult to hear the band for most of the set, making normally-solid songs such as “Firecrackers” and “Kill Monsters in the Rain” a chore to listen to. Even a cover of “Dancing in the Dark”, which should have been a great moment being performed right outside Giants Stadium (the de facto home of Bruce Springsteen) was tough to get into. The band closed with a brand new song from their upcoming album and failed to connect with the crowd during their thirty minute set.

(Unidentified song)
Turnpike Ghost
Firecrackers
Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Alone on the Sea
Kill Monsters in the Rain
(New song)

fun.

Following Steel Train’s set, frontman Jack Antonoff raced to the Sony Stage to perform with his other band, fun. The six-piece began with “Walking the Dog” but didn’t fall into rhythm until their second song, “I Wanna Be the One”. Excellent harmonies anchored pop-masterpiece “All the Pretty Girls”; “Barlights” had the crowd singing along to the band’s bouncy beats. Frontman Nate Ruess gave one of the best performances of the entire weekend, but the band inexplicably cut their set short and closed with “At Least I’m Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)”.

Walking the Dog
I Wanna Be the One
All the Pretty Girls
Barlights
At Least I’m Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)

MC Chris

While taking a break from the excessive heat, I caught geek-rapper MC Chris on the Zumiez South Stage. Aside from plugs about his association to Aqua Teen Hunger Force, MC Chris’s set included cuts across his decade-spanning discography including “Drinkin’ Blunts”, “Wiid is By My Side”, “Nrrrd Grrrl”, “006″, and “Fette’s Vette”. Certainly not an act to take seriously, the performance would have been much more enjoyable if the geek-rapper didn’t rely so heavily on sampling throughout his set — it wasn’t just choruses, even verses were piped in with MC Chris just rapping along with himself on tape.

Polar Bear Club

Upstate New York’s Polar Bear Club played at 2:45 on the side stage to a fairly small crowd. Frontman Jimmy Stadt poured his heart into the set, which drew across both of their full-length albums but focused primarily on Chasing Hamburg, the band’s sophomore effort released by Bridge Nine Records in 2009. Songs like “Another Night in the Rock”, “Boxes”, “Election Day”, and “Burned Out in a Jar” showcased the band’s blend of melodic hardcore and post-hardcore rock. “Living Saints”, the band’s latest single, finished Polar Bear Club’s enjoyable set.

Good Old War

Good Old War played next on the Zumiez North Stage, opening with “Window” from their 2008 debut, Only Way To Be Alone. “Weak Man” was well-performed, and “Breaking Down”, a rare cut found on a split with Cast Spells, was an interesting surprise. “Coney Island”, the band’s very first single, received deservedly roaring applause. Anchored by the band members’ excellent voices and complementing harmonies, Good Old War somehow manages to sound even better in a live environment than they do on their excellent studio output.

Good Old War

Guitarist Dan Schwartz switched between an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar throughout the set; Tim Arnold’s keys and additional guitar fleshed out the surprisingly big sound the Philadelphia three-piece creates. Good Old War’s self-titled album, for sale in June, contributed three songs to the band’s solid eight-song setlist, including “My Own Sinking Ship”, which featured drummer Tim Arnold stepping out from behind the kit and playing accordion.

Window
Weak Man
Breaking Down
I Should Go
Looking for Shelter
Here Are the Problems
Coney Island
My Own Sinking Ship

Minus the Bear

Minus the Bear took the stage at 4:40PM, beginning with two cuts from 2007′s Planet of Ice: “Knights” and “Throwin’ Shapes”. “Pachuca Sunrise” was enjoyable, and Omni lead single “My Time” sounded great. Indeed, the Seattle five-piece sounded crisp and experienced during their seven-song setlist. Unfortunately, though, song selection left much to be desired with new, unreleased (and largely unheard) songs taking up about half of the band’s set time. Thankfully, the band dug back to their debut full-length (the exciting Highly Refined Pirates) to close their set with “Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse”.

Knights
Throwin’ Shapes
Into the Mirror
Pachuca Sunrise
Hold Me Down
My Time
Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse

Motion City Soundtrack

Motion City Soundtrack‘s set began as it has since the release of the excellent My Dinosaur Life, with Justin Pierre reciting the album’s first lines: “It’s been a good year, a good new beginning / I’m through with the old school, so let’s commence the winning / I’ve been a good little worker bee / I deserve a gold star”, but on drummer Tony Thaxton’s cue the band quickly abandoned “Worker Bee” and cut straight into I am the Movie‘s “The Future Freaks Me Out”. The crowd was hardly phased by the transition and was actually quite ready to sing along to every word of the old favorite. “My Favorite Accident”, another song from the band’s quirky 2002 debut, quickly followed and Pierre had the crowd in his palm.

Motion City Soundtrack

Current-single “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” briefly slowed things down, but the song’s infectious chorus soon had the crowd bouncing around once again. Even at the band’s weakest moments — Even if it Kills Me cuts “This is for Real” and “Broken Heart” — Motion City Soundtrack still outperformed most of the day’s acts. At their best, such as on Commit This to Memory tracks “Attractive Today” and set-closer “Everything is Alright”, Motion City Soundtrack is punk-pop perfection.

Motion City Soundtrack

The Minnesota six-piece’s Moog-powered set flew by, even though the band performed for thirty-five minutes across ten songs. It was good to see newer songs like “A Lifeless Ordinary (Need a Little Help)” and “Disappear” making the cut, even if it meant pushing out former festival staples such as “Throwdown” and “Capital H”. Pierre was clearly losing his voice by the penultimate “L.G. Fuad”, but the band’s intimate connection with the crowd carried Motion City Soundtrack to the finish line.

The Future Freaks Me Out
My Favorite Accident
Her Words Destroyed My Planet
This is for Real
Attractive Today
A Lifeless Ordinary (Need a Little Help)
Broken Heart
Disappear
L.G. Fuad
Everything Is Alright

Mutemath

Louisiana’s Mutemath began with drummer Darren King duct-taping headphone monitors to his head, allowing him go rock out as hard as he wanted while still hearing the foldback. The tactic proved not to be strictly theatrical — on “The Nerve”, the first song from their latest effort, Armistice, King flailed around on the kit and barely kept the adhered headset in place. The album’s title track followed before Mutemath played a lengthy instrumental, “Reset”, from the band’s debut EP of that same name.

Mutemath

A plethora of instruments found their way into frontman Paul Meany’s hands, including a keytar and a homemade device known only as “The Atari”. Singles “Typical” and “Spotlight” were the biggest crowd pleasers, and the band wrapped things up with a fairly lengthy rendition of “Break the Same”.

The Nerve
Armistice
Reset
Typical
Spotlight
Break the Same

Piebald

To promote a series of reissues, Piebald reunited for Bamboozle to play all of their 2002 full-length, We Are the Only Friends We Have, unquestionably the band’s strongest album. “King of the Road” started the nostalgic trip down memory lane with frontman Travis Shettel recounting the band’s status circa 2002: “Andy went back to school, he got sick of Newbury Comics / Aaron still rides a lot, except now he’s just fatter / Alex took over for Alex Van Halen, after his major surgery / Jon, well, he got married to Laura and I teach their kid in first grade”. And with those opening lines Piebald was off to the races, attempting to fit the entire album into a brief time slot on the Zumiez North Stage.

Piebald

Spoiler alert, Piebald rolled through everything but “It’s Going to Get Worse Before it Gets Better” in front of an audience almost exclusively filled with fans old enough to legally consume alcohol — the first and only time such a crowd would assemble all weekend. Everyone pushed to the front for a chance to share the microphone on fan-favorites like “Just a Simple Plan” and “American Hearts”; The Hope Conspiracy’s Jim Carroll filled in on guitar for part of the set, allowing Shettel to leap into the crowd as necessary.

Piebald

By the time album-closer “Sex Sells and (Unfortunately) I’m Buying” ended, two things became readily apparent. It was obvious that Piebald was a fun, personal band that can put on an extremely high-energy and engaging performance. However, it was also clear that Piebald never again approached the high bar set with We Are the Only Friends We Have during the remainder of their career. This made the one-off Bamboozle set even sweeter: a great live band performing only their greatest material.

King of the Road
Just a Simple Plan
American Hearts
Long Nights
Fear and Loathing on Cape Cod
The Monkey Versus the Robot
Karate Chops for Everyone But Us
Rich People Can Breed
The Stalker
Look, I Just Don’t Like You
Sex Sells and (Unfortunately) I’m Buying

Kevin Devine

Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band had the difficult task of following Piebald. “Cotton Crush” started things off on the right foot, and “Just Stay” finds Devine at his best, but the noisy noodling on tracks from his latest effort, Brother’s Blood, is just self-indulgent and largely unenjoyable. “Carnival” is too long, too unguided; “Another Bag of Bones” and “Brother’s Blood” would have been great in a more focused, even acoustic, attack. Devine routinely leaves his backing band behind, it’s unfortunate that this was not the case at Bamboozle: the singer-songwriter is one of the genre’s best, and he is a much better live act alone with his just his guitar.

Cotton Crush
I Could Be with Anyone
Carnival
Another Bag of Bones
Just Stay
Brother’s Blood

Girl Talk

On the opposite end of the parking lot, mashup artist Gregg Gillis — Girl Talk — was throwing a massive dance party. Seamlessly combining classic rock and modern pop hits, Girl Talk had the entire Sony Stage singing and dancing for forty minutes. Not content with spinning just his records, Girl Talk’s live show is a mash of the familiar tunes found on his albums and also a ton of other radio favorites. Girl Talk executes like a veteran DJ, feeling the crowd and adjusting the mixes appropriately, all while inviting dozens of fans on stage with him to dance along and, interestingly, to fire toilet paper into the crowd. Pool toys and other inflatable devices were launched into the audience near the set’s end, and, after forty minutes of nonstop dancing, grinding, and crowd-surfing, the general consensus was exhaustion — and a desire for much, much more.

Weezer

Following a set by MGMT, Weezer closed out the Bamboozle weekend. The hard-hitting “Hash Pipe” went first, followed by the comedic yet ridiculously catchy “Troublemaker”. Frontman Rivers Cuomo was genuinely entertaining through the entire set, even running through the crowd and high-fiving fans before climbing up the soundtent rafters behind the crowd. Weezer’s world-wide tour experience shows: the band understands how to make going to a concert a truly enjoyable experience.

Weezer

Two cuts from the band’s masterpiece, 1994′s “blue album”, went back to back: surprise radio-hit “Undone – The Sweater Song” received adlibbed interludes; “Surf Wax America” is an an absolute blast in a live environment. When the band moved into their newer material they did so with grace, selecting only the strongest cuts such as “Let It All Hang Out”. While the band’s newer material is not quite up to the standards set with albums like Pinkerton, it is quite enjoyable in concert.

Weezer

“Dope Nose”, from the criminally under-appreciated Maladroit, was an awesome surprise; bassist Scott Shriner provided lead vocals on the rare cut. “Why Bother?”, another rare song, also made the setlist with guitarist Brian Bell singing instead of Cuomo. “Say It Ain’t So” was absolutely massive and received an enormous applause from the crowd. “Can’t Stop Partying” wonderfully mocked the current auto-tune/dance genre. “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” is the best song Weezer has written in five years and was one of the night’s highlights.

Weezer

Things wrapped up with a great performance of “My Name is Jonas” and a crowd singalong to “Beverly Hills”. The band returned for their first encore with riffs of Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher”, and “Pork and Beans” was solid, but a shaky cover of MGMT’s “Kids” (with parts of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”) dented an otherwise top-notch set. MGMT had just performed the song an hour earlier — did it need another treatment?

Weezer

The second encore began with Cuomo looping parts of “Island in the Sun” together and performing the song — drum, bass, and guitars included — by himself until the chorus. It’s definitely a strange way to perform the song, but it offered the crowd a different take on a decade-old song. Weezer closed the set properly by reaching back into their 1994 debut and tearing through “Buddy Holly”.

Hash Pipe
Troublemaker
Undone – The Sweater Song
Surf Wax America
Let It All Hang Out
Perfect Situation
Dope Nose
Say It Ain’t So
Can’t Stop Partying
Why Bother?
(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
My Name is Jonas
Beverly Hills
Pork and Beans
Kids (MGMT cover)
Island in the Sun
Buddy Holly

Weezer finished the Bamboozle festival on a high note, leaving everyone excited for the possibilities of next year’s lineup. A reunion set from Piebald in addition to superb sets from Motion City Soundtrack,  Good Old War, All the Day Holiday, and Girl Talk were great parts of the day. I unfortunately missed MGMT, The Dear Hunter, and Moving Mountains — evidence of the number of quality bands playing Sunday afternoon. As the parking lot emptied, it was evident that it is hard to find a better two-day experience on the east coast for contemporary punk and indie influenced rock and roll.

All photographs by the excellent Dan Gonyea.

With the poor weather, I arrived late and regrettably missed Reubens Accomplice and most of Limbeck’s set. Fortunately, I did catch Steel Train, a band I’ve never taken much interest in. Ignorantly, I wrote them off as one of the countless generic, uninspired Drive-Thru Records bands that seem to plague the Garden State. Tonight, however, I caught the band live and am ready to give this band a solid listen after a stellar live performance. Songs included “Firecracker” and “Kill Monsters In The Rain”, though I’m not too familiar with their catalog to document exactly what they played. Setting the bar extremely high, however, I was ready to see how Piebald would stack up.

There’s something to be said about Piebald, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what words describe the act from Andover, Massachusetts (though I’m going to rely heavily here on using their standout track, 2000′s “American Hearts” as a focal point). With hardcore origins that progressed into emocore/indie, Piebald became a band that appealed to a wide variety of people–notably outside the mainstream, however, until the aforementioned single saw some airplay on MTV (the song’s line “[America] has broken my American heart” was inspiration for California’s No Way Out changing their name to My American Heart).

Still, the band saw no mainstream success and just a few days before this stop on the tour, Piebald announced they would be breaking up by the end of the month and that their final dates in August would be the band’s last. It’s not surprising that on a night filled with pop acts, very few in the crowd would appreciate the band’s final tour–Piebald never appealed to the casual listener, despite being heavily respected in underground music.

Tonight, however, Piebald performed an excellent farewell set (though making no mention of their breakup the entire evening), easily outperforming the opening acts and even headliners The Format, who always play an excellent set. The band played a nice selection of old and new, and the few Piebald fans in attendance certainly helped liven the crowd up during the band’s harder songs. During their set (and most notably “American Hearts”) the band poured their entire souls into the music and showcased exactly what is missing from the modern punk-pop/emocore scene: heart. Many similar punk-pop and pop-rock acts are now seeing heavy MTV play, but they’re missing Piebald’s American Heart.

The Format brought great supporting acts and certainly had their work cut out for them taking the stage as the final band of the evening, but the Arizona natives are known for their tremendous live show. Sadly, the band’s song selection suffered: eight tracks from Dog Problems were played, but the band missed out on four of the album’s key songs in “Matches”, “I’m Actual”, “Time Bomb”, and “If Work Permits”. This is unfortunate, since the band selected some of the weaker cuts from Dog Problems instead and chose many from their far inferior debut, Interventions and Lullabies. The full set:

Pick Me Up
The First Single
Wait, Wait, Wait
Give It Up
Oceans
Dog Problems
Tune Out
Dead End
Janet
On Your Porch
Tie The Rope
The Compromise
Inches and Falling
I’m Ready, I Am
Snails
She Doesn’t Get It

“Inches and Falling” was a last minute addition, inspired by a fight the band had to interrupt midway through their set. Acknowledging themselves as “weak pussy pop music”, the band belittled two kids in the crowd who decided moshing through “Oceans” was a good idea.

The Format perform their songs perfectly: they actually sing in key and don’t get sloppy with their instruments. Poor song selection aside (it really does hurt to see the first quarter of Dog Problems missing entirely and replaced with average tracks from Interventions and Lullabies), the band put on an excellent performance and showcased why they are such a respected pop / pop-rock act. Highlights of the night included “The Compromise” and “The First Single”, crowd-pleasers that got the audience dancing. Title track “Dog Problems” is clearly one of the band’s finest achievements, and the band certainly did justice live to the Queen-sounding song.

It’s easy to recommend this tour with an amazing act like The Format headlining, but with Piebald’s farewell and solid openers like Limbeck and Steel Train, this is a must-see summer tour to close out August. Goodbye Piebald, you will be missed.