Hands Down: Amazing Performance
I was freezing! I couldn't feel my fingers through my sweater sleeves, I couldn't feel my toes & I couldn't feel my face. But that didn't matter. I was standing in line for the band that truly introduced me to music in a way that no other band could have. I was standing in line for a band that opened up my eyes & ears to raw emotion in music, to truly feeling and understanding what I was listening to.
I was in line to see Dashboard Confessional.
You see, I first heard Dashboard from a grade 12 student on a schoolbus. He told me that "I probably wouldn't like it, no one else really likes it ... but it's worth listening too."
I took the earphones from him, set them over my ears, pressed play on the Discman (yes, this was almost 5 years ago) and listened as Saints & Sailors by Dashboard Confessional played through my head. It was amazing ... the way Chris belted out his lyrics as if he needed, as if he just HAD TO get his emotions and message across, as if it is the only thing he was meant to do in life, to express himself. The passion was amazing. There has not been another band to replace them in the last 5 years.
Sure ... I like other bands, I love other bands, but there's a spot in my heart for the band that opened up my musical eyes and ears to the possibilites of what can be expressed through music.
The concert was held at Arrow Hall in Mississauga. If you have never been there, the venue is not the most picturesque venue for an intimate Dashboard Confessional concert ... ... mainly because it perfectly resembles a huge airplane hangar, obsolete of any emotion. And, after seeing Dashboard Confessional's MTV Live DVD, it's hard to imagine a concert of theirs being held in a large concrete and metal room. Oh well.
Opening for Dashboard were New Yawwwk natives, Brand New. I like Brand New, they know how to play music and the main singer knows how to use his voice to truly express the emotion the song is supposed to express. Changing tones and pitches, singing beautifully, screaming, wailing, hitting high notes no one should hit, he does it all ... and it matches his music perfectly because the emotion and the message are expressed.
Brand New, aside from their excellent music, knows how to put on a good show. From running across the stage in a full sprint (while playing the guitar) to jumping off the bass drum and doing 360's (while playing the guitar) to laying on the ground (while singing and playing the guitar), they do it all. The most unique note of the night for Brand New was the singing into the pickups of his guitar. The main singer unstrapped his guitar, held the pickups to his mouth (the part of the guitar that captures the vibrations of the strings and turns the vibrations into noise) and screamed and sang into his pickups. Amazing. I was blown away.
Though, I can't review bands and say they had a flawless shoe and everything was perfect. Every band has a flaw, no matter how much they play and no matter how much I like them, no band can play a perfect set. Yes ... I will back that claim up.
Brand New has a thing for feedback. Maybe it's a fetish, maybe they think it assists with allowing the crowd to feel emotion, maybe ... maybe, after every single song they play, they don't need to include feedback for 3-5 minutes, maybe, they can place their hand on their guitar strings and stop the feedback.
Rant over.
Dashboard Confessional.
In Dashboard is Chris, his guitarist, bassist and drummer. Dashboard also had on stage with them a female violinist and a friend of Chris's, John, who played as another backup guitarist.
Dashboard is coming very close to perfecting the 'big sound' aspect of playing concerts. If you don't know what I mean by 'big sound' think of an Our Lady Peace concert, or a Coldplay concert, or a U2 concert or, for you older fans, a Who concert. By 'big sound' I mean that when Dashboard played you didn't 'individually' hear the acoustic guitar, the electric guitar in the background, and the occasional riff on the bass guitar. When Dashboard played, they played in a way so that all the instruments seemed to be one instrument. The music surrounded me, enveloped me, made me feel as if I was locked in on all sides by sound. Incredible.
Decorating the stage with 'livingroom-esque' props such as paper lights hanging from the roof, wood walls and a backdrop that resembled an old, brick loft with large windows and silhouettes of leafless trees. Props to the stage crew for converting the once concrete venue, void of emotion, into a brightly, colorfully lit 'concert loft.' It was nice.
Introducing their all time loved single Hands Down with his ever famous saying, "This song is about the best day of my life..."
Hands Down starts. The crowd goes wild. The band stops playing at the chorus and Dashboard, well known for having the crowd sing, lets us sing the chorus and the next verse, and then ... ... BOOM!The 'big sound' comes again, wraps around everyone.
And, as I said before, I can't praise Dashboard (even though I want too) the whole blog. They did have some downfalls. Whenever the harder, higher pitched lyrics of a song came up, Chris would step infront of the mic and passionately scream the lyrics into the crowd, while letting the crowd sing the hard parts. It was dissapointing because Chris is known for his high-pitched wailing that first attracted people to his music.
It's too bad that he didn't sing any of those parts, partly revealing how a studio can fix up a voice when the singer can't do sing it himself. Maybe his voice changed from when he first recorded, who knows. Maybe he didn't drink enough water and he was a little parched. Maybe he blew out his voice earlier in the tour, whatever the case, he didn't sing any of the more difficult lyrical parts of a song.
That was the only dissapointing part of the concert.
Let's not end on that negative note though.
If you ever hear of Dashboard coming to Ontario again, which they plan to do next year, I suggest making the trip to see them. Truly fantastic show.
Hands down. Hehehe.
Until next time,
Jason Matos
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www.jasonmatos.com
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