Two landmarks here; gig no. 600, obviously, but also my first gig accompanied by... earplugs! I'm tired of getting my ears blasted by shit support bands piped haphazardly through poor sound systems, so a friend has kindly provided plugs which clean out the sound, cutting out the glare but not the volume. I used them tonight for the first time on support Shouting Myke, who started with a very long Pearl Jam-like number, then thankfully got shorter and snappier. Also left them in for Cardia, an NYC combo who featured Rival Schools' guitarist Ian Love as singer, and sounded very dark and moody without sounding Radiohead-like dull. A point I remarked to Ian afterwards, who noted my Jeff Buckley t-shirt and said he'd figured I'd like their stuff. He'd certainly exhibited some Buckley-esque top range vocal gymnastics in their intriguing set!
We'd come to see Saves The Day tonight, despite them playing at Reading Festival next week, in order to avoid a potential band clash at the Fest. However, they put a case for seeing them again at Reading, with a good, upbeat and enthusiastic set of their punky and perky emo-pop. The set featured some toughened up new numbers, the obligatory (at emo gigs, so it seems!) singing along to most numbers from the devoted crowd, and vocalist Chris Conley's slightly excessive early-Bono-esque humility towards this enthusiastic crowd. Their best number, "At Your Funeral" (a top five single for me last year, and easily head and shoulders above the rest of their output) was saved till last, which made it a fitting end to a fine gig, one worthy of a milestone or two!
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