The City Is At War.

Tuesday night I went to a concert in Lowell, Massachusetts with my two best friends. It was my eighteenth birthday present from my parents, which was back in February, but the deal was that they would get me a ticket and let me go on a school night and they drove us there. I sound like such a little kid, not driving myself! But whatever, that's not the point of this blog entry. The concert was my first Fall Out Boy concert, with Cobra Starship, All Time Low, Metro Station, and Hey Monday. Just the band list can give you an idea of how awesome the concert was, with two of my favorite bands in there. Two days later my neck still ached from head banging, and yes, it is possible to head bang all through All Time Low and Fall Out Boy sets. Hence my aching neck. All in all, it was an amazing show, and it inspired some new respect for bands I hadn't really taken much interest to before. I'll go through the show artist by artist and give the lowdown on what I thought of them.

First up for the night was Hey Monday, a band I have only heard a few times. One of my friends made me a mix CD a while ago with three of their songs on it, and when I first heard the CD, I wasn't that impressed with it. But I was pleasantly surprised seeing them onstage. Lead singer Cassadee Pope was full of energy that exploded on the stage, even when the vocals were drowned out a little by the guitars. The set lasted for only five songs, but Hey Monday were very successful at engaging the crowd for all of the set, inspiring a lot of singing and moshing down in the pit. As far as an opening band goes, they were very successful, despite some obvious technical difficulties with the vocals.

Up next were the better known Metro Station, the only band out there who can attribute their formation to the Hannah Montana show on Disney (Trace Cyrus and Mason Musso met on the set of their younger siblings' show.) I was a little more familiar with the songs of this band, so it was a little easier to gauge how well the performance went. Cyrus is definitely the entertainer of the group, and he knows it. While switching off singing duties with Musso, he went back and forth between playing his guitar and just singing, doing whatever it took to make as many girls scream as possible. Musically, the band did fairly well, also with a five song set that boasted their two singles, Shake It and Seventeen Forever. The show itself wasn't much to write home about, but all in all they did a fairly good job.

Following the boy band was another, the band that has been seriously dominating my iPod for a long while. All Time Low were, as usual, energetic and fun. They opened with Six Feet Under The Stars from So Wrong, It's Right and went on to play a seven song set mostly sampled from that album. As a live band, All Time Low does a great job of performing their songs well and true, and they are especially talented at getting the crowd involved. The only thing about their performance that did make me cringe was the constant string of profanities, which they couldn't seem to speak without. Guitarist Jack Barakat was able to gather what ended up being 200+ bras onto the stage and subsequently hung them from his microphone stand (which is something he does supposedly every night they play). The language does get raunchy and even embarrassing at times, but as someone who doesn't know a much better time than singing their heart (and throat) out to ATL's pop-punk songs, I was not complaining. Coffee Shop Soundtrack (which I have officially announced as my life's anthem) was the most exhilarating part of the performance, followed closely by Jasey Rae, both of which are tracks from the band's 2006 EP Put Up Or Shut Up. The other songs in the set were Poppin' Champagne, Dear Maria Count Me In, Shameless, and a new song Weightless from their new album Nothing Personal set to be released July 7th.

The last of the opening bands to take the stage was Cobra Starship. Aside from a few songs, I have never been a huge fan of Cobra Starship, neither have my two friends who went with me to the concert. But we were all in agreement that they did the best job after Fall Out Boy. And that is definitely saying something, considering my intense love for All Time Low and my friend's dislike of Cobra Starship. But the band showed a lot of charisma and stage presence, and did a wonderful job all around. Starting with The City Is At War, the opening track from ¡Viva La Cobra! the band immediately got the crowd roaring and jumping, with plenty of fangs in the air (you may not get this if you don't know the band). Although I don't remember the set list exactly, they did play Guilty Pleasure, Bring It (Snakes On A Plane) and Kiss My Sass, which seemed to be crowd favorites. Lead singer Gabe Saporta (who looks way too much like one of my friends at school) did an amazing job of not only involving the crowd, but also getting the rest of the band involved as well. All in all, it was a stellar performance that inspired me to wake up the next morning and rock out to ¡Viva La Cobra! on my way to school.

And of course, the headliners Fall Out Boy went last. Before I get into the actual concert, I must say that I have been waiting for three years to see them in concert. My two friends who I went with were the ones who got me into Fall Out Boy in the summer of '06 when we were working together, and ever since then, they have been one of my favorite bands. There have been a few times were I had the opportunity to see them, but never the means (*cough* money *cough*). But finally, for my birthday my parents got me a ticket. And I could not have gotten a better birthday present. I was on my feet for the whole set, which was about an hour and a half long. The only disappointments that I had with the show was that they only played a few songs from Take This To Your Grave, which is my favorite of their albums, and that they did a little political stuff that was unnecessary for a rock show. But other than that, the show was awesome. This concert marks the first time I have ever cried at a show, which I am not ashamed to admit. During the ballad What A Catch, Donnie from Folie à Deux I was that wack job standing with my arms in the air. And yes, I cried. (The only other time I have come close to crying was hearing Journey perform Faithfully a few years ago.) It was also really cool to see Hey Moday's Cassadee Pope come out and help sing on Sugar, We're Goin' Down and Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low come out during Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy. The best surprise of the show was hearing Homesick At Space Camp, which is my favorite song from Take This To Your Grave. Unfortunately though, hearing that meant that they didn't play Chicago Is So Two Years Ago from the same album. The band was not as energetic as I imagined they would be, but a few things happened that made up for it: one, lead singer Patrick Stump actually talked a few times which NEVER happens in concert. Two, bassist Pete Wentz got the crowd singing Happy Birthday to Patrick who had turned 25 the day before. Third, Andy and Joe were there. Enough said. Fourth, I got to sing the national anthem of FOB fans Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy with the rest of the crowd. And fifth, they didn't play too many songs from Infinity On High, which is my least favorite FOB album.

Here is what the setlist was (the order might be a little messed up though:)

1. Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes - Folie à Deux
2. Thriller - Infinity On High
3. A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me" - From Under The Cork Tree
4. Sugar, We're Goin' Down - From Under The Cork Tree
5. This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race - Infinity On High
6. I Don't Care - Folie à Deux
7. Homesick At Spacecamp - Take This To Your Grave
8. Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet - Folie à Deux
9. I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me - From Under The Cork Tree
10. Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy - Take This To Your Grave
11. What A Catch, Donnie - Folie à Deux
12. (Coffee's For Closers) - Folie à Deux
13. She's My Winona - Folie à Deux
14. Beat It - ****Live In Phoenix
15. America's Suitehearts - Folie à Deux

Encore

16. Thnks Fr Th Mmrs - Infinity On High
17. Tiffany Blews - Folie à Deux
18. Dance, Dance - From Under The Cork Tree
19. Saturday - Take This To Your Grave

Overall, it was a pretty solid setlist, despite the absence of Chicago and a few others from that album that were supposedly played at other shows. It was an amazing night, and I would definitely recommend that anyone go see this band. They all did really well, but Fall Out Boy was definitely the best part of the night.

Currently Listening To: "Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued" by Fall Out Boy from From Under The Cork Tree