The Keep Breathing Tour
Featuring:
Wavorly
The Wedding
A Current Affair
It was a dark and stormy night. The Germans were breathing down our necks and we were running out of ammo, food and oh…wait…I got confused because my ears are still ringing. Well, not so much mine, but probably my girlfriend’s ears. I’m tougher than that. However, a life long (sorry, I keep lying, forgive me) dream of seeing the Wedding live. As in a show, not as in just making sure they weren’t dead. Enough about me, let’s talk about…
A Current Affair opened the night to a decent crowd of about 75 kids and half as many parents sitting in the back (making sure their kids didn’t do anything dumb?) at Calvary Chapel Oceanside in…you guessed it…Oceanside, California in a side room called “The Cafe”. This band I honestly hadn’t heard one entire song from before (I did manage to scan a couple on myspace a few days before the show), so I had no real expectations for what I was about to hear. Maybe it was the fact that it was played about a half an hour before on some body’s ghetto blaster, but I felt like half the time this band sounded like Underoath’s “When The Sun Sleeps” song, despite labeling themselves as an alternative glam rock band on myspace. In reality, it was more like rock with screaming that you could dance to than anything else. It was enjoyable, but I would venture to say it would be difficult for them to stand out in a scene filled with bands just like them. I wouldn’t hesitate to see them again, but if I don’t they could just as easily fade from my memory pretty quickly.
Onto the part that was crucial to me. How would The Wedding perform with a new lead singer with five new cracks in his collarbone and one new sling around his arm? The answer: Pretty darn amazingly. They performed a solid set of about 8 songs, including three from their “The Sound The Steel” EP, three from “Polarity”, and if memory serves a couple from their self titled album. They opened up with “Receive”, taking approximately four seconds to bring me into a deep haze that lasted until they played their last song with no encore (which they deserved). Other songs that they played include “Move This City”, personal favorite “Say Your Prayers”, “Reveal”, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” and “This One’s For You”, at least if I remember correctly, as I did not take notes because what kind of rock fan takes notes when he could be jumping up and down? Point it is, it was all rock all the time, they didn’t play one slow song the whole set, it was just in your face shredding vocals and guitar and worth the wait. Pretty impressive to put on a show when your lead vocalist is in excruciating pain. If you get the chance, go see them, and if the economy isn’t killing you personally, consider helping out the guy, as he has no insurance and bands like this don’t really make enough money to do much other than get to the next show.
Finally, we come to the headliner, Wavorly. I want to use this moment, if you have read this far, to say…leaving for shows before the headliner plays is lame sauce. about 1/3 of the kids left after The Wedding, for whatever their good or bad reasons. Wavorly still put on a decent show, sounding much better indoors than they have in past shows where I’ve seen them at large outdoor venues. One thing of note was that their drummer was absent for the day and the lead guitarist filled in for him, playing without a hitch. One endearing moment was a love song the vocalist played, written for his wife. Another plus was the guy on the keys got himself a keytar, which if you have ever seen Wavorly live makes so much sense, as he just can’t stand being shoved in the background on his little keyboard. He looks more natural with the keytar. He just does. Sadly, the one song I could actually remember, I didn’t hear. “Praise and Adore” was foolishly left out of the show (unless I blanked out?), which is lame.
There are only a few dates left on this tour, but it was a good one. Go check it out if you still can.
