Straight Up Random

Concert Review: Let’s Make A Mess Tour

Interviews: The Friday Night Boys

When: July 19, 2009

Where: Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room

Line-Up: The Bigger Lights, Stereo Skyline, The Friday Night Boys, This Providence, Hey Monday

The Review: Two hours before doors opened, there was already a line wrapping around the venue as eager fans waited to see the five bands on the Let’s Make A Mess Tour. It was yet another sold out show at the Culture Room, and for good reason being that it was Hey Monday’s hometown show.

The first of the bands to go on stage was The Bigger Light. The last time they were at the Culture Room, the band was merely a three-piece and had to remix their songs live since they didn’t have a drummer to play full band. This time though, fans were able to experience the full affect of The Bigger Lights as they not only replaced their drummer, but they added a second guitar player. Since then, they’re popularity in South Florida had obviously increased as there were more people singing along to their songs. Everyone was boppin’ around in the crowd and you could tell that the audience that evening was going to be a feisty one.

After The Bigger Lights played, four guys with the same comb-over haircut who looked like they’re fresh out of (or maybe still in) high school came on the stage. It was Stereo Skyline. I was surprised at how many people actually knew their songs, and they seemed to win over everybody in the crowd…except me. I wasn’t impressed by their performance and would go as far as to say it was just mediocre. Their songs were upbeat, but the band members themselves lacked energy in their set. Still, it didn’t take a lot to win over the girls in the audience as they all jumped and sang along to their songs. This band needs to tighten up on their live performance though– they definitely need to put more energy into their set and work on their crowd participation as well. Maybe then, it’ll actually be tolerable to see them live.

In between the transition of Stereo Skyline leaving the stage and the crew prepping for The Friday Night Boys to take the stage, the crowd was going insane. Everybody kept pushing everyone else and at one point a portion of the crowd (specifically in the front) fell over. All of this was happening and the band wasn’t even on stage yet! Then when The Friday Night Boys actually took the stage, the audience became very pushy again, but the a lot of the fans didn’t care because they kept singing and jumping along the whole time. The band knows how to work a crowd as they had everyone put their hands up in the air and clap along. Stereo Skyline should have been taking note of how to put on a good live performance from The Friday Night Boys.

The biggest shock of the night was when This Providence came on. I have heard of the band, but never really bothered to check out their music before, and I completely regret not listening to them earlier. Their live performance was incredible. So much energy was put into their set, and they’re was never a dull moment on stage. The guitarist played right on the edge of the stage, hanging over the crowd the whole time and the singer utilized the whole stage and mobilized the fans throughout their set. On their last song, they gave fans the incentive to go crazy by saying whoever looks like they’re having the most fun will get a free CD. The crowd went wild and at the very end of the song the singer briefly went into the crowd to try and crowd surf. They were definitely the band that put on the best live show out of all the other bands that played so far.

Then hometown heroes Hey Monday took the stage and they rocked that place. For such a young band, their live show is incredibly impressive. Not for one moment was their singer not bouncing around and singing all over the stage, and the guitar players not spinning around with their guitars and showing off for the crowd. No matter how many times you may have seen this band, they’re performance is always even livelier than the last and they keep getting better and better. The crowd was going completely nuts for them and the band thanked all their fans for all the support they have given them.

I must admit, there are a few things I don’t expect to see at a power-pop concert, and one of them is moshing. At one point, singer Cassadee Pope told the crowd to split up down the middle and told them to collide into one another on the count of three, and the crowd of fans did just that. From there a mild mosh pit formed, but didn’t manage to last very long.

Hey Monday put on a memorable performance for their sold-out hometown show, and any fan would have walked away happy after seeing them perform. They’re definitely not the type of band to disappoint live, and are able to keep up with the stamina of their songs.

The Let’s Make A Mess Tour was an awesome concert experience for any fan of pop rock music. Even if you didn’t know who all the bands were, you would have left a fan of all the bands.