Image Credits: The Fillmore
In order to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of their smash record, “Ocean Avenue” Yellowcard has decided to embark on a nation-wide tour performing two unique sets: one acoustic an one electric. I had the privilege of seeing them on the opening night of their tour at the Theater of Living Arts (TLA) in Philadelphia.
The night got off to a bit of a rough start with opening act Geoff Rickly of Thursday. I thought I used to like Thursday back in their hey day 10 years ago (though I never loved them the way most of my peers did), but wow, his set was truly horrendous. I can honestly say I never hated an opening act as much as I hated him. He played a handful of solo songs such as “Going to Hell” before finishing with the Thursday song, “Time’s Arrow”. His songs all started out sounding promising…Rickly is a good singer when it comes to soft, mellow parts. He has a very poetic kind of voice, but once the songs pick up and he tries to go in screaming mode everything falls apart. He fails to hit higher notes. It’s all just screeching and after 30 minutes of it I was begging for Yellowcard to come out already! I think others in the audience shared the same opinion. Rickly constantly tried to interact with the audience but they didn’t seem very responsive…how awkward. He raised up his alcoholic beverage at one point. God, I hope he was drunk. That could explain so much.
Yellowcard on the other hand did not disappoint. They played two sets. The first half was all acoustic and very mellow featuring hits from “Ocean Avenue”. My favorite performances were of “Empty Apartment”, “Back Home”, and “Way Away”. I was slightly disappointed with the audience actually. They didn’t seem to react as much as I’d hope but maybe that’s just because I see “Ocean Avenue” as being a life-changing album and I’ve been obsessed with it for 10 years. I was also one of the oldest ones there which could explain a lot…
The second set was an electric one and it strayed away from “Ocean Avenue” a bit (although Ocean Avenue was still the main focus as it should have been since this was an anniversary tour). The crowd definitely perked up for the second set even moshing and crowd surfing a bit. “Ocean Avenue” and “Only Ones” quickly helped to get everyone pumped but my personal favorites from this set were “Lights and Sounds” (the atmosphere made this the perfect hit to play) and “Here I Am Alive”. Before getting into “Lights an Sounds” lead singer, Ryan Key held up his middle finger as a way of saying “Fuck you” to the critics who didn’t really like “Lights and Sounds”. Honestly, for me I think that made it all the more awesome. Sure, “Lights and Sounds” was much different from anything on “Ocean Avenue”, but I still loved it nonetheless.
Hearing “Here I Am Alive” was a nice surprise as well. I never would have expected them to play that tonight as it was supposed to be a tribute to “Ocean Avenue” but it was so nice to finally hear them play it live. It’s such a powerful anthem and it’s powerful message becomes captivating when performed live. I think this song has a pretty similar sound to the “Ocean Avenue” album and it is one of their most recent hits. In a way it felt like they were saying “Look how far we’ve come”.
Yellowcard is a great band to see live. One thing I thought was a bit unexpected was Ryan Key wasn’t the one with the best stage presence or ability to really wow the crowd. Yes, he did do that simply by being Ryan Key, but I think the one that deserves the most credit is their violinist, Sean Mackin. I always thought it was awesome and different that they had a violinist, but this guy has so much energy and really knew how to fire up the crowd! I loved watching him on stage.
I thought it was nice that Yellowcard brought a handful of signed items to sell at the merch booth too. I was quick to purchase a rare signed vinyl record for the cheap price of $25. Yellowcard has always been one of my favorite bands and with signed merchandise I feel like I own a part of them. It’s a very special piece of merchandise to me.
This was my first time seeing Yellowcard live and I absolutely loved it. I look forward to seeing them again on their next tour. I just hope that next time they get a better opening act…
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