Saves The Day/Taking Back Sunday/Moneen

live in Providence (2003)

Brian Shultz

The trio of bands rolled into Providence, Rhode Island, on a sedated Thursday night, ready to rock the packed
crowd at Lupo's.

Moneen took the stage to some applause, sheepishly introduced themselves as the ugly Canadians they are, and
blasted right into "Start Angry…End Mad." Their furious energy took full advantage of the less-than-expansive
stage, and got the crowd riled up a bit at some intervals to store some energy for the night.
They continued the fury of poignant firepower, deriving most of their five/six-song set from
Are We Really Happy with Who
We Are Right Now?, wrapping up things with the title track.

No matter the location I've been to (Long Island, New York City, now here), each person in attendance at any
Taking Back Sunday show is entitled to a very small piece of floor. Think of a voluntary Auschwitz program, and
you'll have a rough idea of just how much breathing space you're entitled to. Mr. Lazzara and Co. brought themselves out on stage amid the desperate pleas for
the sounds of the mostly-LI natives to fill their ears, predictably starting things up with "You Know How I Do,"
and immediately rolling into "Bike Scene." The unfamiliarity set in for a moment, as the singing along temporarily
ceased and the finger pointing decreased for a new, "bed-wetting" inspired song that was played.
After showcasing the first of three new songs ("Bonus Mosh Part 2" made another yet another appearance) that they'd
play, the opening chords of "Cute Without the 'E'" ignited the chorus emanating from the floor. The new members,
Fred and Matt, seemed to be almost fully adjusted to their new surroundings (Fred had played in Breaking Pangaea,
and Matt "Seth Green called, he wants his body back" Rubano has actually played bass on Lauren Hill's
first album) and are now fairly experienced in the TBS camp with many gigs under their respective belts. Adam
had a nice Justin Timberlake improvisation going during the bridge to one song, and seemed to keep his mic-swinging
antics to a minimum that night. The band also played the "couples" song for slow dancing, "Ghost Man on Third," plus
"You're So Last Summer" and closed things up with "There's No 'I' in Team."

The mood slightly settled down as the headliners walked up on stage, and bright strobe lights illuminated things for
Saves the Day, who opened with the happily depressing "At Your Funeral." Of the seventeen some-odd songs the band
would play, In Reverie only made two
or three appearances, the first of which, "Anywhere With You," was played third overall. The set was loaded with
material from Stay What You Are; only
"Jukebox Breakdown" wasn't played from it…hell, there was even a Stay What You Are vibe on the normally faster
songs, like "All-Star Me," "Holly Hox, Forget Me Nots" and the title track from
Through Being Cool. So all along I wondered
how this vibe would sound on Can't Slow Down
, but I never found out, as it was left out like the fat kid during Spin the Bottle. Chris, who still looks like
he's 15, reminded me of his fair-enough reasoning afterwards (doesn't want to make the other band members
uncomfortable, playing songs they didn't write), and they did manage to recall another piece of their
discography by playing a plugged-in version of "Jessie & My Whetstone" off the
acoustic EP. Chris, ever so grateful
to the crowd the whole night, came back out with the band to play another pair of tunes from SWYA
for the encore, "Cars & Calories" and the ironically titled "This is Not an Exit."

The night of easily-digestable emo-pop and such was a nice prequel for the lot of shows on my calendar ahead, but
will likely be shown up by Thursday eight days after. Good thing - I wouldn't want to follow that up either.