Calling home 3 days before I got back from Europe, I was told that I had a surprise when I got back home. Not having a clue what it could be, I just stopped trying to guess and waited to find out.
Sunday night I am handed by my girlfriend my ticket and hers for the Less Than Jake show at the Glasshouse. Wow, was I happy for two reasons.
1)Less Than Jake are one of the best live bands out there and what a great lineup it is as well
2) She had the choice of getting The Palace show or the Glasshouse, and let me tell you, the Glasshouse is so much better. It has better sound, and is much more intimate with the band because it has at least half the amount of people as the Hollywood venue does.
Enough of the delay...onto the show:
Shit, that's all I have to say. I hate people like me, who miss the opening band, especially when it is a band I want to see. But, I had no control over missing them, I got lost driving there. I personally think everyone should go and watch every band, so the openers can have more people watching them and not have people just come for the main acts and also because it is the easiest way to find out about another band. So, all in all, I missed Whippersnapper who I love, which dampened the evening for awhile, but then Ms. Branch's band came onstage and that turned everything around.
Opening with "For Pete's Sake", Yellowcard rocked out with an awesome set, thanking the city of Orange County (where I am from) numerous amounts of times for sticking by the band and making the band who they are today. Yellowcard was telling how they had band problems for awhile and thank you to everyone from OC for still supporting them, and then they introduced the new bassist who took Warrens spot. I still haven't quite gotten use to him, but he did fit right in. yellowcard played "underdog" from the new EP and also "Eeverywhere" from Michelle Branch. You can't forget their 3 biggest songs, "sureshot," "starstruck," and the final song of the night which always includes the back flip from the violinist, "october nights." Yellowcard really got the crowd pumped up, and announced that they are going on tour with No Use For a Name in October, so I suggest everyone who missed them here or even who didn't should go anc check them out then.
I will be dead honest with you, right when yellowcard ended, everyone went to buy merch, so I thought. Who knows, maybe they did, but most of them never came back inside. When Sugarcult hit the stage at least half of the crowd had vacated the small 800 capacity building. A ton of girls and reluctant boyfriends stood up in the front anxious for Sugarcult to hit the stage. Five minutes late, they did. They came out and played the only two songs I know not by choice, just because everyone knows them, "Bouncing off the walls," and "stuck in america." The dumb thing about this band is some guy kept yelling Bouncing off the Walls is gay, and the singer is like, o yeah that song is gay, we don't play that song it's not ours. Then two songs later they played it, haha it was actually quite funny. By the end of their set everyone who was outside came back in and rocked out to "daddy's little defect" (rocked out in a sense that the front half of the room was going absolutely nuts) and the back half was just standing there. The good thing though is everyone pretty much showed the band respect, which is always a good thing. Sugarcult, like YC, announced that they are going on a 5 to 6 week tour with the Ataris in the fall, and then they left the stage after playing the only song I got into, a cover of the Ramones song "sedated." Does anyone else notice that Sugarcult sounds really poppy on CD, and sounds really poppy live as well, except for the fact the singer trys to sing with a really raspy voice that sounds a lot harder, it doesn't work in my opinion.
I love Less Than Jake. Not only do they rock live, but they take no time in setting up either, less than Sugarcult even did, only 15 mins. When 1015 strolled around, the lights went out and the star wars theme came on. White lights were flashing everywhere in the dark, and then "all my friends are metalheads" came on with the 20 second talking intro and when that was over the band leaded by Chris and his unbalievably awesome looking spiked hair that was at least a foot high bleached rocked out to their opening song. They played a much better set list than their last time around with AF and NFG, playing songs off of Losing Streak ("johnny quest," "automatic," etc.), Hellow rockview ("all my friends", "last one out of liberty city," History of a boring town," etc), Boarders and Bounderies ("look what happened," and many many others) and even some old songs like "Hows my driving Doug Hastings" and "My Very Own Flag." My only wish is that Less Than Jake would play "Dopeman" and "Al's War," both songs they never play anymore which saddens me dearly. Anyway, thruought the set they had the confetti cannons, super soakers, and even posters of them that they made into paper airplanes and thru out into the crowd (I managed to snag one). When they finished they came back out to play 3 more songs, starting with "Gainsville Rock City," and ending with I can't even remember right now, but it was a good song none the less. They even played "I Think I love You," the cover they did that apperas on the Scream sountrack.
Less Than Jake just gets better and better everytime I see them. If it's not the band who is making you have a fun time, its the crowd. They have a crowd at every show I have seen them that are the most energetic, fun crowd, and make the show a blast. Whippersnapper, from what I asked people played amazing, Yellowcard I would have gone to see if they were just headlining I like them so much, and Sugarcult did a good job, although 45 mins for them and 30 for the other 2 bands isn't quite what should have happened. LTJ played for an hour and 15 mins, ending at 1130, leaving the crowd wanting more and more. In 3 or 4 days they leave for England they said, I'm guessing the Reading Festival, but who knows.