I'll be the first to admit it: I did not buy the tickets to the show to see Say Anything. I'm not a huge Say Anything fan, but I am, however, a huge Manchester Orchestra fan, and as they were opening... I figured I would go! The bands included Weatherbox on curtain-warming detail, Biffy Clyro on Pre-band, and Manchester Orchestra as openers before Say Anything headlined.

Weatherbox: What can I say about Weatherbox... this concert was the first I had ever heard of them. They had a decent amount of fans there, so I was geared up to hear something new and good! Well... I did hear something new. And perhaps it would have been better had they not been as stoned off their faces. The best part of watching them was by far Bassist, Dave Silverman, whose onstage flail-type antics were giggle inducing at least, upright riotous at best. Also the fact that guitarist George Pritzker phenomenally looks like Doogie Howser. Keep on with your thing, boys, but might I suggest perhaps halving the amount of chemical intake pre-show. When you can't even remember the name of your album to pitch it to the crowd... it's too much.

Biffy Clyro: The Glasgow, UK three piece was a welcome relief from the stuttering and stumbling High School-esque lyrics of Weatherbox, and got the crowd riled up with powerchords and pounding drums. They were a lot of fun to watch, and a lot of fun to listen to. The only thing I could suggest to them is perhaps speaking to the crowd. Even if it's just to say your band's name. The only spoken words to the crowd that I or my concert-mate heard was a mumbled "thank you" as the band walked off the stage. Quite a few people were looking around after they left asking "who WAS that??" Otherwsie, a great set!

Manchester Orchestra: All right, perhaps I'm a little biased here, because I love this band more than many many things. I've been mildly obsessed with their music since I first discovered them playing an out-of-the-way side stage at the Bamboozle festival in Summer '07. Their live show astounds me and simultaneously leaves me feeling completely gutted. Singer Andy Hull invests himself completely in his music to a degree rarely seen on stage anymore. During the song Colly Strings (a soft ballad, utterly gut wrenching in it's melodic simplicity) when a bunch of kids in the back screamed for Say Anything and started to shove kids around (causing the mosh pit wave of reaction) the crowd that was standing still, watching the band play and registering the sadness in Mr. Hull's face, stumbling and falling yelped in surprise. (I mean, who the hell tries to mosh during a song like Colly Strings???) Andy Hull stopped mid-song, looking out at the instigators and spoke in a soft, hurt voice: "I never really do this: but stop being fucking retarded." followed immediately by the fans voicing agreement. The rest of the set went off well, ending in an anthemic and gutting performance of "Where have you been". Listening to Andy Hull singing that song, and watching his sorrow is almost too much, I felt myself welling up many times. His band respectfully turned their backs or bowed their heads in reverence to their mate's melodic meltdown. All together, one of the most amazing sets I've seen in a long, long time.

Say Anything: I won't pretend to be a Say Anything fan. I don't really know what it is about it, but I just can't really get into the music. My concert mate and I were planning on taking off after Manchester Orchestra, as that was who were there to see, but a sold-out venue and packed show made it a bit difficult to wade through the kids to get to the door, so we stayed, had another beer and hung out. I will say, though I'm not a Say Anything fan, that the band's ability to rile up their crowd is pretty impressive. At one point, 1,100 kids jumping up and down on the floor and screaming their faces off was shaking the floor so much that my concert mate and I questioned the structural integrity of the building, citing that it would be the funniest god-damned thing we had ever seen if the center of the floor just caved in and a whole crapload of kids were swallowed into the crevasse of the House of Blues. We were sitting at the bar, and the jumping from the floor was shaking the shelves of the bar, looking like an avalanche of liquor bottles was coming. The band isn't terrible live, better than the records anyhow, I would go again, but there would have to be another band I was into playing as well to get me to shell out the $25.