as promised, the 2nd installment of my weekend concert experience. All pictures by Luke unless otherwise noted.
the burg of lynch:
[large, round sports stadium] Once again arriving early-ish with my merching ride-giver, I occupied myself while waiting in line by trying to teach myself how to juggle, and exchanging card tricks with some people who were sitting behind me. I also got some free pizza from a friendly guy standing nearby, and heard bits of the guys soundchecking “Head Over Heels” inside. Drew came out for a bit and signed/took pics patiently with a few people, and a local radio station set up speakers across the street, pumping out switchfoot songs at incredibly high decibel levels. All these events made people more and more anxious and rowdy, to the point where the venue staff were probably a bit scared to open the doors. I know I would've been.
Finding my seat near the front when the doors opened, I noticed that the front row was about 12 feet from the barrier, and the barrier was about 12 more feet from the stage. The space inbetween the stage and the barrier was filled with more than enough security guards in red “volunteer” shirts, unaware of the fact that in only a few hours they would be chasing a sweaty man through the aisles and watching helplessly from below as he climbed stage-side structures. Needless to say, this was pretty close to the opposite of the night before. Also unlike the previous show, there was no opening band. Yes, Switchfoot was the main and only act of the night. So weird.
When the lights went down, people rushed the barrier, so naturally I went up to claim a spot, right to the right of the little walkway that Jon would inevitably venture out onto. Strangely enough, although everyone else was mashed together pretty tightly, I had lots of room. No body was even touching me. In fact, during Company Car when Jon told us to put our arms around the people next to us, I turned to the girls to my left but was rejected, and then to the boy on my right, who also gave me weird look. So I swayed by myself... Hey! if any of you go to a concert where they play Company Car, it's ok to sway with the weird girl next to you. We're all family for a night. Anyway, back to the order of things. The set was the same as the night before (different order) with Ammo instead of Lonely Nation, and Learning To Breathe instead of Yesterdays. Once again beginning with Oh! Gravity, right off the bat the energy in this place was amazing. Jon couldn't even keep his hat on for the whole first song! (ok so maybe there's no correlation there...) Romey was jumping around, Drew was coming up near the front more often, and Tim was getting really into it despite being sick.
That crazy huge SF symbol with the lights on it also adds an enthralling new dimension to their live show. It even pauses with them on American Dream. Impressive. And whoever said that you can see Chad better these days, they were right. I'm not sure if it was the lighting or the setup, but it was a lot easier to see him going crazy back there, making expressive faces with every hit. I'd have to say that Chad's job looks like the most fun, to me.
As usual, Jon would pause every now and then to introduce a song, a bandmember, or just to say something random. He introduced Drew by saying that he had alien noises, but then left us extremely disappointed when they weren't working that night. There was also the classic intro of Tim as his biological brother, and before Awakening (which he began from the crowd after his trip out there during On Fire), he told us, “See my little brother over there? He's got a cold so you gotta sing it out. I'm coverin' your back, Timmy!” And boy did we belt it out. I think those might've been the loudest “yeah-ah-ah-ah”s I've ever been a part of.
Inbetween the verses of On Fire, Jon paused and mentioned that he couldn't see all the people in the far seats. He asked that they wave something bright in the air, and then decided that for the next verse, they would be the light source. He made the light tech people turn off all the stage lights and everything, until all that was left were the people and their cellphones in the crowd. Definitely a cool moment.
Jon dedicated Company Car to his 15-passenger van, waiting in a dark driveway in San Diego, and also to long-time fans. At this point he grabbed Kim's (mikster from the boards) sign from the audience, which stated that she had been there 10 years ago when Switchfoot first played a show at Liberty University. After Learning To Breathe, he confessed, “Now I'm going to try something we've never done before...I'm going to try to rhyme with 'Virginia'.” I think it worked rather well:
(Thanks, Lindsay!)
When the madness of Dirty Second Hands ensued, he brought the cymbal really close to us out on the walkway. I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't just a bit frightening having a guy wail on a cymbal with wreckless abandon only inches away from my face. You never know if he might drop the cymbal or let go of the drumstick by accident. Thankfully all that happened was that Luke got a sweet picture:
Meant To Live was a great moment that night. Jon prefaced it by saying (this may not be word-for-word), “Life is about sacrifices. You pick something up, you put something down. If you pick up a guitar, it means you're not going to play the bass. That's a tremendous responsibility for a bunch of kids like us. The way I see it, life is short. Life is a gun, life is a bullet. It ends so quickly, so while I'm still here I wanna be living for what matters most.” When he began singing, the crowd was singing so loudly that I couldn't even hear Jon, and when he let us sing by ourselves, it felt so loud and clear and unified. It was sweet. Jon told us that his favorite moments are when we're all singing the same song together. I would have to agree.
(Thanks again, Lindsay!)
After M2L the guys left the stage, and the crowd was deafening. People started stomping and jumping around so much, the entire floor of this huge arena was shaking. It was pretty insane, but the guys responded with the equally insane encores of Dare You To Move and We Are One. When the show was over, the guys once again signed autographs at a table next to the merch (which, by the way, sold out in everything except for about 3 shirts!), and then had to leave pretty quickly (the lady in charge of the venue basically kicked them out, hehe) for a meeting with their management. Afterwards I hung out with some boardies, but that's not interesting so I'll spare you those stories. Except for the part where the general consensus on favorite picture taken by Luke was this one of Drew:
It was an amazing show, and the arena setting that I was so hesitant about turned out to be a cool experience after all. Those of you going to upcoming shows, I'm sure the energy level can only go up once Relient K joins the tour, so get excited!
For more of Luke's pictures from the show - which are stellar by the way - check out his flickr, for Lindsay's pictures, check out her photobucket, and for her vids of Stars and Learning To Breathe, click HERE.
Oh man... all this tour talk is making me want to say the heck with class and make a drive to one of the Cali shows since they are not coming to AZ. :(
My friend in charge of the Concerts at my college (its a Christian college) told me that they almost had Switchfoot for our Fall festival at the end of this month, but they just couldn't make it. even though they dont' have a show on that day. I was so excited when they were trying to work it out. darn.
Love when the security has that "what is he doing" look on their faces thinking the barriers will hold the crowd back but there isn't anything they can do about Jon going over the barriers at most shows.
Is it just not the neatest that you can see Mr. Butler better!! Certain songs you just wanna watch him bang those drums.
Nice recap of the evening.
And Vicky, there is NEVER a boring moment when you are in the house. :)
word. I finally made a Switchfeed post. I was so mad at myself after the concert when I looked at my videos b/c I THOUGHT that I had videotaped the intro to Learning to Breathe including the already mentioned alien noises and the other one of Jon's favorite people Tim and their "hey brother" dialogue. But apparently, I was not taping at that point. Oh well. I'm sure I'll get more spontaneous moments at the shows in a few weeks. Cant wait!
haha!!! those are some saucy(saucy=rad but 10x better) pictures! that sounds like an awsome time! awwwwww, im sorry tim that you were sick. Sarah told me that she didnt' get to meetcha cuz you were sick...GET BETTER...cuz..im seeing yall sooooon!!! WOOT-WOOT! i love drews new hair, it suits him very well. kudos, kudos, and more kudos ~lydz
yes, I only need 90 more points for a dilly bar.