I have started to notice that all these pop punk concerts seem to be the same after a while. There is an opening band that draws a more hardcore sense to the show, and the headlining band is more poppy and incredibly hot at the moment. This would be slightly different as there were co-headliners with 2 opening acts, and one of the co-headliners has been around for quite a while and is fairly established. I was just hoping that the crowd would contain people other than 12 year old girls which seem to frequent these venues all too often.

The initial band was Billy Talent. I was pretty excited to see these guys, as their music is pretty catchy and seems to be pretty original. The crowd really seemed to be into this band, and I’m not sure if it is because it was the first band or not, but I just didn’t think the guys did that great of a job. The lead singer’s voice is very different, but seems to just become a piercing annoyance over the speakers after about 2 songs. The guitars are catchy and get the crowd moving, but every song sounds just about the same with the same tempo and same beat. The band had a good presence on stage, but did little to keep the show interesting. Bottom line is that they need to work on their live performance in order to keep par with the album.

Next up was Sugarcult. I have seen these guys in small clubs before and have been a fan for a while, and was definitely looking forward to seeing how they progressed as their success moved up the ladder. I have to say that the guys have maintained the ability to keep the crowd on their toes or off their feet as the situation may suggest. Opening with energy and not slowing down for the whole set, Sugarcult is a band that goes beyond expectations for a live show. The songs are played very well, a little faster than the album version, but the band shows that is has talent playing their instruments. While they were an opening act, I feel like their performance was worthy of being a headliner.

The headliners were MxPx and Simple Plan; with this show bring MxPx up first. This is a band that has been around for more than a decade and has numerous albums of material to play, something the other bands at this show do not have yet. MxPx is one of those bands that whether you like them or not, you have to give them credit. They write very deep songs, as well as just catchy, almost poppy songs. There isn’t much to say about their show, because it was almost flawless. Their songs kept the momentum going, and put in the slower choices at just the right moments, and just kept the crowd pumped the entire time. Definitely a band that has worked for what they have achieved and deserve every reward that should come their way.

Simple Plan is a band that seems to be everywhere lately. After only one album, they have exploded into mainstream, being on the radio, MTV, and everywhere else they could imagine. I saw them on the Warped Tour last year, and have seen their videos—I’m not real impressed with them, but I am not here to criticize their music. They put on a show perfect for their fans. Pierre jumped around a lot, the guys had a lot of energy on stage, and they played the same poppy hits that flood the radio. The band showed that they have a sense of history and did a couple cover songs. It was hard for me to get into the show since I was getting annoyed by the repetitious sounds, but the crowd was really into the band, and they kept the audience moving; because of this, they achieved their goal of the show and entertained their fans accordingly.