I looked forward to this show for weeks on end. Come on, Something Corporate and Yellowcard; two of my favorite bands. The real plus came the day of the show when my mom called me hours before the show to give me a guy named Aaron Dixon's phone number. He's Something Corporate's road manager. She managed to pull a few strings and Aaron decided to bring my friends and I backstage to meet the band.

It has been my experience that opening acts are rarely anything to write home about, though sometimes you find a diamond in the rough. For example, Something Corporate has opened up for the likes of New Found Glory, Sugar Ray, and Sugarcult. Needless to say, my expectations for opening bands are never high and such was the case this night.

After two songs, I had already begun to tune the opening band, Steriogram from New Zealand, out. It quickly became apparent that a large part of their sound was screaming incoherently. It was tiresome trying to figure out what the tall, extremely lanky lead singer was belting. My friends were rather intrigued, however, so I just stood and looked around aimlessly killing time. At one point, I pulled out my cell phone and played a nice little game of Bejeweled.

As they were co-headliners, Something Corporate and Yellowcard alternated closing sets. I knew from Aaron that Something Corporate were going on first this night so in the downtime between Steriogram and Something Corporate I was racked with anticipation. I have seen Something Corporate twice before this and they were excellent live. And after they finished their set, I was not disappointed.

Something Corporate is one of those bands whose live performance doesn't exactly equal that on the album, but still put out a fantastic and energetic and memorable live show. Though they are all so passionate about the music, lead singer, Andrew McMahon, especially gets into it by banging on his piano or playing with his feet or even stomping and jumping on the instrument. Even though they only had an hour on stage, Something Corporate performed their nine and a half minute piano-ballad fan anthem, "Konstantine." A highlight of their set was their covers of Outkast's "Hey Ya!" and The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony." As what can only be interpreted as some kind of inside joke, bassist Clutch wore a pirate costume the entire set.

Once their set was finished, it was time to call Aaron. He met us out in the audience and brought us backstage. While walking towards the stage door, I noticed that the opening band, Steriogram was out in the crowd mingling with the audience. I thought that it was pretty awesome and that earned them a few points in my book.

Aaron led us to the stereotypical green room, where Something Corporate members Clutch and guitarist Josh Partington were cooling off from the show with a bunch of guys chilling on couches. The band members were extremely nice and personable, they both signed t-shirts and CDs and concert tickets ... basically anything we wanted them to. We told them how great they were and they were gracious and humble.

By that time, Yellowcard was ready to start so we headed back out and though I was tired, as soon as the opening notes to Yellowcard's set started, my energy was back. Yellowcard has that kind of ability to instill pure energy into their listeners. I had also seen Yellowcard several times before, so I knew a bit of what to expect. On stage antics such as bouncing around lively to the music and violinist Sean Mackin doing back flips off of amps are quite the norm at Yellowcard shows. Like Something Corporate, there was a cleverly done cover, this time it was Nirvana's "Numb." The fact that the audience sang along to basically every song performed (from their earlier EPs to the latest major-label debut) demonstrates just how popular Yellowcard has become.

By the time I got back to my car, my body was tired from all of the jumping around and arm flailing I did yet my mind was fully awake and energetic. As I got in the car and tossed my autographed Something Corporate shirt to the backseat, I grinned and looked back on the great night I had.

For anyone who has never seen Something Corporate or Yellowcard perform live - you are truly missing out. Be sure to check them out on their next tour of the country.