Do you Feel Like We Do
June 26th, 2007
Summertime brings a lot of things: hot weather, thunderstorms, vacations, swimming and being lazy. It’s also a time to reconnect with your kids. And after a hard year of school, my daughter and I seem to be developing a pattern. For us, summertime means going to concerts. Our summer season of concerts started off with Peter Frampton. Frampton was a teen idol for me, but my now thirteen-year-old daughter had little knowledge of him, except for the song “Show me the way.” I thought it would be an important concert for her because of his guitar playing. He didn’t disappoint, but what won her over was Frampton the artist, playing to entertain his fans. Seeing Frampton brought old fans and new fans together taking trips back in time with classics like “Do You Feel Like We Do” and to the present with riff soaring songs from “Fingerprints.” Frampton treats his fans like long time friends, knowing what you came to hear and not being embarrassed about playing those songs. Hearing “Show Me The Way” live again brought the whole house together, Peter, and all his fans singing at the top of our lungs.
Our next concert was a road trip to Atlanta to see the Honda Civic Fall Out Boy Tour. I was so-so excited about this concert, I like Fall Out Boy and I really like +44 who were also on the tour. But five bands will make for a long night and long ride home… I must be getting old.
Cobra Starship, Paul Wall, The Academy Is - they were all great. All these guys and gals engaged the crowd, having actual conversations with the fans. This is one thing I’m noticing, in the past I went to a lot of concerts performed by indifferent don’t give a shit bands. Maybe it’s the accountability of social networks. But bands of today have to know their fans, and engage with them. Fans drive the bands communities promoting their newest releases and their concerts. And these bands in particular know this very well. Every one of these bands made a point to announce that they would be hanging out after their show to talk with their fans.
The headlining acts +44 and Fall Out Boy were the reasons that most of the crowd was there and they did not disappoint. Fall Out Boy is growing up as artists and used the concert as a way to entertain and also make their fans aware of social issues that they should care about.
That leads me to +44. +44 is two-thirds of Blink 182 a pop-punk band founded in 1992 - and in my opinion, Blink along with Green Day and Rancid are founders of modern day punk music. My daughter and I joked about a “what if they played a Blink song, what would it be?” We both said Rock Show and laughed it off. +44 played energized song after energized song and in between front man Mark Hoppus played jokes with the band and the fans. Hoppus addressed the crowd that they wanted to perform something special, they didn’t have to say a word because the crowd of over 10,000 knew the song. As +44 performed “The Rock Show” at a pace and sound I can only call describe as electric. The crowd went nuts - from my twelve year-old to the adults. That one song made the show special for me, and it made me care more about the band +44.
Jake McGee has a saying, “everybody leaves happy.” And it’s great to see so many bands get it.
Other posts by Geno.
Rick Farr says:
Hi Geno,
Just roaming in your website and read your blog. I was also at Frampton. Wish I had ran into you. Hope all is well. My email address is above. Drop me a note when you can.
Later,
Rick
June 26th, 2007 at 2:16 pm