I took a trip down Nostalgia Lane a couple of weeks ago and attended the resurrected Taste of Chaos Tour in Philadelphia. This year’s line up was great, and I was going to go to a tour date somewhere. Who can pass up Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Saosin (with Anthony Green) and The Early November. Philadelphia had something extra special though. One of my favorite bands of all time, ever, The Starting Line, was playing this date. The date was Father’s Day. Luckily I was already going to be back in Pennsylvania that weekend for my younger brother’s graduation party, so it wasn’t completely impossible to go.
Two of my best friends and I jumped in the car and began the six hour trip across the state. Of course we packed our most important supplies: Diet Coke, candy, and water. On the menu were Starburst, Sour Patch Kids, and Peanut M&Ms. The journey wasn’t anything too crazy, mostly emo kid sing alongs and playing remember when…
On our list of to dos was obviously getting a Philly Cheese Steak. Marcie was vegetarian every time we had gone to Philadelphia in the past, so this was her first chance to have a real philly cheese steak. We went to Jim’s Steaks South Street. Marcie and I opted to share our cheese steak, because we knew we would want to eat it all and then we would get sick. It was beyond delicious. I’m still in awe of it’s taste.
Unfortunately we missed most of The Early November’s set. There was a bit of a line to get into the pavilion. We got to listen to three or four songs while we stood in line trying to get some beers. Ace Enders is always amazing to me. I’m really bummed I didn’t get to hear their whole set.
Next up was Saosin with Anthony Green and wow. I think that is the only way to describe their performance. Anthony Green is an absolutely insane person. He crowd surfed from the stage all the way to the back of the crowd where the sound booth was. That picture all the way at the top of this post was Anthony mid crowd surf.
This is him all the way at the top of the sound booth. I think he wanted to jump into the crowd from there, but security was already freaking out at this point.
Emo kids wearing their emo shoes.
The Starting Line was up next, and honestly I only have about two pictures from their set. I was way too busy dancing and screaming along with my friends. I don’t think I know how to not go nuts when listening to them. They finished with Best of Me. The lyrics of Best of Me completely sums up the nostalgia that this tour embodied. “We got older, but we’re still young, We’ll never grow out of this feeling that we won’t give up.” Granted in the song, they are talking about love, but I’m pretty sure every single person in that crowd felt like they were talking about our teenage years and early twenties going to concerts and letting music be our life.
Taking Back Sunday played a pretty awesome set, but I’ll be honest, I would have liked more old music and way less new music. I know it is unfair to ask that of a band. Obviously they want us to like their new music. Obviously this is the perfect opportunity for us to hear the music and fall in love. That’s not where I was though. I was in this state of perfect nostalgia and music that hasn’t been with me since I was a kid was something I wanted nothing to do with.
The crowd was insane. It has been years since I have been in a crowd that moshed and had crowd surfers. My friends and I were standing there, and Taking Back Sunday played their first note and the crowd just opened up in front of me. The people in the front must have been completely crushed against the barrier. It sounds silly but to me that is how I quantify how epic a show is.
Finally, Dashboard Confessional played. It was a pretty good set, but really I was there to hear Hands Down, which of course was the last song that they played. There is nothing more surreal than standing in a crowd of 10,000 people as they all sing along to the song that helped define their generation. The crowd was singing louder than the musicians throughout the night. There was a time when I would have been to over twenty shows by June. This show was the first concert I had been to all year. It is unacceptable. It is also another one of the things I am going to start saying yes to. More concerts here I come!!
