Honda Civic Tour - May 13, 2007

On Sunday, May 13 I attended the Honda Civic Tour in Council Bluffs, IA. I have to say that the Mid-American Center is possibly one of my favorite venues for larger tours. I saw Panic! At the Disco there about six or seven months ago and had the same experience. The lines go quickly to get in, merch is run fairly well, bathrooms are dirty but you’ll get that at any concert. The arena area was extremely large and gives plenty of room for everyone. AND they serve beer … a nice extra for those 21+ or parents bored out of their mind.

The show contained Fall Out Boy, +44, The Academy Is …, Paul Wall and Cobra Starship (amazing lineup!).

Cobra Starship opened the show which was odd to me. Almost as odd as the fact that Paul Wall was even on the bill. He didn’t fit and definitely didn’t need to be on the tour, but he SHOULD have been the first band.

None the less, Cobra’s set was fun. There were a lot of technical difficulties in the beginning, but considering that fact, the set was simply amazing. Gabe Saporta himself stated that at this show, possibly everything that COULD go wrong, WAS going wrong. However, the vocals were clear, the music was precise and Saporta had an amazing ability to connect with the audience, beings half of them hadn’t heard any song other than “Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)”. Saporta had some of the best stage-presence I’ve seen in a long long time. I’ve been a fan of Cobra for a while, but after seeing them live, I’ve become ten times more of a fan. That and the fact that Saporta was signing autographs, taking pictures and generally meeting with fans by his merch table for most of the night. And yes, I did go meet him. I had on my Gatsbys American Dream shirt and he actually struck up a conversation about them. He’s incredibly nice and its refreshing to meet stars like that. Even though he did spill his drink on me … but its Gabe Saporta …. Needless to say, I didn’t mind …

Next was Paul Wall. Which was awkward. It’s like shopping for clothes, slowly regressing towards the back, then you see this incredibly cute shirt, but you look up and realize you’re in the maternity section. You look around thinking ‘what the hell am I doing here?’ … that awkward … It’s not to say he sucked … maybe for those more entertained by hip hop, he was awesome. It’s just that he didn’t do anything for me. I kept thinking ‘we’re in the middle of nowhere (aka IOWA), at a Fall Out Boy concert, and PAUL WALL is here?’ And the funniest part of the show is that he gave out a grill. To a mom (since it WAS mothers day). That mom should feel lucky … she’s probably the only one in Iowa with a diamond studded mouth-piece.

After the long nap I took throughout Walls set, The Academy Is … was up. I have seen these guys at Warped Tour last summer, and loved their set, so I was excited to see another one. And I was extremely disappointed. The vocals were horrible, and I couldn’t hear a THING that William Beckett had to say, which was extremely disappointing. Not to mention the crowd sucked and was pushing the entire thing, (I’m sure the fact that I’m somewhat short didn’t help much, either) and I couldn’t hardly see a thing. There was a moment, though, when I looked up and there was Beckett right in front of me, almost looking as if he was staring straight at me. And for those 5 seconds, the crowd was still and I thought of nothing but Becketts words. That, my friends, is what music is about. Those moments that just get you completely lost. Those are what I live for.

Not that I was left extremely disappointed by TAI … there music was still good and I knew every song anyways … but the next band was the one I was personally waiting for.

Now I’m not saying that +44 shouldn’t get recognition on their own, but they certainly wouldn’t be making suck a splash into the music pool without two thirds of Blink-182. And since I’ve basically given up my dream if ever seeing Blink in concert, +44 was a good alternate. And I wasn’t let down. Travis Barker was simply amazing and I’ve decided I can die happily, knowing that I got to see this Drum God live, even if it was only once. And Mark Hoppus was just as hilarious as I had imagined, at one time making fun of a coworker (manager, maybe?) that looked like a little kid, yelling to the audience “Let’s give it up to a 30-year old with braces!!” You could certainly tell that he was a veteran to the music industry and instantly clicked with the crowd. Any moment between songs went smoothly and I ended up hoping for either a drum solo or just to hear Mark keep talking.

Last, but obviously not least, was the ever popular Fall Out Boy, who entered by popping up out of the floor. Their set included lots of pyrotechnics, including fireworks and large flames during certain parts of their songs. I’ve seen FOB about a year and a half ago during the Nintendo Fusion Tour (when their huge success was just coming about) and the sets are QUITE different. I guess this is to be expected with their rise in popularity, but I have to say, I wasn’t much more impressed. Within the first few lines, I was simply thinking that they should have spent more time practicing their music than choreographing the show and test running the explosives. After a few more songs, they began to sound much much better and I was getting into it a little more. They played just as many of their older, popular songs as they did newer once, but they did seem a little TOO popular. They even changed clothes throughout the set. Like some Christina Aguilera concert. They did have a part, however, where Pete Wentz and Joe Trohman showed up at a separate stage in the back, in the middle of the crowd. Kudos for that sneaky move.

The FOB set also had a very large video screen behind them, constantly running video and graphics to go with each song. Although this was interesting, I found myself watching the screen more than actually listening to the music. I don’t mean to complain because I DO like visuals, but it just seems like bands focus more on beating the competitions shows and basically spending large amounts of money to make even larger amounts, than focusing on the music. I would have been just as happy seeing FOB on a plain, flat stage JUST playing their music than I did at this mock Fourth of July celebration. Because in the end, I bought the ticket to see the music, not the fire or the videos or the huge lights that spelled FOB. It’s the MUSIC, people! Do we forget this??? Cobra didn’t have ANYTHING except tech difficulties, and their set was JUST as good as FOB’s set.

Pardon my complaints – I’m just slightly frustrated with this.

Oh, and I also find it quite ironic that the production cost had to be HUGE, and, right before FOB came onstage, they played an advertisement for Invisible Children, an organization that focuses on creating better lives for war-stricken children. Do they feel better about spending thousands of dollars on fire if they play a 30 second video in hopes that even one fan will walk away with a 2 dollar bracelet? Or do they just not feel like actually donating half of the money they spend on production to a worthy cause so they have to push the audience into not ONLY buying a 50 dollar ticket to the show, but also donating money, because, hey, Pete Wentz says it’s cool …

Yea for bitterness.

I’m done now. That’s really all I have for this show … overall I’d say it was good, and totally worth the 3 hour car drive and expensive ticket. I highly recommend going if its in your town.