Saves the Day/Say Anything @ Metro

Last night was the big Saves the Day/Say Anything show at the Metro in Chicago. It definitely did not disappoint. We got there a bit after the show started and caught the last two songs of The Dear Hunter, a prog-rock band from Boston. They have a very interesting style that is constantly changing tempos, throwing in background vocals, cool keyboard effects, and loud breaks. The singer was extremely talented live, and he did a great job hitting all of his notes and really bringing the songs together. One track off their debut cd is posted below.



The second band was called Meg and Dia. If you dig chick-fronted rock bands, check them out. I dont have any tunes, but they played a tight set of pop-rock tunes, with some punk stylings thrown in. The singers were very talented and great at harmonizing with each other live. The guitar player pulled out some sick solos, and the drummer was quite entertaining. It's not necessarily my cup of tea, but they have to be one of the best in the girl-rock scene.

The next band was one of my all-time high school favorites, Saves the Day. They have been rocking out since 1998, and their second cd Through Being Cool may be the most dangerous for me to play in my car because it makes me want to drive insanely fast. I will have to make a full post later on this band because they deserve it...but their style is basically a punkish-rock with some emo lyrics and some nasally singing by Chris Conley. Each CD they put out has a different feel, yet is also noticeably Saves the Day. At the show, you could tell that they were the oldest and most experienced. They played a large cross-section from all of their CD's, took requests, and kept the crowd in it the entire night. A couple of songs are posted below, which really don't do justice to their large catalogue. The first is 'Firefly', which I had joked about all day about being their opener, and crazily enough it was. The second is a super-emo one off of Through Being Cool that they also played.





Lastly, Say Anything came on and put a great show together. They didn't seem as tight as some of the other bands, but the quality of their songs really made up for it. Max didn't exactly know how to use a mic, but his energy was incredible, and the show was outstanding...especially the encore with 'Alive', 'Walk Through Hell', and 'Admit It' (which in my opinion was the best song of the night). Read Alec's previous post, for a real description of their style...but I'll put one tune down that most of the Say Anything fans may not have. This is a demo track that they recorded, and the crowd chanted it during the encore....so they played it, and it was great. It is off their Menora/Majora EP, and it's called 'A Walk Through Hell'.