It’s not very often you have to buy tickets in advance to attend a show at the Garrick but that certainly was the case Sunday night. A giant line up mostly comprised of teen girls drifted from the entrance of the Garrick to Portage Ave. Any passerby probably thought anyone but a group of pop punk acts that only have one full length out so far held their affections that night.
Valencia kicked the night off at 7 PM and played to a crowd that was overly enthusiastic, a reaction you don’t always see for the first band. They only played for 20 minutes but they made sure to make every minute count playing such sugary sweet pop punk tunes like The Space Between which ended their set.
Chicago’s theAUDITION was up next and they were greeted just as warmly as Valencia was. The group ploughed through an energetic set which included favourites off of Controversy Loves Company like You've Made Us Conscious. They also previewed some of the new material they have been working on for the new disc they hope will see the light of day on January 22, 2008.
All Time Low got the party started once the opening line of Dear Maria, Count Me In was sung. The band was by far the most fun band to play that night and they got everyone in the crowd clapping, singing and jumping along to every beat. Banter in between songs primarily took cues from blink-182 such as when guitarist Jack Barakat shouted “I have a bigger penis than Alex!” while their front man jokingly retorted “Oh yeah? I’ll whip it out right now!” which only caused more approval from the band’s primarily female fan base.
While all the bands received glowing approval that night, the majority of the crowd was evidently there for Boys Like Girls. True, they played the same catchy power chord based tunes about relationships the other bands did but their set was lacking a strong sense of enthusiasm the other bands had more than enough of. That may have worked well when playing Thunder acoustically while nearly everyone was waving their cell phones in the air. For songs like Heels Over Head though, it doesn’t do much too just stand there, often motionless while a bright lights display went on in the background.
Despite this, the night was still a success and this grade A bill gave you more than a suggested serving of the sweet stuff, totally meeting the standards of anyone who has a soft spot for pop punk goodness.
Final Verdict? 4/5
-Reviewed by Deborah Remus
*Check out an interview with Alex from All Time Low conducted at the show here!
