Say Anything wrapped up their latest U.S. tour in support of their brand new record “Hebrews” during Comic Con weekend, with the second to last show taking place in San Diego during the con. Despite a thousand events and parties going on in every which direction the tour was still able to pack out the House of Blues. Given how strong the line up was I’m not surprised. A act with a little over 15 years of history bringing arguably the best up and coming bands of the scene on a coast to coast tour sounds like a successful plan to me. From what I was able to see of the show, it was absolutely chaos. Unfortunately I missed both Say Anything and You Blew It(save the jokes).
Now you may be asking, “Mondo, how did you miss half the show?”. Well that is a very good question! I missed You Blew It through my own idiocy of being drunk and getting lost using public transportation. In my defense when I asked the conductor if I was boarding the right train he said yes but was in fact lying! So I ended up in front of the Convention Center instead of the House of Blues like originally planned. Then I had to hoof it and made it right at the end of You Blew It’s set. As for Say Anything, well I got kicked out for crowd surfing during The Front Bottoms during “twin size mattress”. Not much else to say to be honest. Had to up the punx, dawg! I was more bummed than you’ll ever know to miss these bands as they each put out some of my favorite records of the year.
So let’s talk about what I did see that evening. The So So Glos were a band I had heard some buzz for and listened to a song or two but never really checked out. So I was extremely excited to finally see them. The band did not disappoint and I pogo’d a bit during their set, unfortunately the couple to my right did not appreciate it all that much. To be honest I don’t give two shits if I interrupted their drunken attempts at PDA, I was having fun. Take it elsewhere kids, Mondo wants to dance! After they finished their set and the couple had enough I roamed about to try and find a good spot for The Front Bottoms. Thankfully the set change was quick and the band took to the stage, with huge inflatable letters!
The set, although short, was tight and they plowed through song after song. It was almost a shame their set was only about 40 minutes because there were so many songs I wanted to hear but by no means was I disappointed. I just have too many favorites from these guys to fit in a shorter than headlining set. They left me wanting more which is what you should do as a band because it’s either that or you go on too long, there is definitely no middle ground. As they announced they would be departing for the evening they closed things out with twin size mattress and I had to crowd surf. So what if it’s the first single from their most recent record, that song just has a special meaning to me. I saw these guys at their first California show in the shittiest venue you can think of; the food court, in a strip mall, in Bakersfield. To see them go from that show to having twin size mattress become a huge hit for the guys I just can’t help but hold the song in a special place in my heart. So I did my thing and when I made it to the barricade I was booted out BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!
With that I just stood outside the venue and listened to Say Anything from outside and they at least sounded great. They played a lot of my favorite songs and I could somewhat hear it from the outside so it was like I was there, except not really. Oh well, next time!