Take Action Tour
By Nathan Blaney
Monday. Apr 09, 12:55 PM
live at Irving Plaza (New York, NY) March 26th, 2007.

Once again, the Take Action Tour hit the road this year to raise awareness about suicide. I was able to catch the final date, and I don’t know if it was because the whole tour was better this year or just because the bands had gotten really tight and polished by the end, but the show was significantly better than last year’s. Not that last year’s was bad at all: this year’s just had a certain energy that was previously missing.

Driving East were the openers, and although I believe they didn’t participate in much of the tour, they fit really well. They put on an energetic, upbeat performance and were perfect openers. I hadn’t previously heard of them, but I’d be willing to check them out again. Good stuff. They were followed by Kaddisfly, who I was eager to witness. I recently reviewed their new album and was curious to see if their live performance would be as equally influenced by Incubus. And as I guessed, it was… very much like seeing Incubus. But these guys DO have something going for them: they’re damn good musicians and good performers too. So the similarity can be forgiven somewhat. They also seemed to be genuinely nice guys. I happened to eavesdrop on a conversation outside between their guitarist and some fans and he was extremely nice: not a “rock star” at all. Let’s hope that attitude continues as these guys continue to gain popularity (and I’m confident they will). Scary Kids Scaring Kids were up next and did an admirable job of whipping the crowd into a frenzy. I wasn’t a huge fan of either them or the band that followed, Emery, but both put on performances that satisfied the kids. Nothing to complain about, simply not my thing, you know?

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus closed the evening, and without a doubt this was the band that everyone was here to see. The extensive radio play that these guys have been getting clearly did its job: the venue was packed by the time they hit the stage. Their se struck me as a bit “loose.” Not a sloppy performance, but maybe just a bit uneven. I enjoyed it overall though, and it was clear that the crowd did as well. Hopefully that crowd will be back again next year, when the tour will hopefully be bigger and better than ever!
www.takeactiontour.com

Nathan Blaney

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