Bands: Hawthorne Heights, Story Of The Year, Anberlin, Halifax

I saw Hawthorne Heights, Story Of The Year, Anberlin and Halifax in concert this past weekend and it was a decent show. Due to my lack of intelligence in reading the tickets I ended up missing the first act, Halifax. This was a bit disappointing since they are a great young band on Drive-Thru Records who put out a killer LP this year as a follow-up to their fantastic EP.

Fortunately I arrived just in time to catch Anberlin, who are one of my favorite bands. There were not many people at the venue, Mac Hall at the University of Calgary, and it gave Anberlin's set a club type feel. The band played many a song off of their most recent album, Never Take Friendship Personal, and only one song off of their debut record, Blueprints For The Black Market. The band included a cover of The Cure's Lovesong (who doesn't cover this song these days) as well as a new song off of their upcoming record. The set was tight but lead vocalist Stephen Christian's mic could have been up a bit more so the crowd could have enjoyed the softer more subtle notes. All in all it was a great set and the new song that the band played hinted at a darker feel to the new album.

Up next was Story of the Year (why they were not on last is a shocker). Story of the Year put on an explosive, crowd pleasing set that blew all the other acts out of the water. It seems as if this band has been practicing its stage act for years as their set went off without a hitch. The set did become a bit taxing near the end because you could tell that they were the band the crowd was there to see but they were not the headliners. Even though the set became taxing it was pure rock from beginning to end and had a distinct metal feel to it. The crowd loved it and a good time was had by all.

Now it was Hawthorne Heights turn. The band came on stage (to a much smaller audience than Story of the Year) and delivered a three guitar attack that sounded crisp. With that said, Hawthorne Heights failed to keep the crowds attention as the other bands had done with ease. The band tended to rely on more rock clichés and their inexperience as a young band was evident. They were musically sound but were missing that certain something that similar bands like Scary Kids Scaring Kids have. I have to admit that I ended up leaving half way through their set because all of their songs started to blend together and fade into the background noise. Maybe they are just not my thing or I am missing something. Bands like Hawthorne Heights don't deserve the spotlight and are just another flash in the pan creation of what the music industry thinks is hot at the moment.

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