Warning: Old Man Yells at Cloud.
Senses Fail and Saves the Day brought their “New Jersey Vs the World” tour to a sold-out crowd at the Anaheim House of Blues. With Senses Fail being one of my wife’s favorite bands and this show being close to her birthday, we went. I was not excited for many reasons, but most of them logistical.
Since the venue moved to the Gardenwalk down the street from its previous home at Downtown Disney, the House of Blues has not been able to find a way to effectively set up the merch table. You have to make the choice: Do you miss getting a good spot or go after the show, waiting at least an extra hour or so to get the leftover merch scraps from the people who didn’t want a good spot? We chose to forego a good spot and get merch. Even with stanchions set up to create a condensed line and clear up traffic in the lobby, getting merch was still a cluster-fucking mess. I was unsure if it was the merch guy’s fault or the venue’s not setting the lines up properly, but my wife fixed it for them.
Once we got to the floor, a screen had been set up on the wall behind where the band’s gear had been set up. Playing ad nauseam was about a minute or so clip of Emo-ish American Apparel models showing off Senses Fail and Saves the Day’s merch, including a plush of the cutesy Grim Reaper that appears as Senses Fail’s mascot. Eventually, a QR code came up for you to scan to enter for a chance to win a trip to New Jersey with singers of both bands, Buddy Nielsen (Senses Fail) and Chris Conley (Saves the Day). Using a clichéd New Jersey image of James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano smoking a cigar inside his pool, the ad then flashes to restaurants and clips of the New Jersey Devils indicating what the prize will include.
Opening support for the “New Jersey vs. the World” tour came from the Houston, Texas, band Narrow Head. Narrow Head sounded like Filter if they were an emo band. While I liked the subtle influences from early emo bands in the music, I couldn’t tell where the first song ended and maybe the second and/or third began. While I’m not so out of touch that I’ve not heard bands do this, there is typically a clear distinction of where that moment is (e.g., the first two tracks off of Ozma’s Rock n Roll Part 3). While they played their instruments well, they sounded stereotypically 2000s emo. Emo, for Emo’s sake. Maybe I just don’t like this era of Emo in general. I didn’t get a lot of energy from this band, but I will take into consideration they were three to four days to the end of a four-month tour.
I don’t think I even know a handful of Saves the Day songs, and at least two of the ones I know are covers. Their set was mostly dominated by a play-through of their 1999 album, Through Being Cool. I have friends who revere this album, but I never saw the appeal. It’s probably one of those things I found too late. Singer Chris Conley is the sole remaining member of the band, and while he did compose the majority of the songs on the album, these anniversary concerts feel more organic when some of those other members are present. Given the list of former members found on Wikipedia, maybe that wasn’t possible, but I digress. As the lights went out, the band walked out to the overture from the movie “Dancer in the Dark,” which was composed by Björk. Conley, clad in a Fugazi shirt, came out and played with his band for a little over an hour. This was my first full listen of Through Being Cool and probably my last. After playing through the album, the band played random hits starting with “At Your Funeral,” but also included “Cars and Calories” before closing with “Nightingale.” I should end this paragraph with: everyone in the band played their instruments well.
Throughout Saves the Day’s set, a guy with huge sideburns stood and flipped them off for the majority of their set. A woman behind us didn’t take too kindly to that gesture and threw a cup of ice at him. After trying to find the guilty party, Sideburns went back to flipping off the band. Once Saves the Day’s set had ended, the woman went over and attacked the guy. The two were separated, with Sideburns going further into the crowd towards the front while the woman went towards the back of the venue. Before Senses Fail started, security came by looking for Sideburns, probably to escort him out. If only there was something unique to identify him. I’m still trying to figure out who was the bigger asshole.
Senses Fail walked out to the whistling sounds of the song “Twisted Nerve.” While it was originally a part of the soundtrack from the 1968 movie of the same name, our generation knows it from the hospital scene in Kill Bill: Volume 1. Buddy Nielsen and crew were there to celebrate their album Let It Enfold You. I was mostly in the same boat as with Saves the Day. I had heard covers that the band played and a few songs from in passing when my wife plays them, but I couldn’t tell you the name of a song without looking up the setlist. Out of the two full albums I heard that night, I enjoyed Let It Enfold You more, but will still probably only hear it in passing. Being down the street from both Disneyland and the Honda Center, home to the Anaheim Ducks, Buddy led the crowd in a chant of quacks halfway through their time on stage. Senses Fail put on a pretty good set. If I am being forced to see a band perform live, they would be fine. At the end of the set, Chris Conley came back out and covered the My Chemical Romance song “Helena,” to which the crowd went crazy, but we left partway through. When you hit your late thirties/early forties, no special closing song is going to outweigh the glory of beating venue traffic.
Overall, it could’ve been worse. I had no real attachment to either of the bands, and at the end of the work week, my tolerance for people in general is low. I’m also probably not the best judge of the popularity of either band, as they had added another show a few days later back at the Anaheim House of Blues. I’m sure if this was your thing, this was a treat.
