Dan P
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| Dan P (center with glasses and curly hair) with his band 'Dan P and the Bricks' |
I had no idea who this guy was going in or that he even had a band. We were running a little late, but we still managed to make it on time for his set. He went on at 7:30. We showed up, and just as we showed up, there was Dan P walking on stage with an acoustic guitar. This was definitely one of the most entertaining acoustic sets I've seen, and certainly the most entertaining solo set I've seen. He filled time in between songs with hilarious banter, and he even put a comedic spin on his otherwise serious songs. Some songs covered serious social or political issues, and he was like "This is a happy song." He just seemed to be an average dad having fun on stage, but Dan P proved to be more than that. He could handle the crowd well and managed to make almost the whole venue laugh. The highlight was the last song when someone asked him to play 'Freebird.' He then played a different song, but dedicated it to a girl in the front named Sarah, the alleged heckler. There was a line about being 40 and balding, which made the place erupt with laughter. Dan even laughed at that one too. Well done, Dan. Well done.
Streetlight Manifesto
Oh boy. Where do I even begin with this one? The band unexpectedly came on at 8:30, even though we were anticipating 9:00. The wait felt like nothing, somehow. They came on and opened with 'With Any Sort Of Certainty,' and the whole floor burst out into a giant mosh pit filled with energy. Everyone was jumping, and everyone was singing. We were all having such a good time throughout the entire performance. The band took fans on a wild journey that covered material from all five of their albums, including the covers album '99 Songs of Revolution Vol. 1.' Highlight songs included 'A Better Place, A Better Time,' known as one of the band's more notable singalong songs, and fan-favorite 'We Will Fall Together,' possibly the band's most popular song. The band performed 18 songs, filled with trumpet screeches, sax solos, and "WOOP WOOP" calls from vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Tomas Kalnoky.
There are many stories I have to tell about this concert, despite it being only about an hour and a half. I'll tell you what I can remember at the moment. I remember a lot of alcohol being spilled on me at the start of their performance. I remember everybody singing every word of the songs AND singing all the horn parts for the songs, too. I remember crowd-surfing a couple times. One of those times, I told my brother and some other guy to "crowd-surf me around the circle pit." They picked me up and ran me around the circle pit for about half a rotation before tossing me onto the crowd in front of them. I remember my brother and I doing this thing where we hold onto each other's hands and spin in circles in the mosh pits, and we had people pushing us to spin faster. I remember there were multiple times when the pit opened up really wide, and everyone charged at each other when the band started playing again.
I need to talk about the band's performance a little bit, too. This band has one of the most musically well-put-together performances I've ever heard. Each of the members (two saxophones, trumpet, trombone, bass, drums, guitarist/vocalist) gives their all to make their performance sound good. The horns section also provides backup vocals when needed. They, oddly enough, don't talk in between songs. There's just a constant flow of music, so the band doesn't lose their flow, nor does the crowd. The horns section is a real highlight of this band, as they provide some catchy melodies in every song in the band's catalog. They played a couple of my favorites, 'The Littlest Things' and 'Watch it Crash.' One of the ones I really wanted to hear, 'Would You Be Impressed?' was not performed, but that's perfectly fine. This band could play any songs, and I would be very satisfied.
Here is a video of the performance from the show (mosh pit example around 2:46):
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