"The world begins with newborn skin,
We are right now.
You're a needle girl in a haystack world,
We are right now.
You breathe it in, the highs and lows,
We call it living.
In this needle and haystack life,
I've found miracles there in your eyes.
It's no accident we're here tonight;
We are once in a lifetime."
Tonight was the Switchfoot concert Dave took Tarvis and I to for our early Christmas gift. Great gift idea, by the way. Also my first rock show since that Beaumont festival Dave and I went to...in 2005. Also also, the last time I'd seen Switchfoot live, they were the opening band for Five Iron Frenzy.
Times have changed a bit, aye?
The show was great. As advertised, the band played their entire new album, the fantastic Hello Hurricane, from start to finish to open their concert. Since the record came out last Tuesday, it was amazing how many fans already knew most/all of the words. After Hurricane was finished, they played what was essentially a second set of songs from just about all of their older albums. (Nothing from The Legend of Chin or New Way to be Human tonight, though, sadly) All in all, they were on the stage for a little over a full two hours.
Set list was as follows (as best as I can remember it):
The Hello Hurricane set:
Needle and Haystack Life
Mess of Me
Your Love is a Song
The Sound (it's hard to comprehend exactly how much this song rocks when played live)
Enough to Let Me Go
Free (majorly souped-up ending, adding bass drum and auxiliary percussion to practically blow the roof off the place; also, mixed in a touch of Happy Is a Yuppie Word in the intro, which was cool)
Hello Hurricane (This is just an awesome/beautiful song, and fun/easy to sing along with)
Always
Bullet Soul
Yet
Sing It Out (Surprisingly powerful when played live)
Red Eyes/Needle and Haystack Life reprise (Fantastic ending to this portion of the set)
"Second" set
Oh! Gravity
Stars/The Shadow Proves the Sunshine (Highlight of the night: A girl in the audience has a sign asking the band to let her play drums with them on "Stars," so Jon brings her up on stage and she plays the last chorus and totally nails it. Awesome)
Meant to Live
*faux ending, followed by the encore:*
This Is Your Life
Learning to Breathe
Daisy (SO PSYCHED they played this song. They said they hadn't played it for years, but it's one of my favorites. Supposedly, one of Jon's favorites, too)(
Dare You to Move
I really love this band. They're probably my favorite active group, which is funny because I only really grew to appreciate their newer stuff in the past three years or so, but I really dig their music, their lyrics, and their philosophy. Tonight, though, I got to watch them interact with fans, and it was a blast. They were so personable and down-to-earth with the masses. They were quite charming and affable and just all-around likeable. It's always refreshing to see a band that doesn't take themselves too seriously while totally taking their music and their message VERY seriously.
I'm glad I got the chance to see these guys live. They really put on a high-quality stage show. I kind of wished they'd have ended with a bigger bang than Dare You To Move, but that really is a great song, and it definitely tied up the main themes from the evening better than any of their more rock-centric stuff. My neck and shoulders (and probably upper back as well) will all be slightly sore tomorrow, too. That's a good thing. That's a sign that you probably enjoyed the rock show, whether it was all rock or not ;-)
