2016 Taste of Chaos Tour: Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Motion City Soundtrack, Saosin and the Early November

Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Motion City Soundtrack, Saosin and the Early November
Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
Taste of Chaos
Wantagh, NY
June 14, 2016

Emo is a style of rock music that resembles punk while having much more complex arrangements and erudite lyrics. One of the basic aspects of the subgenre is the fact that the lyrics deal with more poignant and/or emotional subjects. Hence the name.

After a slightly muggy day on a cool late afternoon and evening at the beach, the Rockstar Energy Drink Taste of Chaos tour touched down in Wantagh, NY at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater. The evening began quite early, slightly before 6pm, when the Early November took the stage and kicked off the festivities with "Decoration." The New Jersey band's short, but high energy set, featured songs that touched on all aspects of their career from the beginning ("Baby Blue" from its 2003 Drive Thru Records debut CD The Room's Too ColdImbue (Rise Records, 2015). Lead singer Ace Enders definitely was the right man to begin the evening. Before the sun had even begun to set, Engers was multi-tasking, acting as both showman and master of ceremonies. Just prior to performing "Narrow Mouth," Enders asked the audience, "Are you ready for Saosin, Motion City Soundtrack, Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional?" The crowd responded with a hearty cheer and a number of "Hell yeahs!" Enders said, "Okay, then you're ready!" He then thanked the crowd for "cheering, clapping and coming out early."

Saosin from Newport Beach, CA delivered a performance that was loud fast and out of control. It was exactly what its fans hoped to see and hear. Frontman Anthony Green sarcastically announced himself and his band to the crowd with, "Welcome to the 2003 Battle Of The Bands. We are the Naked Frisbees!" Saosin's set was harder and more energetic than that of the Early November. Green ran around the stage like a possessed sprinter. He went into the crowd and got the already amped-up audience even more worked-up. The band's set list was also short—under 10 songs. What it lacked in length it more than made up for in quality. Highlights included "Racing Toward a Red Light" from its Along the Shadow CD (Epitath, 2016), "Translating The Name" and "Seven Years" from Translating The Name (Death Do Us Part Records, 2003). One of the highlights was when Green spied two longtime fans in the audience, mentioned that they had been to many of the group's concerts and invited them on-stage to watch the show from the wings. At the end of his band's show, Green took an ever-so-slight bow and simply stated, "Thank you all for coming out so damn early!"

The evening's special guests, Motion City Soundtrack, were up next. The Minneapolis, MN band was truly the evening's special guest. During its almost twenty-year career, Motion City Soundtrack toured regularly and between tours managed to released six studio CDs. Earlier in 2016 it announced that this summer tour would be its farewell. Not a regular part of the Taste of Chaos tour, the performance on this evening would be its only appearance on the Rockstar Energy Drink expedition. Suddenly appearing on stage and announcing themselves with, "Hi! We're Motion City Soundtrack," band members Justin Pierre (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Joshua Cain (lead guitar), Jesse Johnson (keyboards and synth), bassist Matthew Taylor and drummer Tony Thaxton played as though this were the last night of their tour. They gave their all opening with a sing-along version of "Everything Is Alright" (from the Mark Hoppus-produced 2005 Epitaph Records CD Commit This To Memory) that had the audience on its feet rocking, swaying, dancing and, of course, singing every word. The career-spanning set featured a number of powerful performances including: "Make Out Kids," "My Favorite Accident," "Broken Heart" from Even If It Kills Me (Epitaph, 2007) and the set-closer "The Future Freaks Me Out" from I Am The Movie (which was self-released in 2002 and re-issued in 2003 by Epipath).

Taking Back Sunday took the stage following Motion City Soundtrack. Playing in front of a hometown crowd, the Long Island natives set the tone for its portion of the evening with one of its biggest hits, "Cute Without the E." This caused the band's fans and friends to go absolutely crazy. The sound was deafening. The set continued with "Liar (It Takes One to Know One)" and "Flicker, Fade" from Happiness Is (Hopeless Records, 2014). Frontman Adam Lazzara spent a good portion of his time between songs waxing philosophic. He talked about how the evening's concert brought back a lot of his and the audience's past. He said, "Oh my God, I can't believe it. We're at Jones Beach. It wasn't too long ago that we were at a VFW Hall in Farmingdale." He later stated that he understood that "part of the reason you decided to join us tonight was for nostalgic purposes. That's all right by me 'cause we grown together." He continued by stating that Taking Back Sunday "was there when you learned to drive, when you graduated high school, when you discovered the sweet smell of lower Manhattan, when you went to college, when you graduated college, but more importantly Taking Back Sunday is here now and we're not going anywhere." His statement was greeted with riotous applause.

Lazzara and the band (John Nolan on lead guitar, Eddie Reyes on rhythm guitar, Mark O'Connell on drums and Shaun Cooper on bass) also played some new music—music which is slated for release later in 2016. "Tidal Wave" which owes much of its DNA to the Ramones influences that wash over many New York and Long Island bands sounds like it is destined to be a hit. Additionally, the band played another powerful new tune called "Holy Water" before ending its set with the fan-favorite "MakeDamnSure" from Louder Now (Warner Brothers Records, 2006).

After an intermission that was slightly longer than those preceding each of the previous bands, Dashboard Confessional appeared on venue's stage. Opening with "Vindicated," one of its biggest hits originally released on (Vagrant Records, 2006), Chris Carrabba and his band (Scott Schoenbeck on bass, drummer Mike Marsh and guitarist John Lefler) weaved and mixed a powerful set of full-band arranged songs with acoustic numbers. Though the band claims to be working on new music, this evening's set centered on the old songs. The audience was thrilled. They hung on Carrabba's every utterance, his every motion and his every twitch. Each song was welcomed with raucous cheers, whistles and applause. Carrabba rarely spoke. When he did, he mentioned that he had "a lot of family here tonight and I just want to tell them you're very special to me." That was pretty much it, yet he had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand every time he launched into the opening notes, chords and/or verses of the fan favorites that comprise the Dashboard Confessional canon. Whether it was an acoustic performance of "The Swiss Army Romance" or the full band performances of "Screaming Infidelities" and "The Good Fight" (both of which were released on the 2001 Vagrant album The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most) or the cover of Coldplay's "Fix You," the audience was transfixed—but not so spellbound that it didn't respond and join Carrabba as he sung. Other highlights included: "Again I Go Unnoticed," "Saints and Sailors," the set-ending "Stolen" and the encore "Hands Down" from A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar (Vagrant Records, 2003).

Judging by the sustained applause and the standing ovation following the encore, Dashboard Confessional's fans and Carrabba's family members were thrilled with the trip down memory lane that both so very much wanted.

Overall the evening featured the perfect mix of old and new. Some say emo is all in the past. Not so fast—emo isn't dead, it's just matured and developed, much like its audience and its biggest acts. It's going to be interesting to watch it grow, change and flourish—just like its fans.

Photo Credit: Christine Connallon
[Additional article contributions by Christine Connallon].

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