The Starting Line's "Somebody's Gonna Miss Us" Tour at Slim's, 04.03.08

On Thursday, April 3, I went to The Starting Line show at Slim's in San Francisco. The headliners of their "Somebody's Gonna Miss Us" tour sang to full capacity with support from Steel Train, Four Year Strong, and Bayside. It was an awesome show, and was bittersweet knowing one of the original pop-punk bands of the late 1990s may never play together live soon...or ever again. Therefore, I knew I had to grasp at the opportunity to see the Pennsylvania-native band live. Little did I know this would be one of the best decisions (music-wise) I've ever made. My concert bud for the show was Aiza, who sort of gave me a lesson on concert/scene 101, including why you should hold on to the barricades to survive the crush of the crowd, how ice cream sandwiches can be awesome pre-concert fuel, and the reason why being in front means b.y.o.e.p. (bring your own earplugs) and getting some comp agua.

Aiza and I met at 4 p.m. after her class and took the 5 and 47 buses to Slim's. She happens to work for USFtv and has a key role on a music-related show for the school channel and so because she is technically a member of the press, she is able to meet and interview bands. With a camera (in bag, in hand) she was psyched at the thought of finally getting to meet Kenny Vasoli, the beloved TSL frontman. She also was armed with a list of prepared interview questions, including one that asked about their favorite ice cream flavors.

We finally arrived at the venue at 4:30-ish and Aiza's BF Anthony stood in line so we were only the second group in line. There, I met Anthony's friend Alan who happened to see The AP Tour show in SF a week earlier (featured All Time Low, The Rocket Summer, and Forever The Sickest Kids, among others). I was greeen with envy. This was the earliest I've ever waited in line. It reminded me of my pal Maricel who is truly hardcore in getting there early, as she has waited upwards of six+ hours prior to doors.

The action in line (in the vein of a stream of consciousness): Anthony and Aiza went across the street to get a snack. I ask Alan what other bands he's into. One of them is Paramore. Nice. Not a big fan of The Rocket Summer though. Bummer. A&A return with an It's It, an ice cream sandwich concoction that is apparently a sweet San Francisco treat. Had a bite and was surprisingly yummy. Something with oatmeal I think. Dropped chocolate on ground. Aiza wipes with napkin and now it looks like shit. Haha. Alan has his alergies acting up and has a huge roll of t.p. in his backpack. I discover Aiza and Anthony are vegetarians. Aiza discovers the progression of our hairstyles. Mine being the first phase, Alan the second, and Anthony the final stage of the scene cut. Surprisingly short line, but prolly cause kids were at The Warfield for the My Chemical Romance show that same night. Crap, their loss is our gain. Alan and Anthony go to Office Max to unload their bladders and I'm follow them about ten minutes later. Huge mistake. Shit! They all met Kenny! Damn you bladder! Why?!? I will never go to the bathroom while waiting ever. Heh.

TSL starts to do their sound check and play "Birds". We all chirp along and "woohooooh". Aiza and classmate Audrey go in to interview TSL while we wait. Yep, I ruined the A-role with my name. Aiza and Audrey return. Apparently they didn't get to speak with Kenny! Aiza said that the press person asked the allowed press members the opportunity to go first. Not really thinking any repercussions from this, Aiza and Audrey go first...and they get Mike and Matt (or was it Tom? my memory is bad). Oh well, they got to take photos with him earlier. Aiza loves Hello Kitty. We all have chew on Hello Kitty gum. Audrey's goal is to get all the members of TSL to sign her liner notes. My goal is to meet Kenny. TSL fans are among the coolest. Someone in back of me says they'd pay for a show just with TSL. I'd agree. Not too fond of Bayside or Four Year Strong. The night before, I gave Steel Train a listen and fell asleep to their Myspace music player.

Okay so one of the security dude comes out to say "no cameras tonight". Booo. Why so strict? Is this not their last tour (for a while, or ever) and they are restricting cameras?! Sharpies are also contraband and any cameras we possessed had to be checked in. Not necessary. Do we not deserve better, since the cool kids need cool pix.

So the doors opened slightly later than expected and the line was divided by gender in prep for body and contraband searches. I am the third male. Anthony's sharpie gets tossed. We toss all our cameras in Alan's backpack. But say what? One of the venue girls gave small cameras the okay. Thank god!

We finally get in and we all bypassed the merch tables in favor of the prized positions in the front on the barricade. I did look back to see the type of merch available. Steel Train had a t-shirt and CD deal for $20. TSL had all sorts of tees on sale. Interestingly this show the audience got to see all the setting and packing between sets, as compared to the Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking Tour show. Alan continued to fight the allergies. Aiza puts in earplugs, saying she has permanent damage from being up front during shows all these years. Yikes. Audrey is super tall, so she separated from the group.

First up was Steel Train and their sound was unique and enjoyable. Lead singer started out with a red sweatshirt with a cow on it. LOL. Holding on to the barricade, I was right in front of the guitarist and was so close to the speakers I was sure to be deaf by the end of the night. Note to self: get some earplugs! I felt bad for the band since some of the kids up front showed little interest but I'm sure it was fun to try to win them over. Kudos for playing a Smashing Pumpkins cover ("1979") which I thought was unexpected/cool.

Next up was Four Year Strong, who I tried listening to some of their songs to get be prepared for their set, but just couldn't really get into it. I think of the four of us in front, Anthony was probably the most excited to see them perform. I have two three things to say about FYS: (1) They remind me of Limp Bizkit. (2) Their songs basically sound the same, no distinct melodies or choruses. (3) Their fans are unnecessarily intense and need to back the fuck off. The third band was Bayside which didn't really fare any better. I focused on two three things during this set: (1) to make sure those rowdy kids in back of us do not try to make their way to the barricade, Alan and I created a wall with our forearms. (2) The lead singer's teeth were janky. Aiza noticed this too. And (3), his microphone was on way too low for anyone to hear any distinguishable lyrics.

The wait for TSL was obviously a little more than the others. One of the first things assembled was Tom's drumset. Anyway, TSL played an awesome set which lasted about an hour and a half. Kenny and Co. played a lot of the suggested songs on the PickRSet, which had a few of the older songs from their early days with Drive Thru Records that weren't featured on the major albums. I definitely did my research and listened to Based on A True Story and Direction for hours and days prior and found them to be extremely fantastic material, with the latter as the standout. I also knew a few songs on Say It Like You Mean It, including one of my favorites "A Goodnight's Sleep".

Meet The original foursome of The Starting Line

(1) Frontman and bassist Kenny Vasoli, (2) guitarist Matt Watts, (3) drummer Tom Gryskiewicz, and (4) guitarist Mike Golla. New keyboardist Brian Schmutz joined the band during Direction and can be seen in the photos below.

TSL began the night with "Almost There, Going Nowhere" from SILYMI, followed by the EP classic "Greg's Last Day". Truly this is when the show really started, since the build-up to TSL was, frankly, underwhelming. I was amazed the amount of energy the crowd gave the band and how much they equally gave back. During their performance of the title song of their latest album "Direction", everyone (including myself) was shouting every word.

I am the boy who got carried away, in my new direction, and there's where I stay...

Other highlights include "Are You Alone", "Autography", "Bedroom Talk", "Leaving", personal fave "A Goodnight's Sleep", "Surprise, Surprise", and "Birds".

Then Kenny slowed things down for the next song. He said he doesn't perform this song during the tour but since San Francisco requested it, he sang the sobering "Something Left To Give". I thought the message of the song took on a new meaning when I heard that they may not return. To me, it now means that after 8 years of touring and being in the music industry, they've lived such a crazy life and now they ready to slow things down and take a breather, experience other facets of life, and hopefully, return (in a year, in five or ten) with worthy music for themselves and the fans.

Midway through the set, the crush of the crowd was really getting to us. All our energy and adrenaline was really taxing and fortunately the security dudes passed out comp bottled water to us in the front. No way are we going to leave our spots just to buy a $3 bottle of water!...Oh! The next part was priceless. Prior to getting into the next song, Kenny started egging on Matt and provoked the crowd to start chanting for Matt to flash his chest. The crowd kept chanting "Show your tits". So Matt finally showed his manboobs to everyone for a split second and got really red-faced. Immediately after, Kenny introduced the next song, which everyone knew...And if you don't, get acquainted with "Island":

Now I was afraid that the next song wasn't going to be played because it was selected in the PlayRSet list. But I figure, they had to play the song. Anthony reassured me that they would. "Somebody's Gonna Miss Us" began and I was psyched. Say it's premature to make such a statement, but it has got to be one of my all-time favorite TSL songs ever. So much I wanted to capture a video of it, but when I uploaded all my photos and videos and found it was not there, I was crushed that I did not get any of it captured. Bummed to the max about that. Other notable bums: the omissions of "21" or "Way With Words" in the show.

But I was not at all bummed about the encore, which of course had the best TSL ever played at the very end. People attempted to crowd surf (and failed lol) but there was a great energy felt everywhere. It was a bittersweet sight to see the band leave towards the end, as is customary of their shows, with the crowd left to sing out the final chorus. Here's "Best of Me":

Amazing.

Th highly sought after setlists were held hostage by one of the tour guys who wanted specific answers to his questions regarding punk rock. While people fought for that, I was able to get a yellow TSL guitar pick! After the show, Aiza, Anthony, and I went over to merch to get tees (Aiza got a shirt with pandas 'cause she loves pandas, just like my friend Maricel!) while I got the blue Direction shirt.

When we finally got out of Slim's, we waited for TSL to come out. Mike and Matt were the first to come out and we got to meet them.

The wait for Kenny was quite a while. We waited for about 20-30 minutes. Things started looking bleek when one of the roadies came out, looked at us, shook his head, and murmured something negative. Also Matt and Mike (with their napsacks) came out of the tour bus and walked away from the venue.

But at long last, Kenny came through the doors wearing his backpack and everyone (well okay I'll speak for myself) I got excited, I'll admit. Someone asked Kenny if he was going out tonight, but said he had a recent fight with his girlfriend so he probably won't. As is customary to meeting an idol-like figure, I always shake their hands and introduce myself. Mr. Vasoli politely introduced himself even though I knew who he was. Then I said that I am from Hawaii and knew they all played at Pipeline earlier in February, the show Maricel went to, and his face lit up. He said that he enjoyed being in Hawaii.

Two ringing ears, a hug and a handshake later, it was done and over. I have come to realize that The Starting Line is a really underrated band. They've spent nearly a decade trying to attain some level of success (hence the lyric "Seems like we can never catch a break" in Island) and deal with all sorts of record label drama. It is not so far-fetched that they all needed time away from it all. I hope they come back from this break renewed, because when all is said and done, and nobody's here to play the music we love, we're most definitely going to miss them.

Man I hope they will.