Friday, November 07, 2008
Anberlin - 11/06/2008
It finally happened. Anberlin was in Atlanta last night and I was finally able to see them. The show was at The Masquerade, which is housed in a turn-of-the-century mill building. I’m happy to say that the building held up for yet another concert. If you’ve been there, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, then let me try to paint a visual. During Anberlin’s set, I was near one of the side walls. I could feel the wall moving if I leaned against it, but didn’t realize how much it was moving until I looked up toward the ceiling and saw that the wall was moving about 3 inches back and forth. Thankfully, the building survived another show.
The opening band was a very energetic young band, There For Tomorrow. They got the crowd engaged from the beginning, their music was great and they had a lot of energy. I had never heard There For Tomorrow, but after the show they put on, I’ll be purchasing their CD’s. The general consensus was that they were a great opening band.
After a set change, Straylight Run came to the stage and went through their sound check. After about 15 minutes of banging around on their instruments, they simply started playing without any introduction. It was a bit awkward. After just listening to such an energetic band, I was disappointed with the drop-off in energy when Straylight Run started. The rest of the crowd seemed to agree. Throughout their set, the crowd seemed more interested in talking to each other and surfing the web on their cell phones than listening to the band. The band seemed to have lost the crowd. They lost me from the beginning. Then, with a single chord on a keyboard, the crowd was again mildly interested in this band. The crowd sang along to what was aparently their only popular song. After it was over, it was back to talking and surfing the web on cell phones. I was happy to hear the “one more song” announcement.
During the set change for Anberlin, you could feel the crowd’s anticipation. Anberlin was quickly out launching into their set with force. The complete set list was:
- Disappear
- Never Take Friendship Personal
- Paperthin Hymn
- Breaking
- A Day Late
- Adelaid
- Dismantle.Repair.
- Inevitable
- Unwinding Cable Car
- Retrace
- Hello Alone
- The Feel Good Drag
- The Resistance
- Godspeed
- (The Symphony Of) Blasé
- (*Fin)
The crowd last night was engaged from the moment Anberlin took the stage. The crowd as a whole seemed to know every word of every song, even the new ones.
Some bands sound good on their CD’s, but can’t pull it together when playing live. Anberlin is not one of those. They were exceptional live. I left the show thinking that Anberlin is near the top of the list of best live bands I’ve seen.
It took a while, but I finally was able to see Anberlin. Now after seeing them, I know that next time they are around I’ll be back. No question about it.
