Now tonight was a gig I’d be looking forward to, mainly due to amount I’d be listening to Cute Is What We Aim For ever since the start of the summer. I have to admit that I hadn’t really listened to either the openers (Madina Lake) or the headliners (Paramore) before tonight so most of the evening’s entertainment was going to be pretty new to me.
Madina Lake got things started and from the get go the crowd went crazy and in the first song we saw some of the biggest mosh pits of the whole evening. I wasn’t sure if this was due to the fact that the rest of the crowd knew more about this band than I did or if everyone was just a bit over excited. I personally didn’t see what all the fuss was about as these Chicago natives sound just about the same as 10,000 other Myspace bands with their catchy blend of Post-Hardcore meets Pop-Punk.
Next up it’s the band that I and obviously a few others are here specifically to see and that’s Cute Is What We Aim For. These guys look set to follow in the footsteps of Fueled By Ramen labelmates Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is, Panic! At The Disco and Paramore and take the Pop-Punk world by Storm. Their set doesn’t start to strongly though as they start with ‘Newport Living’ and by the time they get onto ‘Finger Twist & Split’ the crowd really seems to have quietened down. They do pick things up though and ‘Sweet Talk’ and the finale of ‘Moan’ and ‘There’s A Class For This’ are real highlights. You can tell that these guys are still a young band with a long way to go but all in all my first time seeing these guys is left on a positive note.
Paramore on the other hand are a band that already have their shit together good and proper. From the moment their storm the stage and kick straight into ‘Emergency’ you know that you’re going to get one hell of a show from them tonight. When I first heard about these guys I was like “So they’re a Pop-Punk band but with a female vocalist, that’s not going to work”, but that was before I saw and heard Hayley Williams. Move over Michelle Nolan, I have a new Rock Star Crush now. Hayley Williams’s vocals are just perfect tonight and really draw you into this band and make you feel like you know the songs even if you’ve never heard of Paramore before.
‘Here We Go Again’ has to be the highlight of the night for me as it sounds simply beautiful and as soon as the lights go up this evening I’m straight off to the merch stand to see if I can get a copy of the album. A great show which has showcased a couple of the best Pop-Punk bands to emerge in 2006 and shows that Fueled By Ramen’s recent run of good luck doesn’t look like coming to an end any time soon.
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