riley

We arrived at the newly-named Rock-N-Roll High School right as the opening band, The Kremlin Conspiracy, finished setting up. I looked around and saw about 25 people. As a few of the teenage members of The Kremlin Conspiracy hid their cigarettes fromt he audience (not well enough for me to miss it), I noticed that their moms were there. They finished their sounds check and got ready to play. I could tell they weren't experienced and didn't sound well. The horns were too quiet and the singer was still caught up with thinking it's cool to swear every ten seconds. Along with a few other things, like the drums being too loud, the band had some problems that couldn't be solved by the guitarist's superb playing.

Next on stage was the ska/punk sounds of Mediocre at Best, one of my favorites. The crowd filled in a little more, maybe to about 60. When Mediocre at Best started to play I noticed the tough crowd. Throughout their set, Mike and I tried to start a few mosh/skank pits but to no prevail. During "Lonely Stranger," we jumped on the stage and danced around like idiots. Mediocre was soon done and on came the mysterious band Paris, Texas.

Not much was known about these guys by anyone. They came on stage and I was praying for a good band. The guys were mellow until they started playing. The sound caught me off-guard. It was a new genre of music: In-Your-Face-Emo-Rock. The guitarists and lead singer were bouncing around all over the stage. This was nothing like I have ever seen. All their songs were with so much emotion and the lead singer was all over the stage, on the amps and even behind the drummer. The bass drum was used as a platform to jump from during the whole concert. One of the guitarists fell off the stage backwards, but didn't miss a beat. Immediately after Paris, Texas was done I went to the merch booth and bought a CD and a shirt and also took advantage of the free stickers.

Through the smoke I thought that Allister took the stage. I knew it was them because of their catchy pop-punk hit "Moper," which was first. Allister was exactly how I thought they would be. They played their hits like "Jacob Thinks I'm Gay" and "Fraggle Rawk." Also, Allister played a catchy new song, "Radio," soon to be released on a new album. They played well, but coming on stage after Paris, Texas rocked the house would be very hard. The Benjamins went on stage geared up to rock out. The place was filling up pretty well and standing room was getting scarce.

The Benjamins were a crowd favorite and they played such hits as "Sophia on the Stereo," "Couch," and "Wonderful." The crowd was singing, and it was an enjoyable sight. Everyone was having fun and the bassist was entertaining. They played their last song to the disappointment of the crowd. Ben from Mediocre at Best and I started a chant to get them to come back on. They came back and played "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer.

Overall the concert was very enjoyable, except for the first band. I would suggest seeing any of these bands in the future, especially Paris, Texas. I recommend checking these guys out, because it was worth the price of admission after their first song. Amazing as it seems, it's true!