Hedley – the first opener.
Hedley had fairly decent music. They’re from Canada and I get the impression they’re on the road all the time. They knew how to rock, but their show has a huge problem. They are weird as hell.

The band members spent their songs spitting on each other, the lead singer caressed his guitarist’s face for part of a song, and at one point the lead singer actually tackled the guitar player near the end of a song. Yup, kinda odd. Oh, I almost forgot… during their next-to-last song, the lead singer pulled down his pants to show his butt and walked around like that for a few minutes. These guys could have a decent career ahead of them, but they’ll have to learn how to show a bit more style if they want things to go really well.

Rock Kills Kid – second up.
These guys impressed me quite a bit. I considered buying their album, but didn’t. If you want an idea of what the sound is, some songs have enough synthesizer to give off a complete The Killers vibe. Another easy comparison is Franz Ferdinand. In fact, when they played their song Paralyzed, I realized I’d heard it on the radio before and thought it was Franz Ferdinand.

Matchbook Romance – teh awesome.
Matchbook Romance totally rocked. When buying the tickets for this show, I did so in large part to see this band. At this point, I fully anticipate their album Voices to show up in my top 10 for the year.

They’ve got incredible hard rock elements with throbbing, thrashing segments, but also include eerie guitar solos. Overall, the songs from Voices have a haunting sound. The vocals are awesome, too. They alternate from being belted out, but at times are held out for quite a length which helps attribute to the overall haunting feeling.

Their setlist (not in order) included:
• From the West For Wishing EP: 14 Balloons
• From Stories & Alibis: My Eyes Burn, Promise, Playing for Keeps, Lovers & Liars
• Songs from Voices: Surrender, Say It Like You Mean It, My Mannequin Can Dance, Fiction, Monsters

I’d have to say Promise was my favorite track to hear live. I’d love to hear them play it on a headlining tour so the crowd would get into it some more. The crowd was definitely saving energy for Yellowcard, but they put more effort into Matchbook Romance’s songs than they did for the previous two bands of the night.

In service to all the radio-huggers in the audience, they finished with Monsters because it’s by far their most recognized tune, and it was an excellent way to end their set.

Yellowcard – the headliner
Yellowcard made an excellent ending for the night. They played an hour and twenty minutes of all their biggest songs splitting fairly evenly between music from Ocean Avenue and Lights & Sounds. Of course, they threw in a couple oldschool tracks including October Nights.

Being the second time I’ve seen Yellowcard, I wasn’t sure if I’d care about the show as much, but it’s impossible to not get drawn into the music. The guys from the band have excellent stage presence, tell halfway decent stories and put in other filler between songs, and they know how to get the crowd moving.

Songs that I remember (out of order and I may miss a couple) — October Nights, Way Away, Breathing, Ocean Avenue, Life of a Salesman, Only One, One Year, Six Months (acoustic!!), Lights and Sounds (last song of the night), Down On My Head, City of Devils, Rough Landing, Holly, Waiting Game, Martin Sheen or JFK

I know there’s one song I’m missing, and I can’t figure out what it was. I believe it’s probably on one of the earlier albums that I (unfortunately) don’t own (One for the Kids, The Underdog EP, or Where We Stand).

Anyway, they got people jumping, fist-pumping, and moving for nearly the entire set. It’s been long enough since the release of their new album that people knew those songs, too.

One thing I enjoyed quite a bit was getting the backstory to the song “Waiting Game.” Lead vocalist Ryan Key explained the was written in response to a Cosmopolitan article regarding a situation related to the Asian Tsunami. Basically, a man stopped to help another man save a woman without legs as his wife continued to run to safety. Essentially, the man had to choose between saving somebody else’s life or ditching her to escape to safety with his wife.

One of the verses:

You and me
Our worst disaster would be waking up alone
Now we’re free
We’re drifting out
Like all the ones we didn’t know
I wait for a silent tear
I wait for things to disappear
Wait for the ground to stop moving underneath my only fear
If I lose you I don’t know

Summation:
Anyway, to sum it all up, the show rocked and it was a ticket well worth purchasing. If you haven’t checked out any Matchbook Romance yet or the new Yellowcard album, I’d recommend it. If you like Franz Ferdinand or The Killers, Rock Kills Kid might be your thing. As far as Hedley goes, I’d wait for them to get their act together.

The show:

Download audio file (justanalias20060226.mp3)

The featured artists and songs are listed below. Be sure to show ‘em some love and buy their music if you like what you’re hearing.

Featured Songs:

The Juliana Theory – Shotgun Serenade

Website
PureVolume – a bunch of songs from various albums can be streamed and downloaded
MySpace

Rise Against – Everchanging

Website
PureVolume
MySpace
Fat Wreck Chords: MP3s – this song and many others

The JV All*Stars – C Is For Clairvoyant

Website
PureVolume
MySpace – check out “17th and Vine” – I used to live on 17th, and I bought gas at that intersection many times

Halifax – Sydney

Website
PureVolume
MySpace

Matchbook Romance – Your Stories, My Alibis

Website
Epitaph Records – songs can be downloaded from the music player on this site by clicking the down arrow
PureVolume
MySpace

Liam and Me – It’s a Shame

Website
PureVolume
MySpace
AbsolutePunk.net Artist Profile and album review.

Mae – Someone Else’s Arms

Website
PureVolume
MySpace

Angels & Airwaves – The Adventure

Website
Wikipedia
PureVolume
MySpace

The Show:

This is the inaugural Just An Alias show. It features six songs by a variety of artists who have been making their presence known within the music world recently. These songs all somehow fall under the “punk” genre, though I’ll leave the specific subgenre designations up to the musicologists as there’s so many. To listen, either click the “play” button or subscribe to the podcast. I hope you enjoy, and send me a message with comments or cease & desist orders. Thanks!

Also, see if you can spot the reference to AP.net in the podcast. You don’t have to tell me, I already know it’s lame.

Featured Songs:

Matchbook Romance – Monsters

Website
Epitaph Records – songs can be downloaded from the music player on this site by clicking the down arrow
PureVolume
MySpace

Desole – Shadow Girl

Website
PureVolume – download “Shadow Girl”
MySpace

Mute Math – Chaos

Website (currently redirects to myspace)
PureVolume
MySpace

Valencia – Away We Go

Website
PureVolume
MySpace

Cartel – Honestly

Website
Yahoo! Music – Who’s Next competition – for February
PureVolume
MySpace

Angels & Airwaves – The Adventure

Website – find out about the band, the album, and the film
Macbeth Podcast
PureVolume
MySpace