Doors were supposed to open at the venue at 6pm, so we were surprised to find a line at the door when we got there around seven, when the first opening band was due to be on stage. Turns out Al Gore was at the same venue (University of Oklahoma's Lloyd Noble Center) at 4pm, and it took a long time for that crowd to clear out. Fortunately, that seemed to only have delayed things by about thirty minutes.
The first opening band, Armor for Sleep was FANTASTIC. I have their first album, which I have come to enjoy, but they were surprisingly good live. I'd say better live than in studio. MUCH more energetic. The fact that they played a short set was the only real disappointment. We'll never know if the set length was impacted by the delay of the venue's availability or not (thanks A LOT Mr. Gore).
The second opening band, UnderOATH, was decent, and put on a VERY high-energy and entertaining show, but as I had not heard them before, I have nothing with which to compare. I will say that the crowd was definitely much more into UnderOATH than Armor. The entire place came to life when they hit the stage, and everyone seemed to know who they were, in contrast to Armor (during AfS's performance, I heard several people say things like "who are these guys").
The main event, Taking Back Sunday, got off to a rough start. Not sure how long they've been on tour, but the lead singer clearly had some voice issues, which took a few numbers to get smoothed out. I'm a HUGE TBS fan, so I loved the show, but I was a little worried at the onset. Things did improve, and if the below photo is any indication, the crowd was very into it. In fact, we witnessed several folks get past security and make it on stage only to be dragged away. Overall, they put on an entertaining show, but I will say that in contrast to AfS, their live show was not quite as good as their studio performance. Of course, I'd go see them again in heartbeat, so don't let that statement take anything away from the entire concert being a good show to see.
In closing, I'd like to send out a special thanks to my friends angry Vicki and astonished Vicki for joining me on short notice. It was a good time. And while it was a pretty young crowd, I was pleased to see folks much older than myself at the show, so I didn't feel entirely like a old fuddy-duddy.
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