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    Normally it isn’t good form to write a review of a show where some of the bands are left out. Due to unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances March 8th, I arrived late to see The Get Up Kids show at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit. I felt compelled to write this review anyways, since what I did see warranted some attention. I walked in just as the headliner started playing, and I had no idea what I was in for. Honestly, I have not seen too many performances like the one I saw Monday night.

    The past couple of years have seen The Get Up Kids allegedly stumble from the top with their progression to a more mature sound, but this night was no indication that they have fallen off in terms of the quality of their musicianship. The fans were still packed into St. Andrew’s in large quantities, and nobody left with any disappointment whatsoever.

    Perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the night was the fact that the setlist was spread out to cover all of their career. Its been a while since I have seen a band have such diversity in a performance. The set lasted 23 songs and was roughly an hour and a half long. The great mix of old and new kept the flow and mood upbeat all night long. Every song was played with a ton of energy, watching the band gave me the feeling that they were having an absolute blast on stage. It added a lot to the quality of the performance.

    While some have criticized the newest album, “Guilt Show”, anyone would agree that the songs come off much better live than they do recorded, especially ‘The Dark Night of the Soul.’. Maybe that was part of the allure of the evening, since the songs off the band’s most recent offering were not the only ones that received that treatment. Not too many bands can really pull that off, in my opinion.

    The set was going along well early on, ‘Wouldn’t Believe It’ was the song that really reeled me in and got my attention. As far as the rest of the crowd, things really got going when the beginning of ‘Mass Pike’ chimed in. Matt Pryor’s vocals were terrific, especially with some of the older songs, just sounded so much different and better than the recorded versions like I mentioned before. Jim Suptic sounded awesome as well, most notably in ‘Campfire Kansas’.

    Other highlights of the evening included, well, just about every other song that they played. There's really nothing else to say, it was just one of those nights. The aforementioned vocals, coupled with the band’s excellent sound, made for a unique show. James DeWees was also stellar on the keyboards, especially ‘Stay Gone’ and ‘Martyr Me’. I was starting to wonder if they would play ‘Don’t Hate Me’ when they busted into it, then closed with their closer off of Guilt show, “Conversation”, which definitely rocked.

    The band returned for their encore and started with the Cure’s ‘Close to Me’, which they covered on Eudora. They finally played the most requested song of the night, Anne Arbor, which apparently has nothing to do with the city nearby, but at this point in the evening that fact was irrelevant as the fun had taken over long ago. The last and possibly best song of the evening was ‘Ten Minutes’, and when the song ended and the lights went back up, the crowd had a collective wind taken right out of their sails, after an hour and a half everyone still wanted more.

    I left St. Andrew’s a much bigger fan than I already was. I can probably count the better sets I have seen than that on one hand. If you can see them on this tour, I would highly suggest it.


Setlist
Washington Square Park
Close to Home
Wouldn’t believe it
I’m a loner Dottie, a Rebel
Holy Roman
Mass Pike
Campfire Kansas
The Dark Night of the Soul
Action & Action
Stay Gone
Better Half
Let the Reigns Go Loose
Sympathy
Holiday
Off the Wagon
Martyr Me
Up on the Roof
Out of Reach
Don’t Hate Me
Conversation

Close to Me
Anne Arbour
Ten Minutes



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Somerset - PandoraMotion City Soundtrack - I Am The MovieJimmy Eat World - ClarityBrand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside MeThe Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in AmericaBrand New - Deja EntenduSparta - PorcelainUnwritten Law - Music In High PlacesMotion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me



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    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 24, 2005 at 10:29 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    what ? http://www.los-angeles-casino.com/lanir/casino-directory-2005.htm l

    Posted by poopypants on 2004-03-16 09:23:35
    My Score:

    yea damn recover are overrated. well so are the GUK but not as bad. fuckin recover. my friend burned me that rodeo an picasso cd, i just don't get whats so impressive. it just sounds like thricde minus the technical guitar work, or like vaux. hell i'll take vaux over recover. i'd like to see the GUK live, i've passed em up every time they come through town. new album is good though.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 8:48 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Show in NYC last night was real good.

    Rocky was awesome.
    Recover -- bleh but better than the first time I saw them
    Get Up Kids -- great (especially the setlist choice -- closing with Action&Action/Ten Minutes was fun)

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 15, 2004 at 6:25 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    the show in boston OWNED.

    i wish it wasn't all ages though, because little kids made fun of rocky votolato.

    the get up kids setlist was impressive...

    recover were not impressive.

    Posted by poopypants on 2004-03-15 12:26:18
    My Score:

    as for the bum asking where he can download guiltshow, ya know, its fucking 5.99 at best buy, don't be such a piece of shit ya cheap fucker. thats 2 drinks at a bar.

    Posted by Imposs1ble on 2004-03-15 12:14:48
    My Score:

    Rocky kicked ass (in Minneapolis)
    Recover kicked ass
    ...Get Up Kids left a lot to be desired.

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 15, 2004 at 11:54 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Yeah, so why were you late to St. Andrews? Kinda got me thinking about a show a few years ago that was listed as 6pm on their website and 7pm on the fucking answering machine of the club. So my friend and I leave Kalamazoo at about 4 to see the show. we get to the club at 6:30 ready to see some rock (Kazoo is 2.5 hours from Detroit, mind you). Yeah, well we pay for parking, get to the club to find all the bands packing their shit up. The show started at 4pm. We had to turn around and drive 2.5 hours back to Kazoo.

    P.S. The parking fucker wouldn't refund our money, even though we had been parked for all of 3 minutes.

    P.P.S. The bands that night were ahem...F-Minus, Leftover Crack and 2 other bands.

    I swear to god If I am ever in sight of that club again, I'm gonna burn the fucker to the ground and then piss on teh fucking ashes.

    -ken

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 15, 2004 at 2:26 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    er, On* even.

    - 隼人大王

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 15, 2004 at 2:26 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    lol I thought One a Wire was their best record.

    Oh well, to each their own!

    - 隼人大王

    Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2004-03-14 18:01:41
    My Score:

    Detroit sucks.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 14, 2004 at 5:10 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    these kids give emo a bad name

    Posted by daegan on 2004-03-14 00:36:12
    My Score:

    I've never had a problem with St.A staff, but that's just me.

    Posted by rxbandito24 on 2004-03-13 18:34:45
    My Score:

    Im so excited to see them, sounds like an amazing set list.. and the reviewer made it seem like a lot of people didn't like Guilt show, but I LOVE it, and all of my friends seem to like it so far.. oh well.

    Posted by PetroBPettson on 2004-03-13 04:57:07
    My Score:

    Magic Stick kicks St. Andrew's ass. I think the Get Up Kids suck balls though, so maybe they should stick with St. Andrew's and their lame-ass security.

    Posted by tyroneshoelaces on 2004-03-12 21:35:41
    My Score:

    I seen the Get up Kids in Europe a little after on the wire and they only played two songs from other albums. I was extremely dissapointed seeing Washington Square Park and Masspike live would have been awesome. Lucky fuckers.

    Posted by ShamRocknRoll on 2004-03-12 21:14:41
    My Score:

    dude the best bums are the ones who act like they work there...

    "Welcome to st andrews, four floors of fun, hope you enjoy the show line starts here...spare a dollar for a brother out of work?"

    but the security sucks. At the DKM show some punks started a fire to keep warm and then put it out when it got to big...a kid with a mohawk stomped it out and the security blamed him.."ALL YOU KIDS WITH SPIKEY HAIR ARENT GETTING IN!" and the entire line laughed their ass off at him. Fun times.

    Posted by captaincrunch on 2004-03-12 19:33:26
    My Score:

    Can anyone tell me where to download the song(s) left off of guilt show? I heard that send us a saint was a great song. Thanks.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 6:57 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Can anyone tell me how rocky was?

    Posted by slippy on 2004-03-12 18:14:54
    My Score:

    I don't hate St Andrews. The security are bitches but the actual stage and all that isn't bad. I missed this show. :( score is for staying home on monday night.

    Posted by Icapped2pac on 2004-03-12 17:05:31
    My Score:

    GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!!!! They played "Washington Square Park" and I didn't go? FUCK FUCK FUCK. I saw them 5 times from '98-'00 and they never once played it. Then "On A Wire" came out and I lost all hope. The new record is OK, but I honestly haven't even bothered listening to it more than once because it just didn't move me like the old stuff did the first time I heard it. It's really cool to see they're varying their set list so much though.

    Did anyone else go and catch Recover's set? I'll bet they tore it up too.

    And for the record, I fucking hate St. Andrew's too. The staff there are fucking assholes, and they never open doors within 1/2 hour of the posted time. Some of the bums that hang around there are pretty cool, though. Not "Scrabble on the mailbox" or Jimmy Gibberish cool, but close.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 12:44 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    i dont like st andrews.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 12:41 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    why the hell does everyone like the get up kids all of a sudden? when on a wire was reviewed here everybody bashed it, now everybody loves them.

    the get up kids still suck.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 12:19 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    fuck! thats a great set. i cant believe they actually ended the night with ten minutes. fuckin sweeeeeeeeet.

    Posted by inagreendase on 2004-03-12 12:01:09
    My Score:

    Shit, not that I didn't already, but now I really want to see them tonight...

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 12:00 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    fuck yes, excellent set list

    this band is amazing no matter what anyone says... every cd they put out is pure gold (and in four different styles no less) but i think once dewees joined the band they hit their stride (and are still hiting it)

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 10:52 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Washington Square Park is on Four Minute Mile... duh.

    HOLY SHIT - that is such an awesome setlist!!!!! I am 10x more excited to see them in Seattle than I was before!! Seriously, I cannot wait for march 31st. Holy fuck......

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 10:16 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Washington Square Park

    whats this from? Is this the Guilt Show song that was left off and everyone loves?

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 12, 2004 at 7:28 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    Dammit, this review makes me wish I was at that show, I ended up missing the show that came by here to go see a different band.

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