May 9, 2006 marked the Receiving End of Sirens' triumphant return home to the Boston area, headlining the New Hope Tour at the Middle East in Cambridge. In tow were As Tall As Lions, Hit the Lights, and I Am the Avalanche. This show, more or less, brought the rock.
As Tall As Lions opened the show and were quite enjoyable. ATAL have proven themselves to me as one of those bands where you don't have to own their albums to have a good time watching them perform. The songs are easy to get into live. The band played "Carousel" and one or two others from their Triple Crown Records debut, Laficado. The bulk of the set was made up of songs that will be appearing on their upcoming album, set for release in August. The songs sounded good; most of the tunes featured their trademark of start quiet / end loud and showcased the lead singer's pipes. If you are looking for a no-frills, just plain rock band, I could think of worse places to start.
Up next were label-mates Hit the Lights. I can understand why kids like this band. The music is pretty standard pop-punk if thats what you're into. Nothing new and exciting, it just is what it is. The band had its followers at the show and the band played up the response they got from their fans. Gold star for effort.
With a pretty short setup time, I Am the Avalanche stormed the stage led by Vinnie Caruana. I believe the album version of IATA is a lot more polished than it is live. The band definitely leaned on their hardcore roots to blast through songs such as "Dead and Gone," "New Disaster," "Green Eyes," and an absolutely ripping version of "My Second Restraining Order." The response from the crowd was great and the band ate it up, and fed off of it. When fans mention members' older bands things always get a little awkward; this, along with calls for the MinorTthreat cover the band has been playing live led Vinnie to shrug it off by saying that "I think we will just play Avalanche songs tonight." Great set by an ever improving band; if Drive Thru wants any kind of a future they will hold onto this band and the RX Bandits.
The evening capped off with the main event: TREOS walked onstage and promptly rocked out a cover of the imperial march from those crazy Star Wars movies. The kids went crazy for TREOS' brand of prog-rock and the band never let up, adding interludes in between songs and playing almost every song off their Triple Crown debut, Between the Heart and the Synapse. The biggest responses came during "The War of All Against All;" as soon as the crowd heard its rolling drum intro, bodies went flying. The band uses its three vocalist attack perfectly, with Brendan, Alex, and Casey playing off one another perfectly. The band shows a maturity and songwriting skill way beyond their years. TREOS knows how to use all three guitar players to their stengths and uses electronic programming correctly without relying on it. The star of this show may have been Nate Patterson, who played a mean guitar and was flying from one side of the stage in a way that reminds one of Justin Beck of Glassjaw. The band did not disapoint the rest of the way out, playing "...Then I Defy You, Stars," and "Dead Men Tell No Tales" flawlessly, among others. The perfect ending truly was the encore of "Broadcast Quality," with its amazing ending which got As Tall As Lions and Hit the Lights on the stage for a sing-along and stage dive.
A great evening of music by a quartet of bands that are relatively new to the scene but showcased promising futures.