The Marquis Theatre once again hosted a brilliant night of rock and roll. The “37 Everywhere” tour, named after headliner Punchline’s new Fueled By Ramen release, is, in short, a powerhouse.
The tour’s opening band, Cute Is What We Aim For, somehow pulls it off, with it being everything about them.
Their name is certainly no lie. Their music is among the most self-conscious and humble of any band today, even in the face of its obvious and undeniable appeal.
Signed by Fall Out Boy and Punchline’s label, Fueled by Ramen, Cute Is What We Aim For is about to release its first CD on June 20. Nonetheless, the strength of the band’s single “There is a Class for This” has reserved them a spot in the top 10 most played bands on purevolume.com for several months running.
The single is so vibrantly energetic and catchy the first time one hears it and one almost swears it’s a song you have always known and liked.
The band’s humble and charismatic aura is centered as much on front man Shaant as in the music. He really does aim to be cute. Shaant essentially acts like a cursing, singing version of that popular kid in grade school who didn’t like himself.
Between each song, he finds it necessary to talk (sometimes at length) into the microphone about everything and nothing. I’ve seen front men like this before and they usually leave me with the urge to yell at them to play more music.
Nonetheless, Cute is What We Aim For somehow manages to narrowly escape this problem, slightly by sidestepping into a somewhat comedic act.
The next band at the event was The Audition. In short, they are the next “big thing” in modern music.
They sound almost exactly the same as national sensation Fall Out Boy, originating in the same Chicago music scene. Nonetheless, they are harder, louder and generally just better. Better than FOB, better than the other bands they are touring under and better than expectations.
Their set hurled the tiny theater into a torrent of dancing, jumping, screaming and head banging that resulted in a caloric output strong enough to increase the temperature of the theater by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The music really seemed to draw heat to it. I have a special place in my heart for the night’s headliner.
Punchline is rarely granted the recognition they deserve. To date, they have released two nearly flawless albums, and put on a concert that never loses its momentum or its brilliance and variety in songs.
Punchline’s most distinctive feature is the content of their music: their love songs are about being in love, rather than about the bad relationships or sad moments of the loss of love.
They have a song about war on their new album that is not motivated by or in any way about the war in Iraq! Basically, they sidestep all of the drama of the modern emo/rock scene and create a refreshing blend of music that only seems to appeal to those who are aware enough to seek refreshment.
I felt bad for them. They were simply too good to follow a band like the Audition. I’m also fairly certain there isn’t another band in the genre that could follow the Audition’s lower performance, including Panic! At the Disco.
Punchline is that good. As a result, most of the audience left before Punchline’s set even began, and those who remained were too physically spent to output the same energy for Punchline’s near perfect set as they had for the Audition.
