What is happiness?
It can be a number of things: good friends, music, peace of mind, a victory from your favorite sportball team, a cold beer, the perfect photo, or a show that brings together some of your favorite bands for a night that you couldn’t even dream of coming to your town.
There are many definitions, and tonight, I’m going to attempt to find out what it really is.
As part of the latest leg of their tour, Taking Back Sunday has come to Indianapolis for a show at the Egyptian Room at Old National Centre. Also joining them was The Used and frnkiero andthe cellabration.
I’ve had one instance where I got to revisit bands I listened to in high school earlier this month, but this one is different. Our two headliners are still bands I enjoy and listen to to this day. They’ve been on tour for what feels like the entire year, but they seemed to evade an Indianapolis date. Needless to say, once I saw the announcement for this one, I had to get in. So here we go, time to find out what happiness really is (and without references to Pharrell, because that brings out the opposite of happy…)
Happiness is…your favorite sportball team mounting a comeback.
It’s 6:45, I’ve been sitting in my car outside the ONC for about 15 minutes listening to my Green Bay Packers on the radio. I’ll admit, I was the opposite of happy about an hour ago (I hated everything), but two TDs later, it’s a game again. I’m riveted, but I have work to do. Twitter updates will have to do.
There’s about 5 minutes until showtime, and the lavishly-decorated room is still filling out. Some people stake out the best spots, while others visit the merch tables located in the hall just outside or head to the bar for a drink. Nothing too out of the ordinary, then the lights go out and our first act takes the stage without warning.
Happiness is…discovering a new band.
I was a big My Chemical Romance fan for a while, so seeing guitarist Frank Iero with another band is a welcome surprise. I’ve never heard this band before, so this is a nice surprise. Let’s see what they can do.
The first thing you notice is their aggression. They may not be the prettiest sounding band in the world, but they bring the kind of raw, gritty rock n’ roll energy that you’d expect to see at one of those underground clubs, or even a ’68 show.
One thing to keep in mind: this is an opening act, and maybe the crowd isn’t too enthusiastic, save for a few people in the middle who seem to be getting into it. Also, this is a relatively new act, and people are like what they know. The band doesn’t seem too worried about that. They’re much more interested in having fun and getting these people pumped for the rest of the night. Did it work? That remains to be seen, as the overall reaction is polite applause. The impatient person in me wants to get to the next band, and the football fan in me is having an anxiety attack over what’s going on (Twitter friends are great), but the music fan in me is impressed by their unpolished, unapologetic take on rock. The way it should be.
Happiness is…your favorite team pulling out a win.
Frank Iero and company are leaving the stage, and crews now get ready for our next band, including revealing a backdrop and removing the tarps off what looks like a wall of old television boxes with faces printed on the screens. While this is going on, more people are starting to file into the Egyptian Room. Many move closer to the stage, and some take this time to head to the bathrooms in the lobby or to buy one of the tour shirts. Me? I finally get the alert that my Packers won their game, and followed that up with first pumping emphatically in a crowded room (I regret nothing).
Now that the game is over, I feel better. The anxiety is going away, and now I can focus on something that 16-year-old me would be jealous of.
Happiness is…starting a revolution.
I heard my first Used song over 10 years ago, and it’s taken this long to finally see them live. I’ve heard great things about them, and now I get to see it for myself. Will this blow my awkward high school mind? Here we go…
Comparing then and now, this isn’t the same band that wrote anthems for emo kids. Rather, they’re here to inspire. Here to rally the masses to help instill change in a world that frowns upon that very idea, and they did with a one-hour performance that featured sing-alongs with favorites old and new, middle fingers and fists in the air, mosh pits, a few inspiring words from a man who’s calling for revolution.
Looking back, I’m a little surprised about how many songs from In Love and Death they did. Of course, they did show a little love for an even older song (“The Taste of Ink”), and of course, they gave plenty of time for their newer stuff.
One thing I am noticing is how much of this performance is how much crowd participation is driving it. Don’t get me wrong, even after 14+ years, frontman Bert McCracken is still as wild and energetic as ever, but as much as the band is doing (and how impressed I am with their light-up television sets), the crowd is a big part of this. They sing and shot along to every song like they’re at their own rally for change, they throw their hands up and follow every word Mr. McCracken spits out, they even get an “old school punk rock” circle pit and a wall of death going at one point. Yes, at times, it felt like we were singing more than the band was, but maybe that’s more of a testament to how invested everyone is in the show. They may be a bigger band than they were when they wrote “Maybe Memories,” but they’re just as engaging as ever.
But there’s more than just fun and music going on here. Much like their latest effort Imaginary Enemy, the underlying message of this performance is to educate yourself. To do your homework and learn to think for yourself, because this is the only way that real change can happen. This is right before going into the two songs that sum these words up perfectly: the fists-in-the-air anthems “Revolution” and “A Song To Stifle Imperial Progression.” While I’m not a huge fan of politics in music, he has a point.
This call to revolution can’t last forever. They close things off with “the best song in the world” (not the Tenacious D song). They start out by playing the opening bars of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which sends the crowd into a frenzy, before going into “A Box Full of Sharp Objects.” The ending perfectly exemplifies the vibe of the show: by doing the famous chant from the classic Rage Against The Machine song “Killing in the Name” and getting others to chant along with it before breaking into the song itself. From there, they bid farewell to the enthusiastic audience before bidding us farewell.
Overall, I’d say this was 10 years well worth the wait.
Happiness is…anticipation.
The Used is done and they’re now striking the stage so they can get ready for the next band. My mind has been blown, and we’re not even done yet. Some people exit the room for a time while I move closer to the stage. As much as I hate this portion of the evening, this break is giving me ample time to get ready again. After all, this is another one of my favorite bands about to go on. Now while they set up, I’m going to attempt to figure out if mics are for singing or swinging. Alright, I’m go one and say it, I need this like a bad habit.
I look back towards the sound board, which is located in the center of the room, and notice the giant camera, as well as the person in the photo pit who is carrying another one. This performance is being live streamed on Yahoo! for all of the internet to see. Will we make a good showing here in Indy? We’ll see.
Happiness is…well, it looks a lot like this.
The anticipation builds, and soon the lights go out, the crowd roars, and the band makes its way to the stage before going right into “Stood A Chance.” What followed (besides my personal favorite “Cute Without the ‘E'”), was an hour of passionate sing-alongs, crowd surfing, a debate about football teams (we’ll get to that), and plenty of mic swinging action.
Frontman Adam Lazzara acknowledges the cameras and says to them you’re all here for the internet to see. He even asks someone to bring up a feed of the show so he can watch himself (imagine the “when will then be now” scene from Spaceballs), as well as references Kurt Cobain spitting into a camera, which he doesn’t do because then he would’ve felt bad.
This is the fourth time I’ve seen TBS, and part of me is a little disappointed I didn’t get to see them when they were still playing the small clubs. One thing I do admire is how much they still stick with their older material. Sure they gave plenty of attention to their new record Happiness Is…, they still break out some of those fan favorites from their Victory Records days, and they still perform them with the same of enthusiasm as before, even if they are all 10 years older.
For a time, they talk about football teams for a bit, which they later regret because this is an easy way to divide an audience, and we’re all friends here (there is a small group of Packers fans around where I am, and these people are my new best friends). After that brief schism, it’s back to the music, and we’re all friends again.
As I discovered during my last trip to the Emerson, I’m getting old, and going hoarse during the middle of “Error: Operator” is evidence of that, but shows like this are still fun to me. I haven’t jumped and sang along like this since I was a teenager. I may be by myself tonight, but after singing along surrounded by perfect strangers, it’s hard not to lose yourself in the show.
Almost without warning, they announce we’ve reached the end of the show, which concludes with one rousing rendition of “MakeDamnSure,” before they bid the Indianapolis crowd farewell and literally leave us standing in the dark and chanting for an encore. Unfortunately, we didn’t get one, and as I discovered later on, they haven’t really been doing them this tour. I could rant and complain about that for another few thousand words, but how spoiled are we? I still had fun, and I have the feeling this one will stick with me for a while.
There’s a somewhat disappointed vibe throughout the crowd once the lights come back up and we start heading towards the exits, but I doubt those feelings will persist. It’s back to the car I go to think about how to write this one.
So what is happiness?
It’s still a complicated question, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a complicated answer. It doesn’t have to be something huge or life-altering. Sometimes it can be the little things: discovering a new band, hearing your favorite team won, seeing a band you never thought you’d ever catch live, losing yourself completely in the music, dancing and singing the night away, or even getting to go to a show like this and writing about it later on. Regardless, it’s one I’ll be talking about for a while, and maybe I’ll even tell all my friends about.
And that is happiness to me.
The Good:
I think I’ve run through that throughout the course of this review. Beyond nostalgia taking over during The Used and Taking Back Sunday, both bands displayed that they still know how to captivate an audience and keep them engaged throughout the entire evening. Frank Iero’s band was also a welcome surprise.
The Bad:
I might argue the lack of an encore, but then again, how spoiled am I? It might have ended things on a little bit of a down note, but that doesn’t take away from the rest of the show.