Forever the Sickest Kids
THE LINEUP
Vita
My Favorite Highway
Sing it Loud
The Rocket Summer
Forever the Sickest Kids
THE SHOW
I should hate Forever the Sickest Kids.
They’re poppy. They’re formulaic. They appeal to a crowd of twelve year olds. Their lead singer still sports oversized baseball caps with the authenticity stickers left on them. There’s nothing at all amazing about their instrumentation, their vocals, or their image.
But god dammit, they’re catchy, and I like them. A whole lot.
I first found them in the summer of 2008 when they were playing the Ernie Ball Stage at Warped Tour and have been idly waiting for them to come back since. I remember Warped Tour being hot, crowded, and oppressive, and I wanted to see them in a smaller venue with a thinner crowd. So when someone said they were coming to Station 4 in Saint Paul, my longtime favorite venue in the Twin Cities, I had him snatch me a ticket and planned for enjoying them instead of fighting for elbow room during their set.
How misguided I was.
First of all, the night started on a bad note personally for myself and a few friends. I caught the 67 bus down Minnehaha and University, all the way to 4th and Cedar in one go. Not only was I the only person on the bus, but it picked me up late and ten minutes before peak hours were over. When I got off and started walking toward the venue, the sidewalks were blocked due to construction and I had to take a very roundabout way to get to the place.
Elsewhere in the state, one friend coming to the show had locked his keys in his car and another was lost in Bloomington. ( If you’re unfamiliar with these places, Google Maps will do all the complicated geography for you. ) The road to this show was no easy for any of us.
Something I’d forgotten in the midst of all of this was that, as an all-ages show given the crowd FTSK caters to, doors opened ridiculously early, long before I was out of class and even headed for the bus stop. I got to Station 4 as hometown ( hometown being Duluth ) hero Sing it Loud was finishing its final song. I’d completely missed Vita and My Favorite Highway, though I’d never heard of either before. Ever poppy, though, Sing it Loud put me in the right mood for the rest of the show.
I’ve already expressed my fondness for Station 4. I saw n0w-defunct Arizona band The Format play its single Minnesota show there, shortly before it broke up, to a sold-out crowd. I saw psychobilly favorites Koffin Kats play to a crowd of maybe fifteen people. I’ve always enjoyed the crowd and the atmosphere, and have never been in a really tight spot before.
Last night, I hated the crowd.
First off, this is a crowd that clearly listens to brokeNCYDE in its spare time, or at least a lot of Soulja Boy Tell’em and a lot of Atreyu. I saw one boy, clearly under the age of sixteen, whose black hair was gelled straight back and a little upward — when he jumped, it was long enough that it literally hit the girl behind him in the face over and over again.
And jumped, he did.
This amalgamation of teens and tweens wearing black T-shirts with fluorescent, illegible print and New York Yankees caps moved so much that being in the front — trying desperately to get anything more steady than the picture that started this review, which was impossible — was miserable. Absolutely miserable. Sometimes there was a surge so hard that I was at a forty-five degree angle to the ground; other times I was lifted off it and had to keep a solid hand on my hat.
This certainly wasn’t a new atmosphere to me — I’ve been to shows like this dozens of times over, but I don’t know why I think I’m going to start liking them any more. I’ve always disliked them. And I guess I’ve disliked the way the bands respond to them. When I walked in last night, Sing it Loud’s keyboardist Benjamin Peterson was shouting, “All right, you motherfuckers! I want to see a motherfucking mosh pit right now!”
Listen to Sing it Loud. Two phrases that don’t come to mind: “motherfuckers” and “mosh pits.”
Besides having my ribs squeezed and my ears blistered by the squeals of eighteen-year-old-tops girls and boys, it was a decent show. The two acts I caught played well, amped the crowd up, and used the basement atmosphere of Station 4 to really release some energy. Proper circles of the Internet buzzed when this tour was announced, saying that The Rocket Summer should have been headlining instead of opening, and I agree. The Rocket Summer is by far a better closing act than Forever the Sickest Kids, based on sound alone — it’s a little more mellow, crafted, and penultimate than dance tunes like FTSK staples like Breakdown and Woah Oh!.
I recommend seeing them — clearly. This was my second time seeing Sing it Loud, my third seeing The Rocket Summer, and my second seeing Forever the Sickest Kids. If you’re into their tunes, they don’t disappoint with their live shows — and if you’re not, then don’t go. Their crowds will always be the same, they’ll probably keep playing the same finales, and if it didn’t work for you once, it probably won’t work for you again.
Cheers.
Links:
Forever the Sickest Kids: Website • MySpace • Facebook • Last.fm
I’d like to hear a little more about stage presence, their sound live vs recorded, and the venue, as well as a little less about your evening and the crowd–remember, this is their show, not yours. Your reviews are steadily improving, you’re getting great at this! Keep up the good work.
One of the best shows I ever saw was Flogging Molly in Duluth, mainly because the crowd was so supportive of each other, be it someone getting knocked down and helped back up or the giant hackey sack circle we started beforehand.
The Duluth performance itself was sub-par, but what I took from the show was a good experience — those are the stories I like to tell.
I understand the danger in explaining my evenings that way, but it’s very much what I’m about. Thank you for your comment, though — for all I’ve just waved it off, I’ve also taken it in.
I remember that day. I love NY.
Oh Lewi if it weren’t for me you probably would hate this band.