Asher Roth, Flogging Molly, and Passion Pit

Last night was UT's annual kickoff to commencement, Volapalooza 2010. Asher Roth opened (somewhat) Flogging Molly was a special guest, and the all mighty Passion Pit headlined the night. The show really stepped up from the last few years, with much bigger bands that elevated from a few cult followers, to mass college appeal. The last two years hosted Gym Class Heroes and Cake, which would be fun, but they are no Passion Pit, or Flogging Molly for that matter. But hey, don't worry guy's. You blow Asher Roth out of the water.

Dang Asher, you look pretty gangster.

Oh Roth, you crazy little preppy pot-head you. Why? Why play "music"? Why breathe? This guy was simply not good. I'll leave it at that. He had a pretty good band behind him, but a band can only do so much behind a terrible main aspect. I understand him being there; you have to appeal to all audiences, but man, I could have done without this guy. And it's not like I don't enjoy a good rap concert. T.I. was awesome last year. It's just when you use the term "motherf*@$%&" more than you use, oh I don't know, nouns, it get's old quick. He did have one smart move. He let his DJ wrap the show up, instead of himself. That was pretty good, I mean the guy could scratch with the best of em. The drummer was pretty legit too. All in all, that show was a solid 3/10. maybe a 2, I've just had time to sleep on it; get it out of my head. eh.

These guys will cut your throat and date your mother. I mean just look at em......

Where Asher Roth failed, Flogging Molly picked it all up off of the ground. I went to the show last night with my youth leader, Matt, and he had seen Flogging Molly on the Warped Tour. I honestly didn't know what to expect. I mean, I knew what kind of music they played, but I had never physically heard it before, and you don't know Irish cut-throat punk pub rock until you've heard it. Trust me. So, the only precursors I had were stories of mosh pits and mayhem at Matt's show, and the fans that showed up for this one. There were kilts, there were obscure piercings and tattoo's, there were mohawks of every color(but mostly, green) and I knew this band would be crazy.

Sure enough, I was right. These guys were really out there, but in a great way. The seven piece band consists of a bass player, and accordion player, a fiddle and tin pipe player, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist, an electric banjo and mandolin player, a lead guitarist, and a huge drummer, all but one of whom were over forty. The lead singer and his fiddling wife had to be at least 50. I had never in my life seen an electric mandolin, and now I'm looking into buying one. This thing was the most bad-a folk instrument ever. Like an axe Metallica would play, if Metallica were all midgets.

I usually have a problem with band's who have one sound, but Flogging Molly is so unashamed of having one main sound, that it works perfectly. Every song is at a flaring pace, and the band gets pissed if you don't clap on every one, leaving my hands raw by the nights end. I'm not talking your basic white kid clap either, were clapping like the Irish; in other words, balls to the wall. And if the crowd wasn't clapping, they were jumping like the ground was covered in napalm. I've never seen a punk rock show, so Im 100% positive this crowd was mild compared to them, but it was pretty rowdy none the less. The lead singer dedicated every song to something or someone; his wife's mother, his father, the 1,000 Irish mean and women who were enslaved in the Barbados Islands, Peace and Freedom in Ireland, pirates, and drinking, lots and lots of drinking, a theme especially appreciated on UT's "dry" campus. It was like a really coked out history lesson. My favorite song, "What's Left Of The Flag", was one part ode to his patriotic dad' lessons on his death bead, one part praise of Irish history, and denunciation of it's bloody war.

Concert etiquette was pretty funny last night. UT made the fatal mistake of passing out frisbees, and the front of the crowd were tossing those suckers like grenades. I almost got hit about five times, and I saw a good ten people or so take shots right to the head. You formed a little fellowship with everyone around you; everyone would look for frisbees and try to save neighbors from face shots, and if you did get hit, someone next to you would definitely throw the disc back, as if retaliation. It felt like Irish brother hood. Of course, there were plenty of douche-bags who didn't follow this code. A guy behind matt punched some dude in front of Matt in the arm, and the tiny guy turned around and cranked a punch right in Matt's chest before he could explain who threw the first blow. It was pretty funny, I gotta say.

aghughughaghaghagh...... ppaassiioonn ppiittt

When Flogging Molly left the stage, along with all the Irish punks in the audience, me and Matt managed to worm our way up to about twenty feet from the stage. The only problem with this, was that we literally had no room to move. It was like sardines. Matt could have done without it, but I didn't care; I was about to be face to face with one of my absolute favorite bands, and a super stoned flock of college kids weren't going to stop me. We waited forever, helping kids crowd surf, fanning off with spare frisbees, and building up anticipation by going over how many people were there. It was a HUGE crowd. The big World's Fair Ground was packed from front to back. I honestly think there were anywhere between 10,000 to 15,000 people there, and we were in the front 500 or so. It was amazing. Plus, we would scoot forward every few minutes because people couldn't take the crow, pushing every one forward a few feet. I'd whip out my phone and take a picture of the stage or crowd and braggingly send it to all my poor friends who couldn't make it to the show. Finally the lights came down, a single synth tone rang out, and Passion Pit took the stage.

I can't begin to tell you how amazing these guys were. They opened with "Eyes As Candles" and never looked back. The crowd was immediately in a giant dancing frenzy. After the first song, they jumped into "Make Light" and the crowd went ape. Everyone was singing it, and when the full band blows up on the chorus, the whole place was euphorically jumping like maniacs. It was one of the coolest crowds to be in ever. Between songs, the band's front man, Michael Angelakos, would throw in little questions and comments about college; i.e. who's ready to party, who's sick of school, and f%$# finals, much to the crowds appreciation. He didn't waste too much time talking though. He knew what the crowd wanted. After a few songs, Passion Pit started one of my favorites, "Let You Love Grow Tall". The band's main keyboardist, proudly wearing a black Justin Bieber t-shirt with the little girl smiling next to a piano, danced his way through the tune, and occasionally broke out a beat on his latin percussion kit at his side.

OH MY GAWD I LOVE BIEBER!!!!!111!!!1!!

The group ended the main part of their show with their Prince, Van Halen hybrid "Little Secrets", with the massive crowd dancing with the band the whole time. We were bumping people, getting hit with frisbees, glow sticks, and shoes, and slowly starting to lose hearing, but we didn't care; this was Passion Pit, put up with it or get out. I bet you could hear the crowd singing the descant of the chorus from a mile away. The band walked off stage, and the whole crowd was either yelling "encore" or "Sleepy Head" which the band had not yet pulled out of their bag. The band returned to the stage, the crowd exploded like an A-bomb, and immediately went into a song I haven't heard, with a much heavier techno aspect than most of the rest of their songs; like 4-Tet techno-y. Didn't know it, but I didn't care, it sounded great. After "Moth's Wings" (I think), The band stopped and didn't say a word, collecting their thought and looking out over the audience. Suddenly, I heard the "Sleepyhead" start up, and the rest was the crowd screaming the whole thing. The song ended, Michael thanked the crowd, and fireworks erupted from the top of the garage next to World's Fair. I went to Disney a few months ago, and I enjoyed these fireworks a heck of a lot more than Illuminations, or whatever their shows are called. As people left, every Go Vol's chant in the book was blaring from groups around the park. It felt good to be a Volunteer. OH YEA, I almost forgot. Passion Pit was supposed to play Vanderbilt two weeks ago, but had to cancel. HAHAHA. That was a nice touch. It was the most fun I've had at a concert since Springsteen back in November, and while it closed off a year for the UT kids, I'm declaring it my welcome party. Here's to you UT. I know you probably can't, but please get close to booking as great of a show next year.