I have this horrible habit that needs to stop.  It's costing me way too much money and taking up all my time.  Last Saturday night I once again gave into my habit by making my way to Sunset Blvd to the House of Blues.  Hi my name is Jessica and I am a concert-acholic. 

This Saturday's adventures bought me to the Yellowcard show.  What I didn't know going into was that the tour was all acoustic.  I have always been a huge fan of acoustic shows.  I believe it is the one true way to display the true talent of the artist.  The verdict of Yellowcard's acoustic set?  They are indeed talented.  Who knew?  I will admit that I don't own any Yellowcard CDs, not that I don't like band I just never got that into them, which became the one drawback during the show.  Acoustic shows are usually geared towards entertaining the major fans, and we casual listeners are left to wonder why we don't know the words to the songs.  For what it is worth, those huge fans seemed to be plenty pleased and I was entertained for a short while.  By the way, the violinist for Yellowcard is the most adorable thing ever.  I just wanted to pinch his cheeks.  Weird?  Yes, but it's the truth. 

No offense to Yellowcard, but I didn't go to the show to see them.  I was there to see my favorite band, The Spill Canvas.  This might not be name you have heard before, but trust me you will hear a lot more about these guys very soon.  I was first introduced to TSC a couple years ago when they opened for Motion City Soundtrack.  I immediately found myself spellbound by their melodic sound and lead singer Nick Thomas' passion for his lyrics.  Saturday night I was just as impressed by their live show as that first time.  If anything their performances has become stronger as they have grown as a band.  Even though they were not the headliners for the night, they still got the crowd moving along to fan favorites like "Stapled Gunned" and "Natalie and 1cc."  The highlight for me was the addition of a little funk to their current single "All Over You."  I'm just putting it out there it would be nice to have that version on iTunes so I could add it to my gym mix.  I'm just saying.... But I digress.  I do wish they had more time to play so that the acoustic guitar could be broken out a couple more times.  Alas, that is the bane of the opening act.  They only played one song on the acoustic guitar, in which they were joined by that adorable violinist from Yellowcard.  Seriously, too cute.  Just a quick note to the fans, what was with the mosh pit at the end of their set?  The Spill Canvas is soooooo not a mosh pit band.  You guys looked like total losers.  Sorry but sometimes the truth hurts. 

Of course there were other bands that I had to sit through before my boys came on.  Luckily the two bands weren't half bad which made the experience a little easier.  First was Treaty of Paris, a fun generic emo band.  I couldn't help but laugh at the lead singer's banter between songs that you could totally tell he practiced in the mirror before the show.  It was cute in that "he's young and trying really hard" kinda way.  Treaty of Paris doesn't have the most profound lyrics, but their music has a lot of fun energy that the high school emo kids will easily relate too.  "Why Am I Always Broke?" has become my personal theme song. 

The second band up was PlayRadioPlay, a young buzz-band I have been hearing thrown around a lot lately.  It's easy to hear why Alternative Press magazine dubbed them one of the "Artists to Watch" in 2008.  Their brand of electronic pop-rock sounds like a mature Hellogoodbye that has grown out of their self-indulgent phase.  Their set flowed well, mostly in thanks to the protools system that most of their music played off of and could only be started once at the start of the set.  I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if something went wrong, how would they work stopping and re-starting the system?  Oh well, some things are would be better left unknown I suppose.  I defiantly suggest you check out PlayRadioPlay's track "I'm a Pirate, You're a Princess."

 P.S. If you want to catch The Spill Canvas yourself and see why I'm obsessed they will be in town on June 25th at the House of Blues in Anahiem... Yeah I'll be there!