Hear/Say: America's College Music Magazine

		Features: Rise Against Jack's Mannequin Plain White T's Concert Connection The Black Keys Copeland Anberlin Interview Campus Correspondent All Aboard Metallica Anberlin Mogwai Broken West Friendly Fires Jon McLaughlin TV on the Radio Anberlin (2) Ingrid Michaelson

		Margot and the Nuclear So & So's Animal!/Not Animal C Ben Folds Way To Normal B+ Young Jeezy Recession D Deerhoof Offend Maggie C Department of Eagles In Ear Park A The Pussycat Dolls Doll Domination B Jack’s Mannequin The Glass Passenger B New Kids On The Block The Block B- Anberlin New Surrender B- Lambchop OH (ohio) B Castanets City of Refuge B Calexico Carried to Dust B+ Dressy Bessy HOLLERandSTOMP A- Rachael Yamagata Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart A The Sea and Cake Car Alarm B+ Girl Talk Feed the Animals B+ The Clash Live At Shea Stadium B Bob Gendron Gentlemen The Pink Spiders Sweat It Out Sonicbids Band Reviews

		Dirty Sexy Money

Feature Issues
Click on the cover to view the list of
reviews and features from that issue

October 2008 Archive

Anberlin
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
House of Blues/ Chicago, IL

Review by Chad Comello, North Central College and Photo By Andy Argyrakis

Anberlin just seems ready for the big time. Switching to a major label has certainly helped the band in that regards- its packed show at Chicagos House of Blues showed the players know how to harness the awesome power of the guitar and display it for the world to admire (or at least those caught this particular tour stop).

The evening opened well enough: There for Tomorrow and Straylight Run each played a few songs to mostly polite applause from the attendees. Scary Kids Scaring Kids got a bigger welcome: the pit started boiling over with the occasional body surfer and constant moshing, which was matched with cohesiveness and energy. With a whole host of crappy post-hardcore bands out there, the bands musicianship is better than most, even if screamo isnt everyones cup o tea.

But even SKSKs high-octane performance couldnt top what would follow. Taking the stage in front of a gigantic version of the cover art from their new album New Surrender (Universal Republic), Anberlin kicked into gear right away and the crowd of hoodied high-schoolers and twenty-something hipsters went nuts. The band wisely kept banter between songs at a minimum, cruising through some harder-hitting tunes off Never Take Friendship Personal: the title track and the anthemic A Day Late elicited the biggest cheers. Then it was on to Cities material with the danceable Adelaide making way for the slow, acoustic-driven Inevitable and The Unwinding Cable Car. The band wisely picked it back up again with Hello Alone before diving into material from the new album with the single Feel Good Drag as perhaps the highlight of the set.

The thing that distinguished Anberlin from other bands with big productions and headlining tours is that everyone looks like theyre having so much fun on stage. Lead singer Stephen Christian repeatedly but sincerely thanked the audience for singing along with him, as if they needed to be thanked. But he wouldnt have had to sing at all with such a devoted and keyed up crowd shouting along to the unbelievably catchy and hard-hitting rock Anberlin brought on this night.