The Acadeny Is..., Plain White T's, Days Away, and June, 7/21/05, Axis, Boston

After a long day of waiting in the hot sun (and incurring ankle sunburns, as is my case) a nice relaxing rock show soothed everyone.

The first band to hit the stage, June, didn't seen to intrest anyone in the audience. Their mellow tones and low key intrementalism seems to almost lull the crowd. If they were given a bit of a longer set, I'm sure they would have had to wake up the fans lined up along the barracaides.

Slightly better, but still lull inducting, was up and comers Days Away. The crowd went nuts for them, but only when The Academy Is... frontman William Beckett joined them for a song. Days Away (with a frontman looking oddly like ex-Phantom Planet drummr/indie actor Jason Schwartzman) is a good band, don't get me wrong, but it seemed like this was the wrong type of show for them. They'd be better suited to a more laid back audience, maybe they should join the upcoming tour by the John Mayer Trio.

There were a lot of existing fans of the Plain White T's in the audience, and it was easy to see why. They're actually good! They played several songs of their newest album, All That We Needed, out now on Hopeless records. "Revenge", off that newest album, is at the very least a must-download. With chugging guitars and interesting vocal stylings, expect good things from them in the future.

The Academy Is..., where can I start? I first saw them when they opened for Fall Out Boy on the Fueled By Raman tour, it was the first time I even heard any of their music. That first time seeing them, my jaw dropped. They blew me away. This show caused me to have the same reaction. Unlike so many bands you hear on comercial radio today, TAI actually has talent. Everything fell into place as they kicked things off with Almost Here opener "Attention, Attention", the crowd going from almost slumber to frantic sweaty pogoing in a matter of moments. They ran through most of the songs off of Almost Here, including crowd pleasers "Checkmarks", which they announced that the recently filmed a video for in New York, "Classifieds", and my personal fave, "Down And Out". They even gave into the crowd's chanting, playing "Black Mamba". TAI is one of those bands with a good buzz, a buzz that's purely fan based. Much like their buddies on Fall Out Boy, expect a rise to fame from thes guys, peretrated by their legions of devoted fans.

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