Kickass. My second show (actually, it should've been my fourth, but I got screwed out of seeing AFI at Warped. Twice). They played at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, and this time I had the presence of mind enough to buy tickets ahead of time, which was good, because we got there late, tickets were all sold out, and the mass of people trying to buy tickets was enormous and spilling out into the (busy) street.
Anyway, we made our way up to the floating CBR dance floor to find that the first band had just finished. Ok cool, we figured... one more band, then AFI (there were only supposed to be two openers, but there was a third local band anyway). So I stood in line to buy another shirt while Thrice was on stage. When they finished I was still standing in line and thinking "Shit, I've got 15 minutes to get to the front" (the CBR's a damn big venue for this kind of show). SO I break out of line and start moving up, only to discover that damn, No Motiv is up next. So I spend the next half hour jockeying for position and fighting off the pit and this big huge asshole who must be about as strong as an ox, and maybe as smart as a turnip.
Finally I get within one person of the barricade, which is cool, and AFI starts. We were all chanting the cursory "Through our bleeding, we are one" when they come out... all four at once, not just Adam/Hunter/Jade at first like when I saw them last time. So the crowd gets real quiet and they just break into Fall Children, with smoke and really killer lighting and all that. After that, it was our typical AFI show: incredible in a way that you can't describe without actually being there. At one point, Davey told us that this was the biggest show they'd ever headlined before. I thought that was pretty cool. And of course, Adam got us all chanting "Through our bleeding..." halfway through the set. They also played a bunch of songs they don't normally (like Over Exposure and A Single Second), since this is their last tour for the Art of Drowning (which means that after this they go back to do a new album!) I came within inches of nabbing the setlist, too, but one of the security people gave it to the girl standing next to me (I missed out on all six drumsticks, too). Oh well, I'll catch them on the next tour.
So then... in no particular order, the songs they played: Fall Children (opener), The Boy Who Destroyed The World, Days Of The Phoenix, God Called In Sick Today, A Story At Three, The Lost Souls, Over Exposure, 6 to 8, He Who Laughs Last, The Prayer Position, Totalimmortal, Morningstar, A Single Second (encore), and Ever And A Day. There is also some debate going on as to whether or not they played No Poetic Device (none of us here who saw it are entirely sure).
Easily as good as the show they did in Eugene earlier this year, though I wasn't the one that Davey landed on this time =( But that's ok, since he was actually standing on the crowd, singing, during Totalimmortal. New album coming... which means new tour... I can't wait.
-By JJ
