AWmusic

This past Wednesday I walked over to the Phoenix for the first time to see Say Anything preform. It was an all ages show and when I arrived one of the opening acts Moneen was just going onstage. Moneen was a band I remember hearing about in Middle School but never fell in love with. Moneen had tons of energy and put on a great performance considering I was unfamiliar with all of their songs. The craziest part of their show was when lead singer, Kenny Bridges jumped into the audience and continued to sing as he crowd surfed.

After Moneen’s set Say Anything came onstage with each one of its six members wearing identical white short-sleeved collared shirts, buttoned up too the top with grey dress pants. The stage was decorated like their upcoming album art, with an abstract city scape and a navy blue back drop with painted clouds and a moon.

Say Anything opened with two of their most popular songs, the first being “Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too” and then “Alive With the Glory of Love”. Both songs got the crowd dancing, Ive never seen so much movement and moshing at a Toronto show before. In between songs the lead singer Max Bemis expressed his love for Toronto saying that this was the only city in the world that their band has ever done 3 encores. As the show progressed Say Anything’s conservative look started to become disheveled as members unbuttoned their shirts and Max Bemis even took his off. Other songs Say Anything played that night were “The Futile”, “Admit It” and their new song “Hate Everyone” off their upcoming self titled album “Say Anything” due out in stores November 3rd.

Say Anything set lasted an hour and a half! and when it came to encores they only did two. During the first encore Max Bemis came out alone too play a song. The crowd kept on trying to persuade him to play “Walk Through Hell” and with some more coercion Max said he would under the condition that we all better sing along because he hadn’t played that song in a year. All together it was an amazing rock show and definitely made me like Say Anything even more.

While I did take some photos during the concert, they make the band look more like blurs than actually people. Besides you should probably be dancing at a show instead of concentrating on staying incredibly still to get a decent picture. Currently Say Anything’s whole new album is now available to listen too on their myspace page.

Say Anything – The Futile
Say Anything – Alive With The Glory Of Love