last night was ace ender’s BBQ across america tour. i had the opportunity to interview ace, so i decided to hit up a show that i’d normally never go to for the sole reason that it was at javajazz. for those of you who aren’t from texas, java jazz is a locally christian owned venue in the suburbs of houston. not only is the clientele VERY young, but there is a huge lack of bar involved. now that i’m 23 and jaded, i need that bar around these days.

anyway, ace brought person l (kenny vasoli/drive thru records alumni), the gay blades, the dangerous summer and school boy humor.

hit the jump for the full show recap, and don’t forget to peep the interview with ace enders.

-grizzly and a million different bears

for starters, sunbear and i couldn’t find the venue worth a shit, so we missed the first band, school boy humor. i have no clue what they sound like and i am at a loss of effort to find out.

we walked in during the dangerous summer’s set, and they had a solid live show considering the type of band they are. i’ve really taken a liking (in the hugest of guilty pleasure-driven ways) to their debut album, reach for the sun, which their setlist was based solely off of. if they played “surfaced,” i missed it — which sucks, because that’s by far the best track on that album. they did play “weathered,” which was a good substitute.

next up were the gay blades. i’ve never listened to this band and had never planned on doing so due to their band name alone, but bitch, that was a mistake. aj put it best — their live show was highly reminiscent of foxy shazam; highly energetic, very entertaining and thoroughly impressive. when all is said and done, they made a fan out of me and were the best act of the night. reverting back to the fact that i’m 23, jaded and hardly impressed with new bands (especially in live settings), i’d say that’s definitely a huge co-sign. be sure to check out their album ghosts.

it’s no secret that i was a huge fan of the starting line (along with the rest of the bear crew) but i must say there’s something about person L that lacks the charm that kenny had in TSL. some of the songs on initial are good, but then again, they didn’t play “holy hell” or “wooden soldiers.” from what i recognized, they did a bunch of new songs that felt like a long song at times. the highlight of their set was by far “storms,” which kenny did solo. it’s good to see kenny playing shows, but i’m gonna be ‘that guy’ and say i miss the starting line. had to.

finally, ace enders took the stage. read a few setlists prior to seeing this show and was happy to see three songs from the early november, one (the best) song from i can make a mess… and that was reason enough for me to go. well, color me fucking disappointed. ace only played one TEN song, and didn’t even do some of his best solo songs. he failed to play “reintroduction,” which is by far his best solo effort. lump that with a lack of “take the money and run” and “s.o.s.” and it’s safe to say that the setlist was a let down.

i will say, though. ace and company have stepped up their live show since the TEN days. and i still like a handful of songs from when i hit the ground, including “bring back love,” the title track and “the only thing i have,” all of which were played. and it was great to see sergio and his ridiculously hyper on-stage antics in action again.

it was definitely a cohesive show as far as the bands go, but there was something left to be desired. this is definitely a great tour for the summer and i’m sure the setlist won’t disappoint in the rest of the cities. it seems like houston always gets dicked for things like this. go to this tour for the gay blades, if anything.

myspace:

ace enders.
person L.
the gay blades
the dangerous summer

-grizzly

p.s. rx bandits coming soon.