photo by maysa askar

To the casual music observer, Say Anything might have just been a flash in the 2004 emo pan. A breakthrough album …is a Real Boy with singles to boot and a dedicated following of young, angsty anti-hipsters, frontman Max Bemis was the poster boy for the myspace generation, seething cynical sarcastic barbs for the disillusioned youth. A little more homework and you’d uncover a band that for a decade, recorded six albums, including the all-star, 27-track hyper-musical In Defense of the Genre, and managed to keep a healthy albeit very specific fan base of diehards who take Bemis’ word as emo gospel.

Hit the jump for the full recap.

– sunbear

photo by maysa askar

Had Max Bemis not sung a single word the entire night during Say Anything’s Friday night show at Warehouse Live’s Ballroom he would have been well covered by those in attendance. From the current wave of Skrillex-loving emo babies keeping alive the band’s torch, handed to them by their emo elders (yours truly) to the elders themselves, who can remember when Say Anything was a four-piece who would cancel entire tours due to the health issues of their highly medicated frontman, the whole venue was alive with the cutting and passionate lyrics of Bemis, who, despite the release of a new album, played a greatest hits set that would please any fan from any generation.

Opening their set, guns blazing with “Spidersong,” Bemis was as electrifying a frontman as he ever was, dashing about the stage, spitting fiery and personal lyrics like “Oh I know your pain – You like I plagued by the flies inside your brain.” And it wasn’t just the older material that had everyone buzzing with excitement. Their barely month-old baby Anarchy, My Dear had the sea of fans chanting to the self-titled track “Say Anything” and the Sherri Dupree-Bemis assisted “So Good” that latter track’s waifish contributor making a surprise appearance.

The band themselves were in fine form, from recreating the hip hop drum loops of “Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too” to blasting discordant on the biting “Admit It!!!.” But Bemis has always been the star, face contorted, breathing fire into the microphone. If there were a R. Lee Ermey for the emo army, it’s Bemis. The impassioned closer of “Admit It!!!,” the ultimate middle finger to music elitism, hasn’t lost an ounce of meaning over the years, and hearing a packed house sling verbal ammo like “You’re diving face forward into an antiquated past. It’s disgusting, it’s offensive, don’t stick your nose up at me,” was chilling. Maybe there’s hope casino spiele for the current state of emo yet?

photo by elizabeth shallal

Direct support Kevin Devine has done one thing well over the many years I’ve been listening to him and that is being an astoundingly captivating frontman. Whether flying solo behind a Gibson dreadnought acoustic, or captaining the thunderous Goddamn Band, Devine’s intelligent and introspective lyrics and honey-sweet harmonies will have you rapt in his singer/songwriter rock. Whereas Say Anything are fueled by irony and angst, Kevin Devine and the goddamn Band are the flip side of that coin, bringing an honest candor to the evening with songs like “The Longer That I’m Out Here” and “Between The Concrete & Clouds.”

Most of his set was dedicated to his latest LP Between The Concrete & Clouds , an album that really let the Goddamn Band stretch its legs and rock out, adding power to Devine’s introspective lyrics. The added muscle even gave the usually reserved frontman a spirited jolt. Devine was running around the stage and thrashing his guitar about, something I’d never not him do before. For an audience ready to be fed bitter Say Anything rants, Kevin Devine and the Goddamn band was the pleasant surprise of the evening, serving up earnestness and a highly literate sense of songcraft that was very well received by the young crowd.

[Say Anything Setlist]

Spidersong
Burn a Miracle
Shiksa (Girlfriend)
Hate Everyone
Belt
In Defense of the Genre
Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too
Say Anything
Eloise
Slumming it with Johnny
So Good
Every Man has a Molly
The Church Channel
Property
Walk Through Hell
Alive with the Glory of Love
–
Ahhh…Men
Admit It!!!
Admit it Again

[Kevin Devine Setlist]
The Longer That I’m Out Here
Off Screen
The First Hit
Between The Concrete & Clouds
Carnival
Another Bag of Bones
Cotton Crush
Brother’s Blood