Conundrum

So, the season of show-going that I blogged about a bit ago is officially upon us. Last night, Jack's Mannequin invaded the Grog Shop (or Grog Stop, as the limited-edition, autographed poster I bought says). His performance was nothing short of fantastic. I am a big, big fan of the new album, The Glass Passenger, (in fact, I'd put money on it showing up on my year-end list), and he played almost all the songs from the album, plus a couple of older tunes. He even played "Caves," which might be my fave on the album, but it's also deeply personal. (Side note: I tend to really like it when artists get uber-personal on their albums. See: "Thirteen" by Ben Kweller.)

But anyway, the crowd was great, the band sounded fantastic (despite the fact they're all fighting cold/flu crap) and Andrew's piano kept getting pushed around by the people in the front row--that's how intimate the venue was. It's cool because the last time I saw him (not counting Warped) was at the House Of Blues in Cleveland, which is a much bigger room than the Grog.

So. It's gonna be a hard show to top between now and the end of the year. There will be some contenders for sure (See: Dear And The Headlights, also at the Grog). But the next challenge comes tomorrow. But here's the thing--I don't know what show to go to. See, the Chiodos/Silverstein tour is playing at the House Of Blues. And the Senses Fail/Foxy Shazam/Sky Eats Airplane tour is playing at the Beachland (which is not at all close to the HOB). Oh, and Tim, Dredg is playing at the Agora. Did you get your tickets yet?

So, who do I go see? That's where you come in. I have reasons to go to both tours (and I may even try to be super-talented and make it to both). But I'd like to hear your arguments for who I should make the most effort to see and why. The person with the best argument gets a cupcake!*




















*That might not be entirely true. But you never know.