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Yellowcard: In concert

By Lisa Christensen

Hundreds of screaming fans filled the Spectrum Tuesday night, to see not the Aggies work a little Spectrum magic, but to see Yellowcard play, live, loud and acoustic.

“(Utah) is our number one, most favorite place to play in the United States of America,” lead singer and guitarist Ryan Key said.

The concert was Yellowcard’s first since their last tour, which ended in April. Tuesday’s concert wasn’t part of a tour, but a single show done just for Logan, said Tom Atwood, USU student and co-owner of Pakt House Productions, which organized the concert.

More than 2,500 tickets were sold, Atwood said, which was about how many they were looking for. Holding a concert is tricky in Logan, he said, because the Spectrum is about the only venue available when expecting a crowd larger than about 2,000. Because of this, not many promoters will have events in Logan, he said, choosing instead to move it south where larger venues are available. Taking the show to Ogden or Provo wasn’t even considered, though, he said.

“We like to show the love to Logan,” he said. “The cool thing about Logan is the people are very loyal. They will drive down to Salt Lake or down to Provo, so we feel it’s important to put shows here.”

When designing the show, Atwood said, they tried to create it around the two opening bands, Jason Reeves and Allred, and Yellowcard seemed like a good fit to round the show off. Atwood said he is personal friends with John Allred of the one-man band and has been looking for a show to include Jason Reeves for a while, so this was a good opportunity to make everything come together. And come together it has, he said.

“(It’s gone) about as smooth as it gets,” he said. “We’ve done several shows now and got it down to a system.”

The concert preparations went as smooth as they did, he said, because of a great crew of people whose hard work made it possible. He said the only hiccup was when JetBlue, the airline on which Allred just flew in from his last job in Seattle, lost Allred’s pedal board.

Allred said that although he was planning on doing a mostly acoustic show, anyway, this was unfortunate because his set usually includes some display with the equipment the airline mistakenly sent to JFK International Airport. His act with the missing equipment included him singing into his guitar and other “crazy stuff.”

Allred, sounding a bit like a cross between Jason Mraz and Lifehouse frontman Jason Wade, opened the concert with a very mellow, very acoustic version of Muse’s “Black Holes and Revelations.” He soon followed this with a medley of more than a dozen songs, including Michelle Branch’s “All You Wanted,” Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” The Eagles’ “Hotel California” and Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours.” He also played original songs, including “All I Have” from his new album. He was later joined by Jason Bladh on cello to play “Look Out.”

Looking out at the large audience, Allred said this concert was much larger than the concerts he usually gives, despite opening for other big-name bands, including Ben Folds and Jimmy Eat World. Allred also gave a little life advice to the audience on the side of his songs.

“Make sure happiness comes first and you give back to other people,” he said.

Allred was followed by Jason Reeves and band, featuring Carson Cohen on bass and keyboard and Billy Hawn on drums. Cohen’s bass and keys were the only electric instruments used all night.

Reeves, sounding again like Wade and Ryan Shupe, played several original songs including “New Hampshire” and “Just Friends,” two words, he said, people say when they are about to do something terrible.

After Reeves, the stage was completely stripped and then rearranged for the Yellowcard set. The crowd erupted into screams when the band finally appeared on stage. Key, followed by lead guitarist Ryan Mendez and violinist Sean Mackin who also supplied back-up vocals, took advantage of the energy from the crowd and invited lots of audience participation, telling them to sing as loud as they could all night long.

“If you are able to go home and go to sleep,” he said, “You’re doing it wrong.”

Yellowcard started their set with “Way Away.” Before beginning their second song, “Believe,” Key dedicated it to all those serving in the armed forces overseas.

“It’s my opinion we should choose a candidate that will bring our troops home right now,” he said, but said that the concert was neither the time or place to bring in politics.

During their set, Yellowcard played a variety of both old and new songs, from “Empty Apartment” and “View From Heaven” to newer songs such as “Fighting” and “Light Up the Sky” from their newest album, Paper Walls. They also played “Down On My Head,” which Key called his favorite song they had ever crafted. Yellowcard finished their set with the well-known single “Ocean Avenue,” mostly sung by the enthusiastic crowd.

The crowd, though enthusiastic, was fairly well-behaved, said Jason McGuire from Centennial Management Group, a private security firm based out of the ECenter in Salt Lake. He said disruptions were about average for a crowd of the concert’s size, especially with the type of crowd expected at a concert like Yellowcard’s. He said a band like Yellowcard usually draws a crowd with a lot of crowd surfers, so that type of disturbance was expected. Centennial Management Group had 12 security personnel at the concert.

“Nothing really comes as a shock to us,” he said. “We’ve seen it all.”

Besides the private security, the USU Police department was also present to keep the peace. Sgt. Jessica Spencer said the department had seven officers and one dispatcher present. They were there to keep people from being disorderly, watch for and remove any alcohol problems, regulate crowd surfing and other general concert concerns, she said. Despite being an acoustic concert, Spencer said the police force wasn’t planning on it being any mellower than a normal rock concert.

“We don’t come into it lax, we’re prepared,” she said.

Taking the acoustic nature of the concert into consideration, many fans were excited to experience the music differently than they were used to hearing.

“It’s acoustic. Do you have any idea how excited I am for that?” said Katelin Jensen, junior at Mountain Crest High School.

Jordan Allen, undeclared freshman, agreed.

“This is my second Yellowcard concert,” he said. “I think I’ll like the acoustic version better. I’m also closer and more of a part of it this time.”

Jessica Dana, a student at New Horizons Beauty College, said she thought the band lost nothing by not having their drummer or bassist or by not using electric effects.

“The rock (version of the concert) was harder, but they were still the same amount of fun,” she said. “They still have it. The violinist gives them their own sound.”

–lisa.m.christensen@aggiemail.usu.edu

The Spectrum was selected as the venue for the Yellowcard concert because it is the only place in Logan equipped to handle more than 2,000 patrons. (Tyler Larson)