REVIEW: Dashboard singer engages crowd
Ten years ago, the history of modern music was changed with the tentative release of an EP titled “The Swiss Army Romance.” A solo project by guitarist/vocalist Chris Carrabba under the name Dashboard Confessional, the album was virtually unknown before the band’s rise in popularity around the release of their third album, “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar” in 2003.
Dashboard now has released six studio albums and is heard everywhere from X96 to the “Spiderman 2” soundtrack. Heck, I even heard one of their songs in a grocery store in Italy last spring. Their sound has subtly changed over the years, adopting a full-band sound that is quite appealing.
But, as this year is the 10th year since the release of that first album, the band is going back to the basics on the Swiss Army Romance 10th Anniversary Tour.
As part of that tour, they played in Salt Lake City Tuesday night at In The Venue. Opening the show was John Lefler – the other guitarist of Dashboard Confessional – Lady Danville and Chris Conley of Saves The Day, who has had a friendship with Carrabba that predates Dashboard Confessional. Towards the end of his set, Conley was asking for requests, and when he refused to play “Shoulder to the Wheel” due to the fact that he didn’t have his band with him, some dedicated fans offered to play it with him. He invited them up on stage, handed his guitar to one of them, and the lucky guys got to perform the song with Chris Conley himself. It was a good thing the guys actually knew how to play the song.
Finally, Dashboard Confessional came on stage. Sort of.
When I said they were going back to basics, you must understand at the time of the band’s first album, Dashboard Confessional consisted of Carrabba and only Carrabba. Logically, that’s what the anniversary tour consists of. And while it would have been nice to see the whole band, the pure intimacy of Carrabba’s live show left nothing lacking and no one disappointed.
Coming on around 9 p.m., Carrabba grabbed a guitar before starting, said “Hi, I’m Chris, and I’m here to play some old s**t.” He proceeded to play the entire first album. Fans were shouting out other songs for him to play, but he refused to play any newer songs until he had played the ones he was there to play. After he had finished with “Swiss Army Romance,” he took requests from the crowd.
During the whole show, Carrabba’s piercing voice was accentuated by thousands of voices in the crowd singing along with him. There were even people singing harmonies and counter melodies to his songs, something that he used wonderfully to get a full yet intimate sound. He stood on stage, gesturing to the crowd to let them know whether he was going to follow the album version of the song or go on with something different.
One of the more notable performances was the song “A Plain Morning.” Carrabba prefaced the song saying that years ago he didn’t enjoy playing it, because it reminded him of someone very dear to him he had lost. One of his very dear friends went missing, and he got called to go be on the search team for this friend that never was found. Now, he said his opinion has changed and he enjoys being reminded of his lost friend.
Other highlights were the songs “Vindicated,” “Get Me Right,” and “Stolen.” I say those were the highlights, but there was honestly no boring song in the whole performance.
He finished up the night with an incredible performance of “Hands Down.” Everyone in the venue was singing along as Carrabba directed them in an ending unlike the album version – an exhilarating finish to an exhilarating show.
It was one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. The next time they come to Utah, don’t miss it.
– rex.colin.mitchell@gmail.com