Straylight Run, OZMA, and Rooney

Currently Playing: The Carpenters - Superstar

On Tuesday, July 13th, Tiffany and I went to go see Straylight Run, OZMA, and Rooney at the Soma. We didn't decide to go until the last minute because we found out that tickets were still available. We drove there at 5:30 pm to buy tickets and wait in line for the concert to start. They let us in at around 7:00 pm, and the concert started probably an hour later (I didn't have my phone with me). While we were waiting for the concert to start, I heard them play the new Taking Back Sunday album (at a Straylight Run show??).

I was thinking of buying a Straylight Run t-shirt, but was dissuaded by the $20 price tag on them. I remember a time when shirts were just $10. What happened to those days...? Although, I do also remember a time when gas was under a dollar, so maybe I'm just getting old.

I was surprised to find that the concert was not full at all. They had sectioned off at least a third of the back, and even then, only half of the remaining space was full. Granted, that's still a lot of people because Soma is pretty big, but it just looked pretty empty. Since we got there early, we got to get the seats on the ledge on the left side of the stage. We were pretty close and we were able to see everything.

Straylight Run came on first, though I don't think many people knew who they were. Of their six demo songs, they played "The Tension and the Terror", "It's for the Best", "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making", and "Existentialism on Prom Night". They also played a bunch (and by bunch I mean 4 or 5; they were the opening band after all) of songs from their upcoming album, which they said would be released in September. Michelle actually sang the lead part on some of the songs. Some of the titles of the new songs that I can remember were "Toolsheds and Hot Tubs" (sung by Michelle), and "Sympathy for the Martyr". I really enjoyed their set, and really look forward to their album.

Random Rant: One thing that was annoying though, was when we stood up on the ledge, some guy just sat down pretty much right in front of us. He took up all the space, and after the set when we tried to sit down again, we had half as much space. Not only did he take our seat, he kept making frantic hand gestures to the girls he was talking to, and when he would leave the seat to go do something, and we would try to scoot over a little, he would just jump back into the seat and force us back over. It reminds me of the Masquerade at Anime Expo, when we stood up from our seats to try to catch some t-shirts they were throwing out, and when I tried to sit back down again, I was very surprised to find two girls standing in our seats, jumping up and down. At one point they even elbowed me in the head trying to catch a t-shirt. People are stupid.

Anyway...

OZMA played next. They played a pretty long set. I was disappointed because they didn't play "Korobeiniki" (more commonly known as the "Tetris Song"). However, they made up for it by playing a cover of The Carpenters' "Superstar". Star actually sang the song. It was the first time I've heard her sing, and it was actually pretty good. She also had to play to flute for the same song, so she had to keep switching between her flute, keyboards, and actually singing.

Rooney headlined, but it was kind of sad because it seemed like there were more people there to see OZMA than Rooney, although Rooney did have many more screaming girls. They were pretty good, although I still don't have much of an opinion on them. I only really like the song "I'm Shakin'", and that's really only because they played it on The OC.

All in all, it was a good show, and definitely worth the $15 admission price.

Randomness: I'm closing in on the 60,000 mile mark. The odometer now reads 59,891.