Two Shows to Talk About

This week I was able to relive some of my early-2000s emo, which honestly my love for has never gone away or dissipated as the music still always finds a way to be relevant to my life and I keep track of and buy these bands' music. In downtown Portland, we have an outdoor venue, which I just started going to and paying attention to last summer, right by the water, called the Maine State Pier. This week they brought the Taste of Chaos tour which featured emo grandfathers The Early November, Taking Back Sunday, and Dashboard Confessional, with the added bonus of the newly reunited band Saosin with Anthony Green (who is one of my all time favorite singers). The energy was amazing. The sing-alongs were aplenty.

I've seen Dashboard Confessional multiple times, one time was for the 10th anniversary of "swiss Army Romance" in a small club in Boston a few years ago, which featured Chris Carrabba by himself. I also saw them at the height of their fame and success at the civic center arena in Portland with The Get-Up Kids and Thrice.

And Taking Back Sunday, I believe I've seen at least 6x now.

Dashboard Confessional were the headliners:



  1. Full Band
  2. Vindicated
    Play Video
  3. The Sharp Hint of New Tears
    Play Video
  4. The Good Fight
    Play Video
  5. Saints and Sailors
    Play Video
  6. Get Me Right
    Play Video
  7. Acoustic
  8. The Swiss Army Romance
    Play Video
  9. The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most
    Play Video
  10. Remember to Breathe
    (Band Returns For Ending)
    Play Video
  11. Full Band
  12. Don't Wait
    Play Video
  13. Again I Go Unnoticed
    Play Video
  14. The Best Deceptions
    Play Video
  15. Acoustic
  16. Heart Beat Here
    Play Video
  17. Full Band
  18. Screaming Infidelities
    Play Video
  19. Fix You
    (Coldplay cover)
    Play Video
  20. Stolen
    Play Video
  21. Encore:
  22. Hands Down
Taking Back Sunday's set featured a great selection of songs, including a brand new song: 






  1. (Unknown)
  2. (Unknown)
  3. (Unknown)
  4. Tell Me Why
    Play Video
  5. Baby Blue
    Play Video
  6. I Don't Care
    Play Video
  7. I Want to Hear You Sad
    Play Video
  8. Narrow Mouth
And Saosin's set was fantastic! Anthony Green's sons were running around the stage, wearing deadphones, until Chris Carrabba and Green's brother reeled them in on the side of the stage and babysat them. 




The next night, I traveled two hours north, to Bangor, for the first time (surprisingly) for a country show. The recently reunited or off-hiatus band The Dixie Chicks played an excellent 2 hour set of all their hits and a few covers, proving once again why they are/should be relevant in the music industry. They disappeared for ten years after the backlash of "unpatriotic" comments about George W. Bush in the face of the Iraq War back in 2003, then they all focused on families and becoming mothers. At the end of this show, all nine of their respective kids came out for the encore and played a variety of instruments, proving it to be quite a family affair. I've always been a fan of the Dixie Chicks, no joke and no guilt, and I was impressed with Natalie Maines speaking from the heart and making no bones about her distaste for Bush's politics. You can disagree with her/their political stance years ago, but I completely respect it and actually loved them more for speaking the truth during such a "bleed American" time in our history as a country. 



  1. The Long Way Around
    Play Video
  2. Lubbock or Leave It
    Play Video
  3. Truth #2
    (Patty Griffin cover)
    Play Video
  4. Easy Silence
    Play Video
  5. Everybody Knows
    Play Video
  6. I Like It
    Play Video
  7. Some Days You Gotta Dance
    Play Video
  8. Long Time Gone
    Play Video
  9. Nothing Compares 2 U
    (Prince cover)
    Play Video
  10. Top of the World
    (Patty Griffin cover)
    Play Video
  11. Goodbye Earl
    Play Video
  12. Video Interlude: Ace of Spades
    (Motörhead cover)
    Play Video
  13. Travelin' Soldier
    (Bruce Robison cover)
    Play Video
  14. Please Don't Let Me Die in Florida
    (Patty Griffin cover)
    Play Video
  15. Daddy Lessons
    (Beyoncé cover)
    Play Video
  16. White Trash Wedding
    Play Video
  17. Instrumental Bluegrass
    Play Video
  18. Ready to Run
    Play Video
  19. Mississippi
    (Bob Dylan cover)
    Play Video
  20. Landslide
    (Fleetwood Mac cover)
    Play Video
  21. Silent House
    Play Video
  22. Cowboy Take Me Away
    Play Video
  23. Wide Open Spaces
    Play Video
  24. Sin Wagon
    Play Video
  25. Encore:
  26. Not Ready to Make Nice
    Play Video
  27. Better Way
    (Ben Harper cover)


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