So I returned to the place where the magic happened 10 years ago. It was here, at a packed out show on the Emo’s Outdoor Stage, that I beheld a phenomenon called Dashboard Confessional. Chris Carrabba was playing his heart-on-sleeve tunes from Swiss Army Romance and The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most and several hundred people were singing along loudly to every word. It was kinda like church (or how it should be), where people felt uninhibited to cry out songs that resonated close to those core-of-being parts deep down inside. It was a passion play, but the audience was indeed as important as the performer on stage.
Tonight was the Austin, TX, stop on the Swiss Army Romance 10-Year Anniversary Tour. It was hard to tell if much (or any) of the audience were return visitors like I was, but they certainly knew the songs. After two opening acts (Cory Branan and John Lefler) that were compatriots of Carrabba’s and sitting on some bleachers checking my camera and facebook status several times and overhearing a “relationship conversation, which was so appropriate for a Dashboard show, where the girl told the guy over and over again how he “made her feel” and after all that … the lone guitarist strolled out on stage and confidently declared, “I’m Chris and I’m here to play some old (bleep).” The opening chords rang out and we all knew instantly that he was starting off with a bang – perhaps the most memorable song from those first two albums – “Screaming Infidelities.”
After the first few songs I wondered if he might be sticking to the Swiss Army repertoire, but later he cranked out some newer tunes and that notion was dispelled – but only after playing the lion’s share of that album.
Like a good performer, he talked a little to the audience. He stirred up some applause for the opening acts. He called his friend John Lefler a “bad mother (bleep),” explaining that he was one of his best friends of all time. When served with certain requests he would reply, “It’s on my list.” Occasionally he would pause on an unlit dark stage (thanks to an alert and responsive light tech) to catch his breath away from the microphone, but mostly he got down to business and belted out songs for a good 90 minutes. Near the end he said, “I was told to watch the clock, but here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m not gonna come out for an encore, I’m just going to play a bunch more songs.” It sounded sincere and it sounded economical – not wasting time pretending to leave the stage for good until the audience mustered up enough applause and then coming back out like it was a surprise.
As is usually the case, you can’t quite repeat the magic from the past, but if you have songs as strong as these in your quiver, you can’t go wrong.
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