Concert Review :: Say Anything - The Avalon, Boston, MA, May 3rd, 2007

The crowd’s ovation embraced Max Beamis, lead of Say Anything, like a drunken messiah with reasonable right, as he wrote every instrumentation for their abrasively honest debut album, ..Is a Real Boy. Now rising on their MTV escalator ascent to fame, Say Anything bounced and wailed through their short, one hour co-headlining tour with Saves the Day. The character of their live show mimicked their music, absurdly serious while at the same time candidly playful. The defining moment of Say Anything’s dichotomy was clear when Max, for unknown reasons, randomly threw up his middle finger to someone in the balcony and immediately retracted it with childlike embarrassment with his other hand, apologizing and sending his love into the crowd.

The seemingly always coupled ‘Belt’ and ‘Woe’ were performed with belching mellowness and fury, the breakdown of ‘Belt’ revealing stagnant mercenaries within everyone present as Max handed the mic to the masses and crowd surfers in front of him eager to assemble, chanting after him ‘what say you and all your friends step up to my friends in the alley tonight.’ The set marched on with the rarely played ‘Metal Now,’ from the bonus EP …Was a Real Boy. The band blessed the crowed with the freshly crafted hymn , ‘People like You Are Why People like Me Exist’ from their ellipsis lugging upcoming album, ...In Defense of the Genre. The new song, much like their set list, suggests Say Anything has adopted a slightly formulaic structure for success, only slightly challenging convention yet still delivering the delicious Say Anything sound that the crowd was eager to devour.

The ringtone to ‘Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too’ rang out for a half minute signaling the start of their encore. They returned in full force with the vehemence of their new single behind them lauding the stupidity of love. They finished their short set with the ranting ‘Admit it!!!’ more accusatory than ever. The show captured an honest and brutal energy, but whether Say Anything will be the band to infiltrate the clear channel corrupted, MTV overproduced music system from the inside or whether the self-confessed (in the jacket of ...Is a Real Boy) rock star ego of Beamis will force them to conform to its standards for success is yet to be determined.

Set list:
Alive With The Glory of Love
Belt
Woe
Metal Now
People like You are why People like Me Exist
The Futile
Yellow Cat/Red Cat
Every Man Has a Molly
Encore:
Wow, I Can Get Sexual
Admit It!!!