Last Sunday, a packed house turned out at the Troubadour in West Hollywood as Los Angeles native Say Anything closed out their United States tour to promote their new, self-titled album. It was a special night with lead singer Max Bemis reminiscing on past memories at the hallowed venue as well as celebrating the success of the tour with Eisley, whose guitarist and singer became Sherri Dupree-Bemis this past April.

I arrived to the show part way through the second of three openers to the surprise that the venue was already at capacity, eagerly anticipating the headliner. The audience was mostly young, full of energy and seemed to know words to every single song. Say Anything, the band’s fourth full-length studio album, has been favorably received by fans, and contains some of the bands most catchy as well as most thoughtful tunes. Bemis made sure to hit all of the fan favorites (including an impromptu classic during the encore…we’ll get there in a minute) from past albums as well as give the new album a fair share of plays.

The show began with the short opener, “Fed to Death”, the lead-out track on the new album and immediately went into three songs that made the band who they are today: “Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too” and “Alive with the Glory of Love”, singles from their second release and “Shiksa (Girlfriend)”, the lead single off of the third album, In Defense of the Genre. After riling up the crowd, the always frantic Bemis invited out Sherri Dupree, to help him out with a much mellower song that they wrote together, “Cemetery”. In both this guest appearance as well as Bemis’ cameo in Eisley’s set, their newly-wed status was very much apparent.

But don’t worry Bemis and Say Anything aren’t going soft on us, as they bounced back into “This Is Fucking Ecstasy” and one of the crowd favorites of the night, “Woe”. Bemis hovered over the audience the entire night, falling into the crowd often, allowing the audience to sing into the microphone with him. He had great stage presence, riling up the crowd during songs and preaching to them between. He burst out midway through the set “I want to high-five everyone in this building by the end of this show!” A kid standing close to me at the time managed to crowd surf his way to the front over the next couple songs, reaching his hand out towards the singer when he got close enough. He got his high five.

Throughout the night, Bemis acknowledged this was a heart-felt end to a successful tour, finishing it off in the city where it all started ten years ago. He reminisced on playing a number of sets at the Troubadour, opening for various bands while trying to gain popularity. He even talked about being so nervous that he broke a string at his first performance in front of a record label they were hoping to sign with. He came out by himself to begin the encore to play what the setlist said would be “Crush’d”, off of the new album. Instead, the local fans got a pleasant surprise when he said, “So I wrote a song when I was 18 years old. Have you guys heard of A Walk Through Hell?” And the audience certainly had. “A Walk Through Hell” is perhaps the band’s most well known song, however certainly least played. It’s not even on any of their four major releases. They closed out with the high intensity, fan favorite “Admit It!!!”, trashing the stage completely and throwing pieces of the city skyline backdrop into the audience. A guitarist even sent a microphone stand flying into the audience. It was a great end to the tour.

Before Say Anything took the stage, Texas-based family band, Eisley, performed, playing through a set of old favorites as well as new songs from their recent EP, Fire Kite. Made up of three sisters, a brother and cousin, Eisley is a vocally-driven and talented band. I hate to be cliché and call them cute, but there was a unity that could only be created from growing up playing together. Leading the group was the youngest sister and musician extraordinaire, Stacy Dupree, who wrote her first song at the age of 8 so her dad (and band manager) would allow her to join the family band. She reminds me of Amy Lee, lead singer and pianist of Evanescence, combining strong, powerful vocals with dreamlike and at times haunting deliverance. Midway through their set, Max joined the band to perform “Smarter”, a new song off of Fire Kite EP that he and Sherri co-wrote. Keep an eye out for their album in Spring 2010.

Say Anything Setlist

1. Fed to Death
2. Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too
3. Alive with the Glory of Love
4. It’s a Metaphor, Fool
5. Shiksa (Girlfriend)
6. Hate Everyone
7. Yellow Cat/Red Cat
8. Have at Thee!
9. Cemetery (with Sherri Dupree of Eisley)
10. This is Fucking Ecstasy
11. Eloise
12. Woe
13. Baby Girl, I’m a Blur
14. Mara and Me
15. Every Man Has a Molly
16. Ahh…men

ENCORE

1. A Walk Through Hell
2. Spores
3. Admit It!!!

–Peter Wardell

Suuper Good Radio Show, Thursdays 12-2 pm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Max Bemis & Sherri Dupree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sherri with Say Anything

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eisley