The Starting Line Metro Chicago Review
Saturday, March 22, 2008
By Aaron Keker
METRO – Last evening, The Starting Line performed for a sold out show at Metro in Chicago, Illinois.
This was their final farewell tour in Chicago as the band is taking a break to either pursue other musical ventures or to spend lost time with their families.
The evening commenced with performances by Steel Train, Four Year Strong and Bayside.
During Bayside’s performance, the audience energized themselves by moshing and body surfing.
The moment The Starting Line entered the stage they received a large ovation that must have been heard in the lobby downstairs.
The Starting Line opened with “Almost There, Going Nowhere.” As the song concluded, they received another loud ovation.
The moshing and body surfing continued throughout their entire performance. In fact, security grabbed individual after individual as they surfed to the stage only to be escorted to either side of the stage, whereby they dispersed back into the audience.
Besides the moshing and body surfing, the audience jumped up and down and clapped alongside with vocalist Kenny Vasoli on songs like “Up and Go,” “Autography,” “Making Love to the Camera” and “A Goodnight’s Sleep.” The audience also provided additional background vocals on each song on their set list.
The two final highlights of the evening occurred when Kenny played solo on “The Drama Summer” and when The Starting Line concluded their performance with their most popular song “Best of Me.”
Although I enjoyed The Starting Line’s performance, I wished they had ended their farewell performance with a bigger bang. In my opinion, if they had played songs acoustically like “Bedroom Talk” and “Best of Me,” the audience would have gone crazier. Especially considering how energized they were the entire evening.
Whether you are familiar or unfamiliar with The Starting Line, you should visit their web site at www.startinglinerock.com or their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/thestartingline and listen to their music. If it turns out that you enjoy it, make sure you purchase their music at their web site, iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody or any store that sells their music.
For those of you who like to watch music videos on your iPod, make sure you purchase “Bedroom Talk” and “Island” because they are just as entertaining as their musical counterparts.
Finally, I want to personally thank The Starting Line for their hard work and dedication to their fans for the last eight years. Words cannot explain enough just how energized the audience was to watch The Starting Line’s farewell performance.
Hopefully, this will not be the last of The Starting Line. Who know, maybe you will see them in a year or two? Guys, it is not too late to play several of your songs acoustically before your farewell tour concludes. Below is the set list from The Starting Line’s performance at the Metro.
Metro Set List:
- “Almost There, Going Nowhere”
- “Greg’s Last Day”
- “Direction”
- “Up and Go”
- “Inspired by the $”
- “Are You Alone”
- “The Drama Summer”
- “Autography”
- “This Ride”
- “Bedroom Talk”
- “Making Love to the Camera”
- “A Goodnight’s Sleep”
- “Surprise, Surprise”
- “Birds”
- “Something Left to Give”
- “Island”
- “Leaving”
- “Given the Chance”
- “Somebody’s Gonna Miss Us”
Encore:
- “21”
- “Best of Me”
