Chris Carrabba Solo Acoustic HOB Review
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
By Aaron Keker
HOUSE OF BLUES, Chicago – Last evening Chris Carrabba performed a Dashboard Confessional solo acoustic performance for a sold out House of Blues in Chicago, Illinois.
The evening commenced with awesome performances by John Ralston and then by Augustana.
As the curtain gracefully opened, the audience exploded with a large ovation as Chris Carrabba carried his guitar. When Chris strung that first string on his acoustic guitar and sung the first lyric the concert commenced.
Chris opened with the song The Best Deceptions from the albums The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most, MTV Unplugged V2.0 and Dusk And Summer (Deluxe Edition).
When the last lyric was sung and the last string on the acoustic guitar was strung the audience exploded with a large ovation that must have reached the entrance to the House of Blues and the restaurant below.
The ovations continued to escalate in various tempos as each song was performed on Chris Carrabba’s set list.
The lowest tempo ovations occurred on The Sharp Hint Of New Tears from the albums Swiss Army Romance and MTV Unplugged V2.0, The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most from the album The Place You Have Come To Fear The Most and MTV Unplugged V2.0 and Ghost Of A Good Thing from the albums A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar, Dusk And Summer (Deluxe Edition) and Don’t Wait (Single) (Import) and Where There’s Gold…, Thick As Thieves and The Shade of Poison Trees from the album The Shade Of Poison Trees.
The higher tempo ovations occurred on The Best Deceptions, The Brilliant Dance from the albums The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most and MTV Unplugged V2.0, Don’t Wait from the albums Dusk And Summer and Don’t Wait (Single) (Import), Stolenfrom the albums Dusk And Summer, Stolen Pt. 1 (Import), and Stolen Pt. 2 (Import), Screaming Infidelities from the albums The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most, Swiss Army Romance and MTV Unplugged V2.0 and Vindicated from the albums Spider-Man 2 Music From And Inspired By and Dusk And Summer (Deluxe Edition).
The highest tempo ovation occurred when Chris Carrabba concluded his performance with Hands Down from the albums A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar, So Impossible (EP), Hands Down – Single and MTV Unplugged V2.0. Hands Down was the largest tempo ovation for obvious reasons. It is one of Dashboard Confessional’s popular songs. Besides each varied tempo ovations on the set list there were additional highlights of the evening.
The sing-a-longs were another highlight of the evening. Every song that Chris Carrabba sung on his set list was accompanied with the audience providing the background vocals. Songs like The Sharp Hint of New Tears, The Brilliant Dance, Don’t Wait, Screaming Infidelities, Vindicated, Stolen and Hands Down.
If the ovations and the sing-a-longs were not enough the audience was presented with several of Chris Carrabba’s friends and special guests who either provided additional background vocals or sound.
John Lefler who is the guitarist in Dashboard Confessional played with Chris Carrabba practically on every song on Chris’s set list starting withScreaming Infidelities. Violinist Susan Sherouse provided a little classical feel with Chris Carrabba as they performed Ghost Of A Good Thing. Finally the guys from Augustana provided the background vocals as Chris played a Weezer song from the album Wire Tapes Volume 1 titled El Scorcho.
From the ovations, to the sing-a-longs and finally to Chris Carrabba’s friends assisting him with either additional background vocals or sound, what an awesome Tuesday evening to spend with Chris Carrabba and his friends and special guests. In fact, if you attended Chris Carrabba’s performance on October 29 and 30th you heard different songs performed. Chris remarked before he performed Don’t Wait “that if you were here last night I will be performing different songs from last evening.”
If you are unfamiliar with Chris Carrabba and Dashboard Confessional visit their website at www.dashboardconfessional.com or their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/dashboardconfessional. At their website you can listen to Thick As Thieves and on their MySpace page you can listen to Thick As Thieves, El Scorcho, Widows Peak and Vindicated.
If after listening to Dashboard Confessional’s music it turns out that you really enjoy their music, make sure you purchase their music at www.dashboardconfessional.com, iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody or any store that sells their music.
In fact, if you purchased Dusk and Summer at Target when it was released on June 27, 2006 you would have received a dvd that contains their acoustic performances at South By South West (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. The songs they played acoustically at SXSW were Stolen, Rooftops and Invitations and Don’t Wait from the album Dusk and Summer.
If you want to watch a live performance of Dashboard Confessional visit their website at www.dashboardconfessional.com or their MySpace page at www.myspace.com/dashboardconfessional for tour information. If you enjoy acoustic or emo music then, I would encourage you to watch Chris Carrabba’s Dashboard Confessional solo acoustic performance because you will not be disappointed.
Chris performed and entertained the audience with Dashboard Confessional’s most popular songs stripped down acoustically. However, I wished Chris had played Currents from Dusk and Summer, For You To Notice and Remember To Breathe from the albums So Impossible (EP) and MTV Unplugged V2.0 and Living In Your Letters from the albums Swiss Army Romance and MTV Unplugged V2.0.
Finally, I am looking forward to providing future coverage of Chris Carrabba and Dashboard Confessional. Whether it will be an interview or watching Chris Carrabba and Dashboard Confessional’s performance again in Chicago. Below is the set list from Chris Carrabba’s performance at House of Blues in Chicago.
Chicago Set List:
- The Best Deceptions
- The Sharp Hint Of New Tears
- Don’t Wait
- The Brilliant Dance
- Again I Go Unnoticed
- Screaming Infidelities
- Dusk And Summer
- Where There’s Gold …
- Thick As Thieves
- The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most
- Ghost Of A Good Thing
- Turp (Audible)
- El Scorcho
- Vindicated
- Stolen
- The Shade Of Poison Trees
- Hands Down
