The past couple of months I’ve been anticipating seeing Switchfoot again. They came out with their new record earlier this month, and had scheduled some dates for November. When I saw the dates initially I did a double take. They were scheduled to play the Parish Room at the HOB in NOLA. The Parish is pretty tiny, and is usually reserved for lesser known bands. Switchfoot sold out the big room at the HOB in 2007 when I saw them. Then I read that they were purposely scheduling small venues because they were planning on playing their entire new record at each show. This concept is good if the record’s good, but if it sucks, then it’s not good. I was willing to take the chance because when I saw them in 2007 I came away a lot more impressed than I thought I would be. They were GREAT live. Because of this fact I was able to recruit my sister to come along.

Neko Case had scheduled a show in NOLA the same night, but unlike the Dead Weather/Andrew Bird double I was able to pull off, the two shows were going to be overlapping each other. I had to choose between the two, and my friend Brandi was able to validate my desire to see Switchfoot in a small venue, as opposed to seeing Neko Case, someone who I like, but doesn’t trump an alternative like this one. I bought the tickets for Switchfoot the night I went down to the HOB to see Dead Weather and stuck them in the cabinet door where I usually keep my concert tickets. The anticipation built as I heard songs from the new album. This show was going to be good. I was more excited to see Switchfoot than Swell Season or Pete Yorn.

We went downtown on Saturday and parked the car. The doors opened at 8 pm, and the show was sold out, so we got there about 7:35 or so. It was kind of a mistake because it seemed the entire crowd had showed up by then. There was some confusion as to what line was for Switchfoot and what line was for Stephen Marley, but things were figured out quickly. There was also a 40 something year old guy behind us who was by himself and REALLY excited about the show. I thought that was odd. The doors finally opened about 8:10 and we walked upstairs. The place we stood actually wasn’t as far back as I thought we could get, but man, Switchfoot has a lot of tall fans. It was like a line of tall people across the entire room. After getting our spot, I walked over to the merch table to ask about a vinyl copy of the new album. They didn’t have any. NO VINYL! I don’t understand how bands can show up unprepared like that. People want to give you money for vinyl copies of your album. If you’re going to sell it on your site, you should bring it to the show too! I walked back to our spot and we waited.

Switchfoot came out about 9:05 or so. Where we were standing, we could only really see the heads and shoulders of the band. I tried to make sure I could always see the lead singer, Jon Foreman, because really the lead singer is the most important part of a band. They played the new album in order, and it was awesome. I had only heard Mess of Me and The Sound before the show, so every other song was new to me. I loved the opening song’s lyrics “it’s no accident we’re here tonight, we are once in a lifetime.” there was plenty of guitar to go with the lyrics. YES! I know that lyric maybe isn’t that great, but I can explain later this week why now I like those lyrics for rock songs now. And Mess of Me was ridiculous. I liked hearing the stories before the songs, like how Your Love Is A Song is the third song in a trilogy, and how John M Perkins’ daughter was in attendance before The Sound. Early on some kid up front had a sign that said “Do you love me enough to let me play bass on Bullet?” The band saw it and acknowledged that they did love him enough and he had 6 songs to get ready. Now this kid was getting his wish, I hope he doesn’t suck.

Anyway, each song was great. I loved every minute of it. Then it came time for the bass playing fan to get up on stage for Bullet Soul. His name was Brandon, and the band was going to let him come in after the guitar solo. The solo comes and then Tim Foreman (the bass player) hands him the bass, then the band goes back to the solo. The dude was pretty good, the bass was deep and plodding. Not to say Tim was bad, but the kid had skills. I’m sure that was cool for him to do, and I felt happy for him.

This next part is too awesome for me to remember which song this was. So we’re all packed in there wall to wall, and during the song Jon Foreman takes the mic and starts walking back through the middle of the crowd. He was coming right by us! So I bumped my sister for her to touch him. She declines, and he walked past us. People are snapping pictures and patting him on the back, so on his way back I reached out and patted him on the back. I touched him! I touched a rock star! It was really cool. I mean, I know it’s not that cool in the grand scheme of things, but it was part of a great night, and I’m glad I did it. No regrets.

Once they finished playing Hello Hurricane, they went right into the older songs. I was really hoping for Awakening, but they decided not to grace us with it on Saturday night. Awakening is on my running mix, and during the HALF MARATHON it came on 2nd or something, right when I was having to get over the fact that I had 12.5 miles to run and I was really frustrated at all the slow people. It is one of my favorite songs. Anyway, they didn’t play it, but they did play Dare You To Move, among others, so I was okay with no Awakening. NEXT TIME THOUGH SWITCHFOOT! They played about 2 hours, and it was awesome. Seeing them in such a small place (they said NOLA was the smallest venue on the tour, and it almost didn’t happen because it was too small, but they pushed through) was amazing. Word.