Why you should go to a show even if you think the headlining band sucks

Over my spring break I decided to attend a The Devil Wears Prada and Every Time I Die concert in Tuscon with my boyfriend and one of his best friends. I had never been to Tuscon before, so I thought that taking a day trip to what seemed like a sprawling town in the middle of BFE would be fun. I had also never seen any of the bands before, so this whole thing was just going to be one big brutal adventure. This is not to say that I'd never heard of any of these bands before, though. Every Time I Die was one of my boyfriend's favorite bands, and I had unfortunately began and ended my relationship with the musical stylings of The Devil Wears Prada in a single day after hearing their cover of Lloyd Banks' "Im so Fly" in the seventh grade. Letlive and Oh, Sleeper were also opening (But who cares about opening bands? Am I right?! Ha!). I'm not saying The Devil Wears Prada sucks, but I am. The whole premise of this review is sort of that they're bad, so please don't continue if you would take a bullet for them or something. Even though The Devil Wears Prada was the headlining band, I'm going to go ahead and say that because of the rest of the music that night, the concert was worth attending.

When we got to the venue in Tuscon there was a constantly growing line outside of the theater made up of 14 year olds who hadn't gotten the memo that scene went out of style and slightly older guys whose wardrobe consisted primarily of tanks tops and basketball shorts. I felt at home. Brooding and complaining about my parents were some of my favorite activities too! Once we made friends with everyone there we entered the venue. Shortly after, Oh, Sleeper came to perform and inform us that Letlive couldn't play the show tonight. Oh well. That's pretty much all of the consideration I gave this piece of information, save being reminded about later by an Every Time I Die band member wearing one of their shirts. Then, we finally got to the meat of the show! Wooh! Oh, Sleeper started playing, and the first thing I could do was look at the lead singer and wonder how a person that large even existed. He literally looked like some sort of henchman. It was terrifying because I'm pretty sure he could have killed me if he wanted to. After I got over my initial fear of dying, I realized that he was in fact, a good vocalist. The rest of the actual music was good too. My percussionist self sent some "respect" mojo to the drummer for his talent and the guitarists seemed into it, although you couldn't really hear them. But hey, you win some, you lose some guys. And if anyone gives you a hard time about it, just have your lead singer kill them.

Next up was Every Time I Die. I know what you're thinking, "Oh gee, this is the band my boyfriend likes! Let me be more partial to them!" but no. This did not happen. Actually it might've crossed my mind. But I forced myself to be objective for you, the readers. You're welcome. Every Time I Die walked out as a single unit, middle fingers in the air, shining brightly for all to see. I'm not really sure what the significance of this was, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it and I guess you can't really argue with what fans want. They started to play, and let me be honest, it sounded intense! You could hear the guitars! This was an improvement from the last band! Honestly, I have no complaints about their performance. Guitarist A was doing crazy stuff the whole time, while guitarist B was chilling and really exemplifying his middle finger attitude. I appreciated the honesty. The vocalist, drummer, and bassist were all going crazy while crowd surfing, jumping, and singing (screaming?) along were happening amongst the fans. It was fun to be had by all. The rock influences were dance-y enough that I could join in on the fun without having to know every song. They definitely made a fan out of me, and probably almost everyone that night, except for the guy next to me, who seemed to be appalled that the vocalist was wearing something so "hipster" as cowboy boots. I was confused by this convoluted comparison, but I figured that a lot of easier things probably confused this guy too, so I went on my merry way. Oh, I also got to punch someone! How about that for brutal, eh? Wear a cowboy hat that blocks my visibility and shove me again and we'll see what happens, buddy.

After that festival of fun was over, the next band to perform was The Devil Wears Prada. Yay, the headlining band, I bet they are going to be so talented! No, no. This wasn't an award winning film starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. This was something far more dark. Instead of Anne Hathaway becoming an important assistant for a famous magazine editor, Anne Hathaway is a concert-goer, and Meryl Streep is instead a famous vocalist who happens to look like a tool. Rather than dealing with business situations, Anne Hathaway gets punched by sweaty dudes in tank tops and basketball shorts. This was my experience with The Devil Wears Prada. The lead singer had a large beard sprouting from his chin (really, just his chin. Not the rest of his face), pants high enough to expose his ankles, and some sort of weird vest. Some of his vocals sounded like an angry dog, which was not really complemented by the "scene" style I'm-going-to-sing-the-same-4-or-5-notes-every-time-I-open-my-mouth singing. That's all I really remember about it, because I kept being punched by sweaty dudes. Oh, and that the drummer didn't play one of the parts in one of their newer okay songs, according to my boyfriend. The ridiculous light fog show seemed faintly like it was trying too hard and that it detracted from the actual performance. Eventually, I got angry and started punching the sweaty dudes who were punching me while I was observing this. I think I punched the wrong guy though, because he looked confused. Oh well. We had seen enough of the performance. Instead, we had a conversation with a crazy homeless dude on the way back to the parking garage my boyfriend left his car at. It was more entertaining than the performance we had just seen.

I ultimately had a good time at this show. I may have not liked every band, but hey, the two I did like were enjoyable and I became a fan of Every Time I Die. The trip was a fun experience with my boyfriend and his friend and well worth the $22 I paid to get into the show. Even though The Devil Wears Prada wasn't very good and I would have rather kept talking to the crazy guy, I got to dance and punch two guys and listen to two bands that had a solid amount of talent. Ultimately, it pays to see a band that you like even though the headlining band sucks. So readers, I implore you, don't be put off by sucky headlining bands, you may just end up having a great time regardless.