Glamour Kills Show

       Ok, so I finally got to see the Glamour Kills show in Baltimore. I’m not going to lie, it was probably one of the best overall group of performances I have ever seen in my life. Let’s start from the beginning:

My friend and I drove in to Baltimore around 3:45 PM (the show started at 6), looking for parking. We found a parking garage in an alley, but in front of us were three hooded, paper-bag holding hobos, walking as slow as could be in the rain. Their slothfulness was so unbearable we almost ran them over. But they were saved by the group of screaming girls who virtually grabbed them out of the way. If it weren’t for those girls, we could have run over Allstar Weekend.
        We got our VIP tickets and waited in line to meet Jordan of The Ready Set. The poor little guy had to suffer me calling him “tiny,” to which he dryly responded, “Thanks.” He acoustically performed his new single, “Young Forever”, for the small VIP audience. I had never heard Jordan sing live before, and hearing his acoustic performance made me realize that this dude’s got some actual singing talent.

       After the whole VIP shindig, the other people were let in. I didn’t know how many people to expect at Ram’s Head since the last time I had seen Allstar Weekend there, there were barely enough people to fill the bottom floor. But this time was different; the second they opened those doors, I was squished much closer to the stage than I had planned. Which, I guess, wasn’t too bad.
The show opened with Baltimore natives, You, Me and Everyone We Know. Again, I had no expectations for this band, because, while I’ve listened to their music before, I did not know what kind of performers they were. Lead singer, Ben, managed to keep the crowd hyped with his insane head-banging and Travis Clark-like mannerisms (which was crazy because they kind of look the same). The band also featured a trumpet-playing pianist, a barefoot guitarist and an animal on the drums. While they were relatively unknown among the crowd, most of the girls ended up wanting to know more about them.
      Up next was The Downtown Fiction, another local band. Lead singer Cameron Leahy sure knew how to woo an audience of 14-year-old girls. Leahy sported a military jacket, worn over a half-opened button-down shirt. TDF was the ultimate party performance with beach balls flying, water-gun spraying, and a virtual mass molestation involving a series of very strange moans. Leahy swooned the audience by repeatedly calling us “sexy”, which would have felt less creepy if I weren’t surrounded by girls who hadn’t even had their first period yet. Cameron’s adorable face was countered by his vulgar expressions of the crowd’s sexiness and by TDF’s new single, “Thanks For Nothing”, which features a line telling a person you hate to kiss a certain part of your body where the sun doesn’t shine. Personally, I enjoyed the brief feeling of summer the band created by throwing beach balls into the crowd, which were promptly thrown back, knocking Leahy’s mic stand a bit. Plus the “water” gun spraying (It could have been anything in there), was refreshing with all the body heat burning up the place (though I noted how certain females ducked as to not destroy their perfect hair). In terms of performance, I would say they were the best. Even though they were not the headliners, it seemed like a mini-headlining show starting with the pre-recorded introduction, to the new song, to the fan-dedicated song, “Living Proof.”
        TDF was followed by Allstar Weekend, arguably the most popular group of the night. Every single song was drowned out by dedicated fans singing along. Zach, vocals, continually moved around the stage in his typical-white-boy-who-thinks-he-can-dance-but-really-can’t kind of way. He attempted the Dougie, which failed miserably, yet garnered squeals from the girls in the audience. The band covered Bowling For Soup’s “1985,” not bothering to censor the song, giving fans a preview of how their new songs were going to be. Allstar Weekend played their new single, “Not Your Birthday,” a party song that features A-Dub’s new language, which was generally well-received, except for when Zach noticeably left out a certain b-word, causing a wave of sadness from the hard-core fans. The band ended with “Dance Forever,” which was appropriate to roll into The Ready Set’s performance.
      The headliner, The Ready Set, definitely showed what a headliner is all about. Everything from the epic light show, to the up-tempo songs, to the ground-shaking drum solos, to Jordan’s all-around amazing voice and energy provided the awesomeness Glamour Kills exudes. Anyone who has listened to The Ready Set’s latest album would write him off as some autotune-needing singer, but listening to “The Ghost of LA” live was a breath of fresh air. Not one song needed fixing, because his voice was that good. Plus, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that his tongue is just as fast live, with all his suburbian-Eminem-like songs. TRS covered “Airplanes”, with Jordan performing both Hayley’s and B.O.B.’s parts. The show ended with the song that got him famous, “Love Like Woe.”
       Now that the show was over, everyone struggled to meet band members. Because only TRS was headlining, all the other bands had unofficial meet-and-greets. It was cool because it meant that you could choose how long you wanted to actually be in their presence, but it also meant no group pictures, and that you had to physically force yourself into their arms before another chick got there. I was fortunate enough to meet everyone I wanted, including Dillon Anderson, Cameron Quiseng, Nathan Darmody, Michael Martinez, Zach Porter of Allstar WEekend; Rick from See Camden; Ben and Mikey from YMAEWK; and Cameron Leahy of TDF. The coolest people of the night, I thought, were Ben and Mikey, because they had no idea how cool they actually were. I felt bad when they realized that I had actually heard of them before the show. They were nice enough to take five pictures, since one camera died, one camera made everything blurry, and we had to settle on a camera-phone. The YMAEWK was right next to the ASW merch table, where Nathan was meeting fans, where he for whatever reason decided to wink at me. Which made me lose the ability to speak like a normal person. Up next we got a picture with Michael , who was rocking an Orioles jacket and two very blingy stud earrings. We moved on to Dillon, the keyboardist of Allstar Weekend, who was oddly fond of my sparkly headband, and even seemed excited when I told him we could get matching ones. After Dillon, we moseyed on over to Cameron, whose adorable inadvertently made me talk to him like he was 4. The gaggle of girls surrounding Zach died down, allowing us to finally get a picture (or two) with him. Somehow our conversation involved Zach asking if he was a double-stuffed Oreo cookie. Last, we met with Rick from See Camden, who was wearing a Baltimore Ravens jersey, which matched my Ravens wristband.
        Overall the night was nothing like I expected. But I liked that. While I doubt I would go see any one of those bands again (in the near future), I would definitely say that if you had a choice between a 3D biopic of  a teenager and seeing and meeting six different bands (The Ready Set, Allstar Weekend, We Are the In Crowd, The Downtown Fiction, YMAEWK, See Camden, Sandlot Heroes) for the same price, I think the choice would be obvious (duh, the second choice).