Saves the Day, NumberOneGun & Indecisive Youth

A scant four years ago, as the anonymous opening act for Face to Face, Saves the Day appeared on The Brick Works stage a very different band. Frontman Chris Conley was scarcely older than the majority of kids in the audience (myself included), most of whom probably had never heard of Saves the Day, an East Coast band who had just recently been signed to an emerging independent record label by the name of Vagrant. Fast forward to 2004, and Conley - now a grizzled industry vet at 23 - and the rest of his band (which coincidentally includes former Face to Face drummer Pete Parada) are touring on their major label debut In Reverie and generally enjoying the fruits of mainstream rock acceptance, most readily evidenced by their recent co-headlining tour with Grandaddy. Something of a one-off victory lap marking the end of said tour, Saturday’s show was also a homecoming show for Conley, who now resides in one of the humble satellite communities of our fair city, Chico, CA. Needless to say, the atmosphere was rife with pleasantness.
And this pleasantness was only augmented by the fact that locals Indecisive Youth and NumberOneGun would also be lending their melodic rock services to the evening’s festivities.
Indecisive Youth are nothing if not an interesting confluence of various musical styles. New school punk rock, metal, glam, adult contemporary; all could be heard within the neatly packaged bursts of sound emanating from the stage. IY Guitarist Nick Giusto plays his guitar like a cat with a lizard, twirling about, leaping off amplifiers and generally providing a worthwhile spectacle. Held down by the razor sharp harmonies of frontman Shawn Freyer and bassist Brian Martin, the band burned through their set with grace and dignity, even inspiring a few youthful moshers. However they soon ceded the stage to the equally dignified NumberOneGun. A
nytime NOG rolls back through their hometown is a worthwhile occasion, but this night had added significance in that it was new drummer Corbin King’s first Chico show. Sticking almost exclusively to tracks off their recent full length, Celebrate Mistakes, NOG proved that their recent member changes - which, along with new drummer King, include new guitarist Chris Keene - have done little to dull their razor-sharp emotional rock edge. Along with obligatory crowd favorites like their current single “The Starting Line,” the band also played a brand new song which featured frontman Jeff Schneeweis hitting some gangster falsetto notes. Many were touched.
Headliners Saves the Day soon mounted the stage, and as per their last couple tours, began their set with “At Your Funeral,” off 2002’s Stay What You Are. The first half of the set seemed heavily weighted with older songs, even including a cut from 1999’s Through Being Cool. But now acting as his own rhythm guitarist, as opposed to his former purely vocal duties, Conley seemed genuinely pleased playing these older songs, and the addition of a keyboardist / backup vocalist lackey rounded out the sound rather wonderfully. As the set stretched on, the band blew through most of the better material off their newest, the aforementioned In Reverie, making even the most tepid songs - which are not hard to find on In Reverie - sound exciting. However, much to the chagrin of a few excitable youths in the front and an excitable reviewer in the back, the band never made it around to playing “Shoulder to the Wheel,” which seemed destined for an encore that never happened. But all said, Saves the Day lived up to their Mighty Mouse-inspired moniker, squeaking mightily through an hour’s worth of satisfying emo rock music and making the crowd roar like a sea monster.
- Daniel Taylor
- Photo by Alyssa Starkey

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