Something Corporate, Straylight Run, Armor for Sleep & The Academy Is…

Last Tuesday was a malevolently frigid night — the kind that brutally assaults you with gusts of wind nearing Absolute Zero, effectively ensuring that by the time you reach the concert venue three blocks away, your nipples are small, frozen, pointy pennies. Damn you Mother Nature. Damn you and your nipple-freezing wind. Anyway, while various other parts of the town attempted to duplicate the drunken stupor of Mardi Gras, Chico State was busy putting on a rock show of epic proportions.
Unconcerned with the dangerous precedent they were setting, The Academy Is… kicked off the raucous festivities unusually close to the event’s advertised starting time. After a short, but not unnoticed, collection of songs set squarely in the emo / indie scene, The Academy Is… thanked their audience and exited stage right.
“Anyone go to school here?” asked Armor for Sleep’s energetic frontman between the dynamic sweeps of distortion that characterized the group’s effectively straightforward and decidedly heavier form of musical expression. The crowd cheered loudly in response. “How much does school suck?” Significantly less cheering. He paused momentarily. “Okay, I take it back. School rocks.” And with that, Armor for Sleep pounded out the last few songs of their set, intermittently thanking the crowd for the energy they were returning.
The music that began playing over the PA during the next intermission could have put a two-year-old wired on caffeine pills to sleep. It was probably supposed to set the tone for Straylight Run, a five-piece with a female piano player and lighter take on alternative rock, but it nearly drove the room into a collective coma. With solid harmonies, smart dynamics and drumming that was unusually creative without being distracting, Straylight Run’s set was unquestionably strong, despite its comparatively lower coefficient of raw energy.
“This one’s about getting fucked over,” Something Corporate frontman Andrew McMahon told the sea of screaming heads before him as his band launched into a particularly lively version of “Ruthless.” Nearly every person in the room could be seen screaming lyrics along with the group at one point or another during the night and it was undeniably clear that Something Corporate’s “piano meets modern rock and somehow continues to rock” approach to songwriting was working. Their set was consistently impressive, but the decisive highlight was an extended version of “iF U C Jordan,” complete with a drum solo and a piano-stomping finale. By the end of it, the blistering cold walk back to the car didn’t seem to matter.

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