W W W . E X O D U S T E R . C O M - T A K I N G B A C K S U N D A Y

Taking Back Sunday, The Starting Line, The Reunion Show, Northstar
@ Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC
12/16/02

As has been mentioned in past live reviews, shows in NC are not good at starting on time, but they tend to end at very convenient times; mostly around midnight. As such, arriving about two hours after the supposed starting time, I was startled to find the show sold out and steam fogging up the windows. Pushing through the mass of late teenage bodies, I discover the Starting Line (Drive Thru Records) is rocking the mic and I already missed the Reunion Show (Victory Records) and Northstar.

Baffled by the applause and atmosphere of the crowd during the Starting Line, I was quickly interested to find their appeal. Their EP With Hopes of Starting Over a couple of years ago on Drive Thru was pretty good pop-punk, but nothing I would drop my jaw to. However, they just released a new record that may rock; don’t know. Nonetheless, the crowd knew every word and sang and danced along like the Starting Line were hometown heroes. The Starting Line did their best to accompany the brilliance of the atmosphere with various coordinated jumping and guitar slinging a la Snapcase. Truly an impressive display.

Next were the somewhat hometown heroes in Taking Back Sunday (Victory Records). Lead singer Adam Lazzara is originally from the Greensboro area, though Taking Back Sunday is squarely situated in the LI and NYC area. Hence, there was a big crowd of people from the Greensboro area at the show, including Lazzara’s family. Blasting through basically all of their songs off their hit album Tell All Your Friends, TBS provided interesting and timely banter in between. For instance, apparently, Lazzara had broken his hip a bit ago and he sang a new song about the experience and the shit surrounding it. The show started a bit dirty and missing on some points, but that was quickly corrected. Lazzara provided a number of ‘mic in the crowd singing’ moments and was semi-conscious of whether it distracted from the show’s flow and consistency. The most humorous moment of the set was big Neil from Sons of Abraham (they still exist?) providing ‘security’ by removing people from the stage, and he appeared to really enjoy it in a violent sort of way. Highlights of the show including “Bike Scene,” “Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut From the Scene,” “Timberwolves at New Jersey,” “You’re So Last Summer” and “The Ballad of Sal Villanueva.” TBS showed this evening why they are considered in the upper echelon of the indie music world.