STRAYLIGHT RUN LOVES THE HOMETOWN CROWD

Friday night at the legendary Fillmore Theatre at Irving Plaza in New York City saw the return of New York natives Straylight Run, who played a stunning performance with the support of Sparta and Lovedrug.

Just a few hours before the start of the show, a picture of the burned out shell of Lovedrug's tour van appeared on their website. After playing a show in Detroit, their van and trailer containing all of their instruments and gear was stolen. For most bands this would be the end of their tour, but not Lovedrug! As the lead singer, Michael Shepard explained their misfortune at the beginning of the concert, the crowd responded with, “Fuck Detroit!” and other yells of support.

Lovedrug played a very energetic set, and never missed a beat which was impressive due to the fact that they were playing Sparta's instruments. The song 'Candy' played by request featured a very interesting piano part which lead to a slow building and finished with a climax that the whole crow responded to. This type of song will help set this band apart in years to come.

After a tremendously long tear down and set up, which seemed very pointless since Sparta's equipment was already onstage, Sparta was ready. As they played the first few songs of the set, the crowd began to feed off the band’s energy and stage presence. Keely Davis, the lead guitarist is a very dynamic guitarist, and the lead singer, Jim Ward has a voice that is very impressive in both range and control. He belted out notes that would make most singers quit after one song, but he never let up. By the time their latest song, the very catchy, 'Taking Back Control' was played, crowd surfing and an unexpected mosh pit had broken out. Surprisingly the sporadic crowd surfing continued through the Straylight Run set, which is unusual for this type of pop / rock concert. Jim Ward ended the set with a few heartfelt words, “it has really moved me watching Lovedrug carry on these past few days.”

As the stage cleared after another long set up, the crowd became very quiet in expectation of the return of Straylight Run to their hometown crowd. They entered the stage in darkness, with only familiar shaped of the band members to give away the ensuing start of the show. The opening chords of the crowd favorite 'Existentialism On Prom Night' set the crowd wild. This is no doubt their strongest song and the reason that some in the crowd had come to the show.

John Nolan and sister Michelle DaRosa's voices and stage presence complement each other in a way only siblings could. Another surprising aspect of the band is that John, Michelle and Jeff DaRosa (who is not part of the band but touring with them) switch off between guitar and piano almost every song, and sometimes in the middle of songs. No one can argue that this band lacks talent.

Another crowd favorite was 'Hands in the Sky' in which the band led the crowd in clapping their hands high above their heads to John’s powerfully delivered chorus,

“Big shot screaming, ´Put your hands in the sky,´ He says, ´Give it up boy, give it up or you're gonna die, You'll get a bullet in the back of the neck, In the back of the neck right between the eyes.´”

As the band finished their last song and left the stage, the crowd would not let up their chants for one more song, so first John returned to play a solo acoustic version of 'Your Name Here' (Sunrise Highway). “I can’t remember the last time we played an encore,” said John, obviously happy with the crowd’s enthusiasm. For the last song, the band returned and played a very personal version of 'Slow Decent' to end the night. Straylight Run was very much at home in New York City.

You can catch Straylight Run this summer on the Van´s Warped Tour.

LINKS:
Straylight Run MySpace
Sparta MySpace
Lovedrug MySpace