The Format

I do have to say, I definitely miss the days when Nate Ruess still had long hair and was the cute, quiet front man of The Format. While we all love and adore Fun. and I still think Nate is a genius, there was a very lovable, intimate quality about the band back then that I always miss when I listen back on some of their earliest records. The Format hasn’t performed in years, but I still remember them as being the most painfully adorable bands I’d ever seen. Nate still had long, grungy hair and just about none of the confidence he has now. I remember watching him swaying from side to side as he sang, sitting in a chair set a few inches back from the guitarist rather than up front, even though he was the lead singer. Still, there was something special about him, and all of his lyrics were so striking and personal that I watched everyone in the audience fall in love with him and with each other all at once. The Format’s live performances were always small and intimate, without a large production, but they certainly knew how to own the stage and rev up the crowd during some of their more upbeat songs like “The First Single (Cause A Scene).” I especially loved being able to see Nate perform before he was a multi-million dollar recording artist, when he still possessed the vulnerability of a kid trying to make it in the industry.

The Get Up Kids were one of the first bands to ascend to the mainstream on the back of the burgeoning Emo scene and despite temporarily splitting up in 2005, since 2008 they’ve been back together and making new music unlike the majority of their contemporaries. While to the layman Emo music might seem best fitted to long dark nights of the soul in one’s bedroom, Matt Prior’s mob were always at their best when heard live. With his signature howl and their mix of lacerating guitar riffs with New-Wave indebted keyboard s, this is music that’s well and truly alive. It’s infused with enough soul and passion to power a train and it only gets more vital when it’s performed live. Not many artists play music that has truly inspired people and made them the best that they can be, and the band in turn is pushed to greater heights than they could ever get without them with every live show. Emo rock began here, and it evolved and mutated to the extent where every major rock movement of the past 15 years has an element of it within its very DNA. With that in mind, I urge you to see one of the most quietly influential bands of the 21st century the next chance you can get, you will not regret it.

Phantom Planet - a band whose name is indelibly etched into the minds of all T4-watching-teenagers of the past decade. Who doesn’t hear that name and immediately hear a voice at the back of their mind wailing ‘Califoooorrrnniiiaaaa’?? This California four piece, consisting of Alex Greenwald, Darren Robinson, Sam Farrar and Jeff Conrad, reached near-star status with their song ‘California’, made famous by the TV series ‘The O.C’ But are they more than a one hit wonder? Well their live shows tell you that they definitely are! Pedaling their own brand of surfer-rock pop, they have a talent for writing amazingly catchy pop records that translate very well to a live setting; so much so that they have chosen to release several live albums over the course of their career. It’s fair to say that ‘California’ will be the highlight of most Phantom Planet gigs, just because every audience member knows the words and loves to get involved with the show by belting out the chorus at the top of their lungs. However, more recent songs, such as ‘Do The Panic’ from their 2008 album, are just as fun to listen and bob along to. If you get the chance to see all four members of Phantom Planet play live together, just do it! Embrace the West Coast and just let loose!