Story of the Year, Stretch Armstrong

December 15, 2005

Roxy -- Atlanta, GA

A band who puts on an absolutely spectacular live show is a pretty rare find these days. But the bands who are capable of such a feat make going to their shows hard to resist, no matter how many times you may have seen them before. For me, Story of the Year is one of those bands. Not only does the St. Louis quintet entertain with an endless array of jumps, spin kicks and back flips, but they’re also tight as hell and the style of music they play translates extremely well on stage. When given the choice of going to see Story of the Year or doing something else, Story of the Year wins every time.

Unfortunately I missed Spoken, the opening act, though I did hear they put on a good show. I did, however, make it in time to catch the entirety of Stretch Armstrong’s set, which was being filmed for the band’s next video. Having never heard Stretch Armstrong’s music before, I had no clue what to expect, though I didn’t anticipate the band’s sound to be as melodic as it was. Apparently, the guys have shifted from a more hardcore-punk sound to something a little more commercial along the lines of Story of the Year.

It had only been a few months since I last saw Story of the Year at Warped Tour but as the lights went out and their intro music started blaring through the speakers, the adrenaline rushed through me and reaffirmed exactly why I was there that night. The band’s stage set up was incredibly simplistic: a huge open floor (so that the boys could run around to their heart’s content) and the drummer up on an enormous riser. Story of the Year kicked off the set with the in-your-face “And the Hero Will Drown,” one of the band’s Warped Tour staples. The first chord foreshadowed a completely rambunctious, intense set and established an energy level that was only superseded by each subsequent song.

Surprisingly, Story of the Year played a lot of old material, considering that the band just dropped a new album and must be pretty sick and tired of playing cuts from “Page Avenue.” In fact, about half the set was from “Page Avenue,” which probably left much of the audience (myself included) wishing that the band had played more from “In the Wake of Determination.” The songs they did play, “Our Time Is Now,” “Stereo,” “Take Me Back” and a couple of others were so solid and sounded so huge. Not to mention the plethora of wailing solos.

The wildcard of the night was the medley of cover songs the guys broke into mid-set. Playing snippets of “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” “Candy Shop,” “Crazy Train,” “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “More Than a Feeling” and “Livin’ on a Prayer,” Story of the Year had the audience eating out of the palm of its hand. After Philip and Ryan landed some sweet backflips during “In the Shadows,” the band went into “Until the Day I Die” and made the show sing-along heaven. The band closed the set with the straight up punk anthem “‘Is This My Fate,’ He Asked Them,” resulting in a massive circle pit in the middle of the floor. Much to my dismay, the band didn’t emerge for an encore (I suppose my prediction of an acoustic “Sidewalks” wasn’t so accurate), but the guys did achieve what every good band hopes for: leave the audience wanting more. And with Taste of Chaos on the horizon, we Atlanta residents fortunately won’t have to wait too long.

Leah Weinberg

Set List:
And the Hero Will Drown
Falling Down
Dive Right In
Our Time Is Now
Anthem of Our Dying Day
Take Me Back
Page Avenue
Medley
We Don’t Care Anymore
Stereo
In the Shadows
Until the Day I Die
“Is This My Fate,” He Asked Them

 

Related Links:
Story of the Year Interview
Story of the Year Photos