It’s hard to believe that Yellowcard is hanging it up after just 20 years of being a band. I understand going out while you are on top, but I do believe they could have gotten much bigger. It was clear from the size of the crowd at the Showbox in Seattle that they have a huge and dedicated fan base. I was one of over 100 people who bought special, meet and greet VIP tickets and who stood in the driving rain outside the venue for over an hour and a half waiting to meet and see the band perform one last time. I have never seen so many people in a meet and greet. They could have easily filled a much bigger venue. I was able to score a really good seat (which there were very few of in this venue) in the raised bar area at the corner rail of a handicapped walkway which acted as a buffer between the extremely crowded, standing room only floor, providing me with a direct view to the stage over the main crowd….very comfortable after standing in the rain and VIP line for nearly two hours.
I was first turned on to Yellowcard in the late nineties and attribute their music to enlightening me to a whole new genre of ‘alternative’ music. I hadn’t ventured out of my standby 60s-80’s music much (with the exception of a little bit of grunge – I’m from Seattle after all) until I heard and appreciated their distinctive, modernized punk sound. It opened me up to other bands of that genre and gave me a whole new library of music to enjoy.
The show Wednesday night was incredible. There were three opening bands, Like Torches (from Sweden), Dryjacket (from New Jersey) and as a special guest in Seattle only, Acceptance (who springily are from Seattle). All the bands were good, but I was very impressed with Acceptance. They had a great, hard rock sound to them and of course got the local crowd even more pumped up for the main event. Yellowcard came on around a little before 10:00pm if I remember correctly, which was very late for a midweek show, but the crowd was certainly ready and excited for their set. I cheated and looked on setlist.fm to see their playlist and was surprised that we were in store for a long night with more than 20 songs (24 to be exact). They opened with Believe, which is an incredibly powerful tribute to 9/11 (you should watch the video on YouTube). They followed up with Lights and Sounds (one of my all time favorite songs and albums) and then with Way Away from their Oceans Avenue album.
I unfortunately was feeling the affects of a change in timezones, a 14 hour flight from Hong Kong the day before and the thought of having to get up the next morning and I had to force myself to leave before the end of the show. Too bad as I know this will be the last chance I will ever have to enjoy the live sounds of Yellowcard. At least they provided me with 20 years and 10 albums of their music to continue to listen to for years to come.
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