It was not a pleasant surprise to find the train station locked at 7:30 p.m. Buffalo is apparently the sister city of Boca Raton, Fla., where everything shuts down at 7 p.m. so grandparents can get their early bird breakfast the next morning.
Nevertheless, on Sunday night at the Icon on 391 Ellicott St. in downtown Buffalo, Academy Is, Number One Fan, and Armor For Sleep played an intimate set for a handful of kids and an empty city.
It was one of the opening legs of Armor For Sleep's first headlining tour and, at the very least, one could see the effort they were willing to offer to the crowd. Armor For Sleep began by informing the crowd that they recently recorded their new CD, due in February.
Even with the influx of new material to their performance, the sets were very short for each band. "My Town" and "Frost and Front Steps" were two songs from their first LP, "Dream To Make Believe," that garnered great crowd response.
Lead singer Ben Jorgenson was amusing between songs.
"Who was here last year when we played with Taking Back Sunday?" he asked. Some people shouted a positive response.
"Really? Well, after our show I was standing in the alley watching him (Armor guitarist P.J. DeCicco) lay in a pool of blood," he said, to no response. "OK, tough crowd, tough crowd."
Armor For Sleep went on to play a few more songs, finishing off with the title track to "Dream to Make Believe." It was the only song to which the small crowd actually sang along. Jorgenson didn't lose his intensity. In fact, he started looking as if he was having a seizure and the microphone was acting as the antidote.
"Its funny how/ Things work out/ The ones we need don't know we're there/ If I were sand and you were oceans/ The moon would be why you're pulled to me," he sang.
Jorgenson thanked the crowd for coming and in gentlemanly fashion offered a chance for the crowd to approach him at the merchandise table to just say, "What's up."
The first band is usually the one that has something to prove and Academy Is definitely made the bands play harder. They recalled Taking Back Sunday in both their live performance and bore physical resemblances as well.
The crowd seemed to take a liking to Academy Is, and there's something to be said for a band that no one came to see but enjoyed anyway.
Some members of the opening acts showed that Baby Gap is not just for kids anymore. Members wore tiny shirts that had to constantly be pulled down to hide their stomachs.
Number One Fan performed next, and resembled the Early November. They are very talented and it shows when they play, but the music is not something the mass hasn't heard before. If Number One Fan was the first punk band ever, everyone could bow down in praise.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
