T'was the night before Halloween, yet Club Infinity was anything but dead, with a packed house anticipating an evening of treats and tunes courtesy of The Spill Canvas.
While openers Treaty of Paris and PlayRadioPlay attempted to get the crowd ready, all their efforts were all for naught as the band before the headliner, Meg and Dia, bored the crowd to death with their half-hearted Paramore knockoffs. They might have had double the estrogen as Paramore, but they also only have half the talent.
However, the lack of excitement with the musical appetizers did not affect The Spill Canvas.
From the opening second, lead singer Nick Thomas grasped the crowd and refused to let go until the very last moment. Thomas was nice enough to talk with The Spectrum a few hours after the performance to discuss the show, Buffalo and some hopeful future tour plans.
Opening their set with "Reckless Abandonment," the first track off of their major label release No Really, I'm Fine, it was obvious that Thomas and crew were ready to put on a strong showing for what they like to call their second home.
"It was the first area where we had some really cool and big shows," Thomas said. "Buffalo is like a second home to us. We had some friends here, This Day and Age, so we'd always be here on our days off, hanging out."
From the onset, the crowd, that had been fairly mellow throughout the openers, made their voices heard on fan favorite "Polygraph Right Now." Thomas moved away from the microphone, and in a risky move allowed the faithful to sing the entire first verse. The request was loudly obliged.
"One thing about our show (at Infinity) was like the crowd was a community. It was really cool - we love playing Buffalo."
While the band seemed to have fed off the crowd's energy by the third song, a peculiar standout was the statue-like bassist, Landon Heil. When asked about Heil's lack of movement on stage, Thomas couldn't help but laugh.
"He does sit in the back. The more we grow up, the more focused we are on playing more technical. One our biggest influences, The Eagles, didn't move on stage at all - they just barely tapped their toes."
Heil remained still the entire show, but that didn't seem to dampen the mood for the rest of the band as they continued through their set with a little something special for everyone by playing "Love is a Battlefield" as the introduction for "To Live Without It." Thomas transitioned flawlessly while singing on par with the bands recordings.
Everyone in the band seemed to be on the same page as they powered along with some of their slower songs such as "Saved" and "Lullaby," to which Thomas informed the crowd was one of his favorite songs off of the new record.
While "Lullaby" may have been one of Thomas's favorite songs, the crowd seemed to really pick it up a notch when they played older tracks. TSC seemed to oblige as they moved toward a slightly reworked version of "The Tide." As a recording, it was one of their slowest, but for the live crowd it was a bit faster and lost some of the original aura that came with it.
"We decided to redo it. We wanted to give it some new life because the song is about five years old. We wanted to do something cool."
Following "The Tide," Thomas took the relationship to the next level, playing "Connect the Dots," one of the best baby-making jams ever written. Thomas's sensual voice swayed the crowd back and forth in unison, as the band (except for the bassist) moved and seemed to feel the sexual tension as well.
"We did not plan writing that at all. I remember the feel of the song...I had the chords and some words written down. We had about two to three ideas floating around. The song came out to be very candid - it's one of my favorites."
But before letting the fans go, The Spill Canvas increased the tension by throwing a bit of a dance party. Tracks like "All Over You" and "Staplegunned" got the crowd amped, while guitarist Dan Ludeman took this time to show off his impressive abilities.
For the first finale, the band played one of their heaviest and most impressive tracks, "Hush Hush." Thomas and crew used this last song to show off all of their technical skills and provided a strong close to an excellent show.
The Buffalonians in the crowd weren't ready to say goodbye yet, and neither was the band as they came back out to a chorus of cheers and played the acoustic "All Hail the Heartbreaker." Thomas truly shined as he and Ludeman took the crowd over once again with a confidence and energy rarely seen during an acoustic song.
Ending the night for the band was "Lust A Prima Vista," another track off of One Fell Swoop.
Numerous times during the show, various crowd members could be heard asking to hear songs off One Fell Swoop and Sunsets and Car Crashes.
"We would love to do an all request tour. We could prepare as much material as possible. It's nice to be able to do whatever songs you want. We hope to do an all request tour soon."
Thomas's appreciation for his fans shines through his lyrics but also his onstage performance, which was one of the best shows to hit the area in a long time. While it might not have been Halloween yet, it was downright scary to see how perfect The Spill Canvas was live.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
