There's something to be said when a concertgoer finds a skateboard's crash landing off to his left more interesting than the show in front of them.
Blame it on the incredibly distracting atmosphere of Xtreme Wheels, the horrible sound quality, the fan girls more interested in band members' hair than the music, or the general lack of enthusiasm of the crowd. Whatever the case, the show that graced the refurbished warehouse Saturday night was far from exciting.
However, it can't be said that there was anything lacking in the talent of the attending musicians. Their stage presence may need some tweaking, but their music does not.
With an eclectic lineup, The Summer Set's "Travelin' Show" hit Buffalo mid-tour. Featuring Austin Gibbs, Mod Sun, Stereo Skyline and The Downtown Fiction, the tour catered to everyone from pop-punk fans to hip-hop lovers.
Out of the four openers, the relatively young The Downtown Fiction held the crowd's attention and proved that talent knows no age.
Started in 2008 by vocalist Cameron Leahy and drummer Eric Jones, the duo soon added bassist David Pavluk to complete the group. After toying with college for a year, the trio decided to focus solely on music, a smart choice for a group who has already managed to be listed on Alternative Press' "100 Bands You Need to Know" and featured on mtvU's Freshman 5.
"It's been crazy that we've been able to get so much life out of this EP that we have; we don't even have a record out. We're really happy just to be doing anything, and getting that much notice by MTV is really cool," Leahy said.
With clear vocals breaking over the noise of Xtreme Wheels, The Downtown Fiction lived up to their recorded sound with "Living Proof" and "Is Anybody Out There."
"I was raised on older music, the Stones and the Beatles and the Beach Boys and stuff like that, and then I got introduced to bands like Blink-182 so that kind of shades my songwriting," Leahy said. "It's kind of a combination between modern pop-punk and then going back to older '60s, '70s rock."
Devoted to making their songs sound as good as possible live, the Virginia natives tour as a quartet.
"As a trio it's hard sometimes to replicate lead lines and a lot of the stuff that you do on a recording to make the recording fuller," Leahy said. "So we bring along a live guitarist. Right now Wes [Dimond] is taking that position."
Mod Sun broke up the pop-punk montage for a brief period by dropping fat beats, yet the pretty boys of Stereo Skyline catered to the largely female, teenage audience, prepping them for the entrance of The Summer Set.
However, when The Summer Set finally did take the stage, most of the crowd didn't seem interested in the Arizona natives beyond their surface appearance. Despite the massive quantities of emptied energy drink cans that piled on the edges of the crowd, the caffeine didn't seem to have the desired effect.
As the group implored the fans to get up off their feet while they played fast-paced songs like "Young," "The Boys You Do (Get Back At You)," and "Love Like This," all the scantily-dressed teenaged girls did was occasionally scream and profess their undying love for lead singer Brian Dales.
Eventually, The Summer Set gave up their attempts to excite and played mainly slow songs, including the violin-backed "Passenger Seat" and "Where Are You Now."
Going into the last two songs of the set, Dales seemed resigned when he overtly begged the crowd to stay with them for the next few songs, promising fans that they could hang out with the band after the show.
It was unfortunate for the talented group, but audience apathy has become the norm when catering to a largely superficial fan base of pseudo scene teens. While there were small pockets in the crowd that appeared to really care and spent most of the show dancing, they were few and far between.
E-mail: arts@ubspectrum.com
