Switchfoot
Post Gazette Pavilion May 28th
By Linda Spielman
It seems like last yesterday that I was
asked to cover a new and up coming band called Switchfoot at Club Laga.
Actually, it was last October. The group's first single "Meant To Live"
was just being released to radio. The small but enthusiastic audience at
the show obviously knew more than the rest of us because less than eight
months later Switchfoot was everywhere. Almost every radio format with
the exception of Adult Contemporary was playing them, and they were playing
much larger venues with much larger and well-known acts. The alternative,
Christian rock based band from San Diego, CA, was taking the music world
by storm.
What better way to kick off the first official
weekend of summer than with a festival concert? Memorial Day weekend &
Pittsburgh's 105.9 The X hosted some of the industry's most popular alternative
acts for the station's annual X Fest. Although Offspring & Cypress
Hill were the headliners on the main stage, it was acts like Switchfoot,
Story of the Year, New Found Glory & Finger Eleven that reigned as
the day's events primary crowd draw.
As New Found Glory's set ended on the main
stage, the masses converged upon the fenced in second stage in the parking
lot. The swarms of people came over the lawn seating area in waves to insure
their spot for Switchfoot's set. Despite the stigma that may be attached
to a Christian based band as to how hard they can rock a crowd, Switchfoot
made it perfectly clear that music is music, and the message is all the
same when you come down to it.
You can still write positive & powerful
music and still kick butt. The hills around the staging area were packed
with fans, as well as nearly the entire floor. As nighttime air personality
Alan Cox announced the band, the crowd went nuts. The band played nearly
their entire debut CD, along with a new song much to the delight of crowd.
There was plenty of crowd surfing, which in most cases is the truest compliment
to a band's status as a rock band.
No doubt the guys from Switchfoot are used
to warm weather being Southern California native, but despite the unseasonable
cold weather on the East Coast Memorial Day Weekend, they still managed
to pull off a stellar performance very much worth of their headlining status
on the second stage at the festival.
More Switchfoot
photos by Linda Spielman - Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved
|
