It was time for the band to take the stage once again.

Anthony sends me a message one day asking if I wanted to go see Something Corporate in concert for the second time and before he could even give me a location, I had said yes. Turns out, the concert would be in Cleveland, only two hours away. This was no problem if it meant I could see one of the best bands I have ever heard in my life. A total of 5 people were supposed to go, but by the time the show date come, it had dwindled down to simple Anthony and I. I didn't mind much because I was ready to rock. Yeah, cheesy.

The show began at 8, but doors opened at 7. Anthony and I, always wanting to keep with tradition, show up a few hours early to wait in line. The concert was going to be in a place called the Scene Pavilion. It were under the impression (from photos) that there would be seating for the whole place, so by being in the front of the line, we would have some nice seats. Anthony and I arrived about 2 hours before the doors opened and we were pretty close to the front. Some idiots had been camped out there all day, as if this was the most major concert in the state of Ohio and people were actually going to show up in droves. One thing I think both Anthony and I learned is that, you can show up late to Something Corporate concerts and still get some great seats. Last time we waited 5 or 6 hours and got just as nice seats as we did this time. But last time, we didn't have such interesting things happen to us.

So we arrive in Cleveland and go to find parking. We approach the Scene Pavilion and ask the guy how much parking is. The very board attendant replied, "One dollar." One dollar? One dollar a...what? Every 20 minutes? No, it was for the entire day. I was happy to pay that. We drive in and all the poo and get in line. We are pretty much at the front of the line and as soon as we step in it, a girl says, "Hey, I know you from somewhere" to Anthony. He looked a little thrown off. "What does a person expect you to say to that," he asked me later. She had seen Anthony and I when we were in line at the Columbus show, which was cool. Fans travel. The wait in line wasn't the best one though. For two hours, I was forced to listen to these 14 year old looking girls talk about the dumbest things I have ever heard. It got so bad that I started scratching at my wrist with my keys. Both Anthony and I wanted to turn around and kill them. At one point, it started to rain, which didn't bother me too much. The girls behind me did. A few other things happened while we were in line. I had taken off my glasses so my vision was blurred. I saw a chef come from one of the restaurants holding a very large silver...thing. It looked like a butcher knife to me and I wasn't the only one who thought so. But as he got close, we saw that it was just a large spatula. We figured he was going to get one of the mutant fish out of the dirty river we were next to.

So it got close to the point where they would let us in and we kind of figured out that there would be a bum rush into the place. I mean, lets face it, it would be general seating with little teenie bopper girls. As soon as they opened the gates, they started running through. The little girls behind me were about to push through, but Anthony and I blocked them. They had pissed me off too much anyway. After our tickets were scanned, we walked in to find out the seats we had seen on the venue's website had been taken away. It would be standing room. Anthony and I stepped back because basically no matter where you were, you would see a great show. One guy was pissed. He was in the very front of the line and yet, he wasn't in the front of the crowd. The Scene Pavilion had obviously not prepared for this.

After a few moments of waiting, a group took the stage. I was kind of thrown off because there were only three guys in it. Most groups have at least 4 people in it, so I planned on them sucking. I was wrong. The group, called Sleeping At Last, was amazing. I couldn't believe that sound came out of just three people. Their music was definitely EMO. All I could think was, "I want their Album." But for some reason I didn't get it.

Up next was The Format and they kicked ass. The lead singer had some great vocals going. But I couldn't pay attention to them because I was still tripping off of Sleeping At Last.

Now, here is the joke of the night. Anthony and I were supposed to pick up one of his friends from school along with her friend. He never used their names, but always referred to them as, "The Girls." I asked him do they have any real names and he said yeah. Now, I don't remember the first girls name, but I will always remember her friend's name. He said her name was Rema (I just burst out laughing as I wrote this) and I said, "Rema? That girl is either ugly or really fat." We both started laughing hard. I saw a big girl with pig tails and I said, "Hey, there's Rema," and we laughed even harder. We did that for the rest of the night. The story eventually changed. With Anthony's account, I had actually said, "Rema? That must be a fat bitch." Now, I never said that, but it was still pretty funny.

So, Yellowcard takes the stage and I am ready for them to leave before they pick up their instruments. It was just the fact that, I wanted to see Something Corporate and Yellowcard was in the way of that. But I was wrong, again. Yellowcard has got to be one of the tightest punk rock bands I have seen. Their vocalist was great. Nice range. But the best part of this band was its violinist. That's right, they had a guy playing a violin. This guy did two back flips on stage, off of a speaker. I mean, he was everywhere. They did a lot of songs, so many that I couldn't count them. They had us all jumping. One interesting thing happen during their set. A ship passed the Scene Pavilion and flashed its bright light on all of us. It made an even better backdrop to the cityscape.

Something Corporate was next so we moved even closer. I energy was amazing because everyone was so anxious to see this one group. When the lights lowered, the crowd roared. Something Corporate jumped into their first song. Andrew, the lead, was on fire, but I could tell that he was a little tired. The show was amazing, but not as good as the one they did here in Columbus at the Newport. What I loved about this concert was that they played a few songs that they never played, like Ruthless and Down. Ruthless has to be one of my favorite songs so when I heard it announced, I screamed. The live version was even better than the recording of it. The band also played their fans' favorite, Konstantine. Something that surprised me was the random cover of Hey Ya! by OutKast. What was even more surprising was that they did a great job of keeping the arrangements like they originally were.

Overall, it was the most fun I have had in a while. Concerts seem like something new to me, and these punk rock bands are something even newer. But on this quest to find myself as someone who isn't totally into R&B/Hip Hop or the whole Rock thing, music is taking a big part of it. But all of it helping me on my way. If the folks in Detroit could only see me now.