CONCERT REVIEW – TAKE ACTION TOUR
Featuring Plain White T’s, Hopesfall, Anberlin, Hawthorne Heights and Sugarcult
Metro
Chicago, Ill.
March 2, 2005

Entertainment
Art

By STEFAN WOERLE
Photos by BRIAN MALCOLM

I saw the Take Action tour in 1999 when it was still coupled with the Plea For Peace Tour, so I went to the March 2 show expecting more of the same. When I saw the Plea For Peace/Take Action Tour years back, teens were not only there to see the great bands play, but to support something and to be involved in something. Literature was being handed out and petitions were not only were available at the merch table, but people came up to you in the crowd with those petitions in hand and would talk to you about the causes close to their hearts.

For me, that’s what the current Take Action tour is lacking. Suicide and mental health are great causes, ones that affect hundreds of thousands of us each year. It’s especially an important issue for the teens that make up the majority of the fans, and somehow the tour didn’t seem as a passionate about these things anymore. The bands never mentioned the cause, and the petitions were nowhere to be found except at the merch table, located in a small hallway near the bathroom, which was constantly packed with fans waiting to talk to their favorite band. The tour seemed to be just another tour to me. The activism, which so impressed me years ago, was nowhere to be found.

Aside from the causes, the show itself was definitely a good time. We arrived as Hopesfall was just finishing their set. But even though we missed most of their songs, just walking up those stairs to the show you could see that they had brought the rock along with them. We settled in, found our spots and as soon as the curtain rose again, Anberlin turned the floor of the House of Blues into a punk-rock dance floor. The riffs were infections that you didn’t really care you had. As long as they played, you had a fever, and the only cure was for you to get out there and dance.

Hawthorne Heights was up next and once again turned up the heat. For a band I had never listened to, they went the extra step to connect with the audience and to draw them into the music. When I was in high school, I went to see bands like Hawthorne Heights not only for the music, but also as a release of all the emotion that I had been storing up during the week. Hawthorne Heights allowed me to do that once again, to just pour out all the angers, frustrations, joys and celebrations of the weeks into a music-inspired frenzy.

But the band that I was really excited to see was Sugarcult. I’m 25 years old and I’m well past my giddy teenage years, but when they opened their set with "Stuck In America," all maturity left me and I had to rush the stage just like everyone else. Mixing the old with the new, they were definitely worthy of the headlining spot.

I want to take a quick moment to say that suicide and depression are real issues. They affect more people than we realize. They aren’t things that we can effectively deal with on our own. If you or someone else you know, is dealing with these issues and needs somewhere to turn to, call either the Youth America Line at 1-877-YOUTHLINE to talk toll free to trained peer counselors or the National Hopeline Network at 1-800-SUICIDE to be connected directly to a certified crisis center.