Sarahindie

The In Crowd: Huh. Bands are still trying to use the Paramore/Hey Monday formula. It’s a little hard to take teenage punks seriously in what feels like a post-pop-punk world, but they’re tight and the teen girls in the audience seem to be liking it. The song that I presume is the single, in that some people seem to know it, is heavy on the synths. This sort of bubblegum punk is what I expect Disney princess Selena Gomez’s Bamboozle-playing band The Scene sounds like, but I’ve never gotten around to actually listening to their music.

After the set, they start handing out 8×10 glossies of themselves. That is a promotional format I have not seen since my NSync days.

This gig is sponsored by the new Slurpee, so we got free slurpee coupons! That’s pretty great. Also, the dj is playing some of the funnest mashups and remixes I’ve heard in a long time.

I’ve lived in Chicago for 25 days and this is first time I’ve ever seen someone in the second row in a pit flag down a cocktail waitress for shots.

Gym Class Heroes: It’s nice to see a band who is a little down on their luck to still have fans who really care and to see that the band still appreciates them. GCH haven’t lost the infectious charm and joy that has always permeated their performances.

Miiiinor criticism: When there’s already six of you on a stage this small, the hype man’s flag is just dangerous.

Also, the band has made some weird personal decisions. Frontman Travie McCoy is looking a little thin and serious. Hypeman Marc DeJesus is like 40% hair now. Bassist Eric Roberts is wearing sunglasses and a leather vest, plus greasy hair like it’s Halloween he’s Tom Cruise in Cocktail.

Sidenote: I hate when bands tell me to put my hands in the air. I have no idea to do with them once they’re there.

Travie asks us to dance and a girl in front of me starts a pretty serious Running Man.

I have never been at a show that was this lightly attended (over the course of the night, we go from about half full to three-quarters, and tickets were only $7.11) but had such an intense front few rows. This band, or at least Travie, is still super important to about 150 people, interesting to about 300, and has kind of fallen out of the public imagination beyond that.

This is my first time hearing their new song, “Solo Discotheque”, and it’s sort of a juvenile version of “Dancing With Myself.” In the sense that I think it’s probably about a real girl,  but it sounds like it’s about, how shall we say, “nocturnal emissions.”

There’s a 55ish dad in a Hawaiian shirt who is getting down. I love him.

Verdict: GCH is back, if you care. Statistically, you don’t.