The Rocket Summer/ Daphne Loves Derby
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July 22th, 2007
Culture Room
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
By Julio D. Anta
It's about 7:30 p.m. by the time the doors to Ft. Lauderdale's Culture Room finally open. The club is opening late and everyone is a little more than antsy to get in. It’s a Sunday evening and most of Ft. Lauderdale is presumably sitting down for a nice dinner with their family and friends, but not this crowd of over 200 who have gathered outside. This group has been sitting in line since 1 p.m., braving hurricane-like winds, storms and begging hobos, just to see Echo Screen, Daphne Loves Derby, and most importantly, headliners The Rocket Summer.
The Rocket Summer’s Bryce Avary and company had just released their major label debut Do You Feel to critical acclaim five days prior and were more than excited to finally do a headlining tour.
"We had been doing a lot of supporting tours,” said Avary from his cramped yet homey tour bus only 15 minutes before the doors finally opened. “We were here last March with The Early November, then in Orlando with Hellogoodbye, so it's exciting to be back in South Florida headlining again."
First on stage was the virtually unknown New Jersey pop-punk outfit Echo Screen playing a short set of songs off their debut album Euphoria. Though the set seemed rushed and may not have left a distinguishable nor in any way memorable mark on South Florida, Echo Screen was definitely well received and at least shown respect.
Unfortunately for Daphne Loves Derby, and their fans, they were not given the same courtesy. "Tonight was probably the biggest bummer of the tour," said DLD guitarist/vocalist Kenny Choi. "People were being extremely rude to us, but it was probably because they were excited to see The Rocket Summer. I can understand their frustration."
The band started their set off with the acoustic fan-favorite "Cue The Sun" and continued with songs off their recently released album Good Night, Witness Light and continued with oldies off On the Strength of All Convinced and even songs from their self-released EP's. Everyone seemed attentive and courteous during the songs, but it was in between them that booing and The Rocket Summer chants began. Thankfully, I’m sure for all parties involved, Daphne Loves Derby finished their set, and by 9:45 p.m all of The Rocket Summer's gear was set up.
By 9:50 p.m. the moment hundreds of fans had anticipated for 6 ½ hours had arrived. Opening with "Break It Out," the first track off Do You Feel, Bryce Avary and his band took the stage to begin one of the most, if not the most memorable TRS shows to hit South Florida. Playing tracks off Calender Days, Hello Good Friend, Do You Feel, and even taking requests from the audience, July 22, 2007 was a party, celebration, and any other synonym you can come up with. If you've never experienced a TRS concert I honestly don't know what you’re waiting for. The Rocket Summer will be back October 17 to open for The Academy Is...at Club Revolution. You have no excuse.
Make no excuse and let us know what you thought of our coverage: outloud@outloud.com
Find out more about the bands at: www.myspace.com/therocketsummer, www.daphnelovesderby.com, and www.myspace.com/echoscreen.