RIOT! IN THE BOULEVARD
FIELD TRIP FESTIVAL 2012 [HEADLINERS] (PART 1)
Something Old, Something New/Twilight Of My Youth/Kiss Goodbye To The Harvest MoonIt’s day two of the weekend of live music at ‘Field Trip Festival 2012’ and with another large selection of music on show during the course of Sunday afternoon and evening, it would appear that the audience have been well and truly warmed up for the second headline act at the festival, not only in the metaphorical sense but in the literal sense as the sun has continuously beat down on the large crowd throughout the weekend and the atmosphere has been rather incredible as a result, there’s a sense of ‘we don’t want this to end’ in the air as the crowds gather in their numbers for the final act of the two day music festival and as they audience are finally assembled all that is left to do is wait.
As darkened figures can be seen moving things around onstage it leads to murmuring from the crowd as they anticipate the arrival of the teenage rock band, the day has only recently turned to night and as the moments continue to slowly pass it appears that some members of the crowd have decided to create a little extra entertainment ahead of the performance, a couple of lone voices can be heard singing the opening lyrics to ‘Sweet Little Fantasy’s’ the debut hit from Riot! and those lone voices start to increase as more slowly begin to join in and rather unexpectedly it has led the majority of the audience into a rousing chorus of the hit single and it’s managed to create an almost camp-fire sing-along type of situation but the voices then start to die down one by one as the air of anticipation builds once more and the wait is finally over.
The lights begin to flicker into action around the stage and the large backdrop with the band’s familiar name design in full view for the 150,000 plus crowd and it lights up in a dark red colour, the stage is completely cleared for what is always a highly energetic performance by the teenagers from Vegas and right on cue is the arrival of the band to the stage, the first person to appear onstage is the drummer ‘Nathan Mullen’ wearing a basic black t-shirt with a green logo emblazoned upon it, he meekly raises his hand up at the audience before making his way to the drum kit located near the back of the stage and prepares his area for the performance, next to appear on the stage is his brother and lead guitarist ‘Justin Mullen’, a relatively quiet personality he jogs across to the far left of the stage where he’s handed an electric guitar, he adjusts the string slightly and nods out at the crowd and gives a small smile as he begins to play a riff which is then followed by soft drumming from his brother.
The next appearance is by the bassist ‘Jason Greenberg’, his facial hair and loud bass playing give him the tag as ‘the masculine one’ in the band and he applauds the crowd as he runs out to the left of the stage, receiving his bass guitar from one of the techs, he places the black leather strap over his shoulder and says something in Justin’s ear before walking slightly towards the center of the stage, he adjusts the strings and begins playing along with Justin and Nathan at this extended introduction.
The next appearance gets the second loudest reaction from the audience as ‘Adam Benjamin’ runs out to the stage with a large smile on his face, he waves frantically at the audience, he too walks over to the left of the stage, high-fiving Justin and Jason as he walks past them to receive his rhythm guitar from the tech at the side of the stage, he walks across to the right of the stage and jumps up and down for a couple of moments before starting to play his guitar along with the others, he turns to look at the wings of the stage where the audience are unable to see and smiles, he raises his hand in the air and counts from five down to one with his fingers, he shouts something out at the audience and their cheers start to increase, the band then move from playing the extended introduction into the familiar opening to one of their singles.
As the introduction begins, lead singer of the band ‘Amy Meyer’ runs out to the stage, wearing a black t-shirt with a short denim jacket placed over her small shoulders and tight leather trousers with one leg coloured black and the other coloured white, she runs to the center of the stage and begins jumping up and down as the crowd erupt at her arrival, the band power their way through the song as Amy sings out the lyrics with energy and enthusiasm;
“Wearing boots and dark black leather/Don’t feel so good, under the weather
Come over and see me, I’m on my own/This burning house doesn’t feel like home
A message left on my answer machine/You’re not gonna be around, you’re the leaving scene
A bottomless pit is where I’m falling/I’m slowly dying and you’re not calling
I’ll give you everything, all of my heart/You’ll take it fully and tear it apart
This pain I feel is quite like dying/I can’t love you but I’m still trying”Amy continues to jump up and down throughout the song, her trademark vocals create the mix of vulnerability and aggression as she spits out the words with a venom but places emphasis on key words that make you feel for the person in the song, the band continue to play the song with an ease that shows that they’ve managed to perfect their craft as a live band over the past year incredibly well, the lyrics and instrumentation of the song appears to be like second nature to each member of the band and it allows a freedom for Amy to essentially do whatever she wants with the song, evident as she sways her arms back and forth during the pre-chorus and chorus and encourages the crowd to sing along with her;
“Will you regret me, will you forget me/Will you kiss me, will you miss me
Will you regret me, will you forget me/Will you kiss me, will you miss me
Something old, something new, something fragile/Will my broken heart do?
Something old, something new, something dying/It’s sent to you
Will you regret me, will you forget me/Will you kiss me, will you miss me
Will you regret me, will you forget me/Will you kiss me, will you miss me”As Amy leads the crowd into the 150,000 people chorus she stops singing and stands center stage with a awestruck look on her face as she hears her words echoing back to the stage like never before, she shakes her head and mouths the words, “wow” to Adam Benjamin who has now moved closer to the front of the stage with Amy as he plays the closing melodic riff on his rhythm guitar as the song nears its end.
No time for a brief break for the band or even the audience as Justin slowly moves closer to Amy and Adam and begins the powerful and aggressive opening guitar riff to the next song, Amy lowers her head slightly and grips the microphone tightly with both hands, “ENGLAND!! … are we gonna start a Riot!?” Amy asks, bellowing out the words in the hope that the crowd can hear her, “We’re a group of misfits and losers, hailing from the west coast of the United States of America … born and raised on the dusty planes of the Nevada desert, we’re unfamiliar with your British ways.” She says with a childlike grin, “So we’re gonna need you to help us put on the greatest live performance of all time.” The crowd erupt into cheers, “You guys think you’re up to the task?” she asks with a large smile on her face, her question is met with an emphatic roar from the crowd and she nods her head, “Alright then … Let’s do this!” and as she say those words, the band fully thrash into the song and Amy begins jumping up and down at the center of the stage, encouraging the crowd to do so too as she begins singing the opening lyrics;
“Sat on a bench with a body full of hate/Wondering when this loneliness ends, I guess I’ll just wait
Dreaming of a fantasy that will never come true/Dreaming of a Fairytale in the form of you
When the day begins, I find myself on my own/When the night ends, I’m still alone
Wanna be saved from myself and everything around/I stare at my empty home, I wanna burn it to the ground
The nights fade with the emptiness and the days go by so slow/I feel like I’m missing out on something I will never know
I’m not living, I’m just getting by/It gets more painful the harder I try”The pounding of the drums add emphasis for the song and help to create an almost anthemic feeling onstage, perfectly matched with the guitar playing from Adam, Justin and Jason but it’s the sheer energy that’s being provided by the teenagers that are the biggest tools to their performance, the energy in particular by Amy as she jumps up and down and moves across the stage with the confidence of someone who has been doing this type of thing for the 18 years that she’s been alive, the reality is that she’s only been performing in big venue’s for a little over a year, but it doesn’t deter the red-haired front woman of the rock band and she moves around the stage with ease and somehow still manages to sing very well whilst moving around so much shows testament to ability and she continues to work the crowd effortlessly as she directs the microphone towards them for them to bellow out the chorus;
“The carefree times have gone/Nights under the stars are no more
Instead I’m just a travelling girl/Every night brings a different show
While I am in the twilight of my youth/I want to make most of this time while it lasts
I can’t keep holding onto you for much longer/It’s time to let go of the past”As the music begins to die down towards the end of the song, Amy catches a flag thrown from the audience and drapes it around her shoulders, the audience cheer as she takes a little bow and laughs along with the rest of the band and as the song ends, she takes the flag from her shoulders and places it over a large black box near the front of the stage.
The band finally close out the song with the final drum beats from Nathan Mullen and a couple of brief moments pass as Adam and Justin switch to acoustic guitars for the next set of songs, the change of pace quickly becoming evident to the audience as Amy stands center stage with her head lowered slightly, she waits for the opening introduction to the song before raising her head slightly and edging closer to the front of the stage where the audience cheer loudly, she brings the microphone up to her mouth and softly begins to sing in hushed tones the opening lyrics to the song but appears taking by surprise slightly as the crowd erupt in song as they bellow out the words, “You are the winner and now it seems/You’re not the sinner, you’re the stuff of dreams.” Amy glances across at the guys and mouths the words “Wow” and shakes her head in amazement and as they continue to tenderly play their acoustic guitars, creating an emotional feel during the song Amy continues to stand front center singing the words with the audience in full voice singing them back to her;
“You will, you will, you will/Kiss goodbye to the harvest moon
With a smile on your face, singing a new tune/Just kiss goodbye to the harvest moon
You’re living the good life, making six numbers/Kissing your kids goodnight to the sound of golden slumbers
The woman of your dreams is standing by your side/Your life is at ease, your swimming with the tide.”The audience again in full voice throughout as the band pluck the string to their guitars and tenderly close out the first slow burning song of the evening, any worries that the ballads wouldn’t fit in well with the audience have proven to be pointless and even more so any worries that they couldn’t handle the magnitude of the festival and it’s large crowd have proven to be pointless too, after the opening three songs they already have the audience on their side and in full voice.
Dear Diary/A Moment, An Hour, A Lifetime/Remember Me As A Place In Time
The soft tones of the acoustic guitar begin once more, backed by the now very gentle drumming from Nathan Mullen and the tender bass line provided by Jason Greenberg, Amy places both hands on the microphone and smiles widely at the audience in front of her, “You guys are amazing!” she continues, “These next bunch of songs are ballads but hopefully you can all join in with me.” She smiles once more, “Let’s make this a night that none of us ever forget.” The audience cheer and she bows her head slightly as any daylight that we may have had has well and truly vanished, Amy places her arm on the shoulder of Adam Benjamin and smiles as he plays his acoustic guitar, she appears relaxed as she begins singing;
“Dear diary, it’s that time again/I’ve got my thoughts and my poisonous pen
I feel like I’m dying as this person I’ve become now/I’m feeling so much anger, I don’t wanna be here anyhow
I know it’s almost over, two years left to endure/I could have left a while ago, I could have been on tour
But instead I wake every morning with fear and loathing instead/I don’t know what’s stopping me, feels like I’m hanging from a thread”Amy slowly moves around on the stage as the audience sway their arms from side to side, some are holding their cell phones in the air and singing along with Amy, but it’s as the chorus arrives where the song hits its peak, Justin and Adam begin to play their acoustic guitars slightly faster and with more urgency and the drum beat becomes slightly more louder, Amy steps to the very edge of the stage and looks out to the crowd with enthusiasm, “England!!!” she screams, “I wanna hear you sing!” and they respond emphatically as they sing the songs chorus along with Amy;
“I know some say that time is short, but it’s never felt so long/I guess it’s hard to feel alive in a place where I don’t belong
I’m counting down as the days go by/Hope it’s all over in the blink of an eye
So dear diary, you listen so well/I know I probably bore you but I know you’d never tell
So without you by my side, helping me stay in control/I owe everything to your pages, I owe it all
So dear diary, I won’t forget/You helped me grow up from the outset
I owe a lot to your white blank pages/You helped me grow up, through the ages.”Amy steps back as the song finishes and raises her hand at the audience in appreciate for their enthusiasm while singing the song, she turns to look at Justin and smiles before walking over towards the drum kit, she takes a bottle of water and quickly quenches her thirst while Adam, Justin and Jason gather together by the drum kit, they can all be seen talking about something and as Amy finishes taking a drink she joins them, seconds pass as the assemble back into position ahead of the next song, Amy places her arm on Justin’s shoulder and says something in his ear, he nods his head slightly as they begin to play the introduction to the next song, Amy moves closer to the edge of the stage and raises her hand in the air, gripping the microphone with her other hand, “This is called, A Moment, An Hour, A Lifetime.” She shouts, smiling as the audience cheer loudly while the band begin to play another acoustic introduction to the song, Amy begins waving her arm from side to side to encourage the crowd to do so before singing;
“I’m playing this game called love/And it’s messing with my heart
I’ll fight my instincts, fight my feelings/But I’m just falling apart
I’ll close my eyes and let my mind run free/Because holding you is where I long to be
I’m trying to keep calm and fight what I feel/But a space in my heart is harder to heal
So I’ll try to move and pretend that everything’s fine/But I know what I feel and I want you to be mine
Tell me what you’re feeling, is it the same/If I get hurt, you won’t be to blame.”Amy looks at the audience with a huge smile upon her face, her red hair shining brightly underneath the spotlight of the stage as Adam plays an acoustic filler alongside Justin, Amy slowly edges even closer to the front of the stage, she sway’s her arms from side to side once more and shouts, “I wanna hear you sing!”, the crowd cheer again at this comment and as the song’s chorus arrives, almost the whole one hundred and fifty thousand people in front of Amy and the rest of Riot! In The Boulevard erupt once more as they bellow out the songs chorus ferociously back to the band;
“So if it takes a moment to like/And an hour to love
A lifetime to forget/Then it’s easier to regret
If I’m tearing apart at the seams/If your longing to be in my dreams
If I want to feel free/I’ll need your love to comfort me
So if it takes a moment to like/And an hour to love
A lifetime to forget/Then it’s easier to regret.”
The song fades out with the soft acoustic twang of Justin and Adam’s guitar and they replace their acoustic guitars once more with the electric guitars, they adjust the strings slightly and both walk over towards each other and stand facing each other, they look at each other when Justin starts to play a little riff, Adam looks at the audience and arrogantly points at Justin and shrugs his shoulders before playing a little riff, Justin smirks and shakes his head as he then plays another riff but Adam once more looks at the audience and raises his hands in the air to encourage them to cheer him on, which they duly oblige and Adam turns and starts walking towards the front of the stage while playing a riff, Justin then begins walking towards the front of the stage too, also playing a riff and the they both look at each other and shrug their arms before playing into the opening riff to the next song.
As the drums powerful beat signals the introduction and the bass riff begins from Jason Greenberg, Adam and Justin step back slightly with Amy stood between them as they play the electric guitar riff to the song, Amy holds the microphone close to her mouth and brushes her glimmering red hair out of her eyes, she stares far out into the audience and introduces the song, “This is a song that I think we can all relate to, It’s called ‘Remember Me As A Place In Time’” She says, the echoing sound of her voice amidst the extended guitar introduction and audience cheers is quite an eerie natured feeling, “Sometimes we lose people from our lives as we grow older, we just lose touch with people for whatever reason, maybe with work or family or studies, whatever it is we just lose them.” She sighs a little before continuing, “But every now and again something triggers deep within us that reminds you of them, it could be a photograph or a place or a movie or a song.”
She lowers her head slightly and continues once more, “And it can be difficult to let go, you wonder where they are and how they’re doing … if they ever still think about you. It’s just one of those things that happens with growing up, I’m sure we’ve all felt it at some point in our life and it’s hard because missing someone is one of the most painful things to deal with … But we have to deal with it because it’s part of life, we all miss somebody sometimes and sometimes it helps to cry”
She raises her head and stands confidently, pushing out her chest like a warrior with a look of determination mixed with sadness in her eyes, she closes her eyes for a couple of seconds before continuing, “But sometimes … sometimes it helps to let out your frustrations and scream … scream at the top of your voice about how you really feel.” She looks around at the large crowd in front of her, “So If you’ve ever felt like you’ve lost someone or if you’ve ever felt abandoned and scared and alone and worried, if you’ve ever felt hard done by and angry, if you’ve ever felt like you don’t belong, if you’ve ever felt hurt and depressed, if you’ve ever felt like nothing, if you’ve ever felt cold and worthless without friends, if you’ve ever felt like you deserve to be remembered but aren’t, if you’ve ever felt any of this then I want you to sing this song back to me.” She stands center stage with the audience hanging onto her every word before she continues once more, “I want you to sing this song back to me, I want you to sing it, so loud that everyone that’s ever hurt you will hear it!!”, And with that rallying cry from Amy the band lead into the opening lyrics of the song as Amy and the 150,000 capacity crowd bellow out the lyrics together in full voice;
“Hello my former friend/It’s nice to see you here again
What brings you back around these parts/Are you here to see the broken heart you left
Does it make you feel guilty, lonely and bereft/Does it make you feel sad, knowing what you’ve done
With those words that you said, does it make you feel numb
Remember that smile that you loved so much/Remember how my hands would shake when we’d touch
Remember that feeling when we were together/It’s the feeling that I wanted forever”The audience echo the sentiments back to Amy in full voice, her rallying cry seems to have ignited a fire within the vast majority of the crowd, their voices combined with Amy’s and the instrumental backdrop create a thunderous roar within the venue and its surrounding areas and you can’t help but feel compelled by the experience as close to one hundred and fifty thousand people who have been hurt at some stage in their life come together to create a sound that may probably never be heard again, Amy is almost the image of a desolate pariah stood center stage with only her band mates, but gathered in front of her are the people willing to listen to her and take her as their prophet, after a brief instrumental break in the song, the lyrics return to the lips of the energetic front woman and her audience of disciples;
“My friends looked down on me with pity in their eyes/They don’t know the pain that comes with goodbye’s
A million words would not bring you back/I know because I tried
Neither would a million tears/I know because I cried
I just kept telling myself/The memories are worth the pain
But it was just no use to me/I knew I wouldn’t see you again.”Again the audience roar with ferocity at the lyrics and the comfort of these five musicians onstage in front of an audience of this magnitude is remarkable, the fact that the leader, the often talked about ‘Voice of her generation’ lead singer Amy Meyer is still only 18 years old makes the situation that we find ourselves in even more remarkable, not only the control of the audience who at this point are eating out of the palm of her hand but also the energy to perform a vast range of the band’s music without any problems is an incredible feat and judging from this performance, you’d find it hard to believe that they only have two album’s worth of material to draw upon, the fact that the audience have sung along almost word for word throughout this headlining performance is a testament to the quality of work that they have, it’s difficult to find the peak moment of a concert but the epic roar of this song would certainly be up there as the crowd roar furiously again through the songs final set of lyrics along with Amy;
“Will you remember me as a place in time/Brought together as our souls entwined
Will you remember me with a smile on my face/Will you remember me as a time and place
So I’ll just take a deep breath and fake a smile/Keep telling myself it was all worthwhile
But when it’s late at night and I’m wide awake/And I’m fighting those feelings that I just can’t shake
I’ll remember you as a place in time/When we were brought together as our souls entwined
If you remember me in a picture that’s true/that’s the way I’ll remember you!”The emotional and sombre lyrics that close the song has created an almost instantly vulnerable feeling within the crowd, lights and cell phones were raised in the air with arms being swayed from side to side as Amy and the crowd came together in unison for quite possibly the most emotional moment of the entire festival, any people that considered the band too inexperienced to be headlining the final day of the festival have been proven wrong and anybody that has ever dismissed ‘Riot! In The Boulevard’ as just another emo teen rock band have surely been proven entirely wrong as they’ve shown not only a maturity in their song lyrics but the ability to hold a crowd over an extended period of time, you’d have to say on the basis of this performance alone that it’s time to say goodbye to supporting slots on tours and a big hello to headlining their own world tours, they’ve definitely proven to be capable so far.
