Dashboard Confessional live

Dashboard Confessional
Chicago Theatre, Chicago
Friday, July 28, 2006

Somewhere along the way, Dashboard Confessional, lead by non-threatening heartthrob/poet laureate Chris Carrabba, switched things up on us. And if you weren’t paying attention, you might not have really noticed. The group — or, more specifically, Carrabba — has gone from acoustic balladeer, writing tender songs of failed romances and longing, to crafting full-blown upbeat pop songs that can justify a full band live and performing in a room the size of the Chicago Theatre. A room that, back when the group first started getting noticed, would’ve been too large to do justice to Dashboard’s quieter — and at the time, predominate — side.

Friday night’s show at the Chicago Theatre saw Carrabba, leading a full-band Dashboard Confessional, comfortable in his role as the room’s only focus. Throughout the course of the evening, he flashed shades of the forefathers of emotional anthem rock, at times channelling Bono and Stipe. He switched seamlessly between, and sometimes played all at once, the roles of larger-than-life rock star, soft-hearted punk, old friend and confidante, and stripped down, soul-revealing emo-folk hero. All the while coming off almost disarmingly sincere.

For the most part, the evening’s focused a fair amount on material from Dashboard’s latest record, Dusk And Summer. Which meant a good amount of light but anthemic power pop songs. Newer material like “Don’t Wait” and “The Secret’s In The Telling” stood up against older fan favorites like “Again I Go Unnoticed.” Elsewhere, Carrabba dabbled in his more stripped down catalogue, most notably on material like “Swiss Army Romance,” which just featured Carrabba and an acoustic guitar. Anyone who’s ever heard Dashboard’s performance on MTV’s Unplugged might be familiar with the almost uncanny full audience sing-alongs that showed up on that performance. If you didn’t know about it yet, you learned quick enough during older Dashboard fare like “The Good Fight.” It is, apparently, a universal trait among DC fans to know every word to every song, and at any given opportunity when they can overpower the music, shout along in eerie harmony.

But for as much of a connection as Dashboard make with their fanbase, it was their newer, more pop-driven and upbeat approach that left the biggest impression. By the time the encore rolled around with the Spider Man 2-themed “Vindicated” and “Hands Down,” it was hard not to be impressed at Dashboard’s transformation from just another college radio darling outfit to a full blown arena-pop group. And, if even for a night, you begin to understand why all those kids have been singing along this whole time.

— Jaime de’Medici

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly