Concert review: AFI w/Sick of it All and The Dear and Departed- Rialto Theater, 2/17/07

AFI are one of my favorite bands, so you can imagine my excitement when they said they were playing here in Tucson at a tiny venue. It sold out a long time ago, so I figured I should probably get there really early in order to get a good spot. I got there at about 3:30, the doors opened at 6:30. It was pretty boring standing there for 3 hours, but oh well. The doors surprisingly opened right on time (they were almost half an hour late last time I was at this venue), and I grabbed a beer and secured a spot on the floor, close to the front and off to the left to try and avoid some of the inevitable crush.

The Dear and Departed took their sweet fucking time getting on stage, and they sucked bad. They played with a lot of energy, and were genuinely grateful to be on the tour as a new band, but that didn't make them any less boring or awful.

I'd heard one Sick of it All song before, so I wasn't familiar with their material at all, but goddamn they were amazing. They're bona fide legends in the hardcore scene, and have been around for 20 years. They're an amazing live band, and I walked away from their set a new fan. The singer got a mini- "Wall of Death" going at the beginning of one song, which was pretty cool.

After a rather long setup, AFI finally took the stage. Their set went by really fast, which made me think it was a little shorter than usual, but it wasn't. The official setlist:

Prelude 12/21 (Intro)
Girl's Not Grey
Kill Caustic
The Leaving Song Part II
Summer Shudder
File 13
Silver and Cold
Dancing Through Sunday
The Missing Frame
Wester
This Time Imperfect
Death of Seasons
The Leaving Song Part I
Song 2 (Blur cover)
Love Like Winter
--------------------------
God Called In Sick Today
Miss Murder

File 13 and Wester were both absolutely fucking amazing. I almost lost my voice singing along to the chorus of File 13: "THROW!! ME!! AWAY!! I'VE GOT NO USE!!!" I was one of the only people around me who knew that one, which wasn't surprising. Wester was amazing because it's one of my favorite AFI songs, and they don't play it very often. A guy from the AFI board jumped up on stage during that song and sang the bridge with Davey, and did a hell of a job too. You can see the video of this awesome moment here. The rest of the set was very predictable, except for their cover of Blur's "Song 2." Davey did his usual crowd-walking bit during "God Called In Sick Today," and then they closed with "Miss Murder."Overall, it definitely ranks up there with the best shows I've ever seen, and it was made better by the fact that I was pretty comfortable throughout most of AFI's set, and didn't get crushed or bashed around by crowdsurfers, which was nice for a change. I also got to meet some people I knew from the message board, who were very cool people.