DANGEROUS SUMMER with TELL IT TO THE MARINES and FRANCESQUA - 2.24 @ Borderline

Nothing is better than seeing a show and actually enjoying the opening acts. Usually you’re there and youre just thinking, "OK, these guys are alright but I’m here to see so-and-so so hurry up with your set." I came to this show to see Dangerous Summer, who were opening for Francesqua anyway, so I knew I’d like the opener better than the main act. But what I wasn’t expecting was to like the opener for the opener.

Tell It To The Marines were surprisingly way more raw and genuine than these Francesqua guys. If you wanna be a successful indie punk rock band, layer a few guitar riffs and power chords over each other and you’ll probably end up with something listen-able. But Marines have put feeling into the forumla. The boys' accents are on full display, part of what makes this band so genuine. Their EP is available free on Bandcamp (here, if you'd like) and even in the shitty acoustics of Borderline you could tell it was gonna be good. They’re a band worth hearing. Layered, melodic guitars with intense vocals that are sometimes off-key only because the singer is singing with force that pushes your neck veins to the edge. Good stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, Francesqua are good, but you can just TELL that their producers and label have polished their music to the point of it being a catering to the crowd, not exactly what the band has written. The problem with bands like Francesqua is that they sing about love to a crowd of 15-year-old girls who are too young and naïve to realize or experience heartbreak, something that is very real, very inevitable, and so mind-numbingly painful. Love is real, but not always. These girls still think they can be swept away by the lead singer of a band who appears to love the way he sings about love.

That’s why Dangerous Summer are so amazing. Tears would roll at "Northern Lights" when AJ sings “I’m a wreck when I’m alone / I’m the boy who lost his home.” We won’t mention his traumatic and tragic past here, but you can tell that the anguish in his voice isn’t just about loving someone too much, its about trying to get out of your mouth all the things you feel in your brain that are tearing you apart. And that’s why the crowd wasn’t feeling them as much – those girls have no fucking clue what the hell he’s talking about it. Oh, but they will.