The Academy Is… - Pontiac, MI

Many music fans may not consider The Academy Is… to be a wildly popular band. However, don't tell that to the capacity crowd at Pontiac, MI's Clutch Cargo's. The club was packed to the rafters with teenagers and college students all there to cheer on the up and coming band from Hoffman Estates, a suburb of Chicago. After having signed to Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz's Fueled by Ramen label and making appearances on the Vans Warped Tour lineup, TAI has earned themselves a legion of enthusiastic fans, some in love with the lead singer William Beckett and others enamored by their new-band-on-the-scene status, but all very much excited about the band's music.

The evening began with former Midtown-member Gabe Saporta's latest effort, Cobra Starship. Originally garnering fame for writing the title song from the movie Snakes on a Plane, Cobra Starship has proven themselves to be more than just a one-hit wonder. Saporta's unbridled energy generated one of the most fun performances of the evening. Opening with "The City Is At War," from their sophomore album, Viva La Cobra, Saporta and crew immediately had the audience dancing and singing along. A few songs from their debut album, While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets, also made it into the mix, including "The Church of Hot Addiction" and "Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)." For the latter song, Beckett joined Saporta on stage for the backup vocals, a nice addition as Beckett recorded those same vocals for the album version of the song, but, as the song is able to stand well on its own, not all that necessary.

Sherwood came next with their brand of California indie rock. While the band clearly tried hard to connect with the audience, their songs simply aren't the type to have attracted this particular crowd. It didn't help that the band had significant sound and technical problems that delayed their set from beginning on time. The best song of Sherwood's set was "Song In My Head" from their most recent album A Different Light but, unfortunately, much of the rest of their set offered little in the way of excitement.

Even if things became somewhat more subdued while Sherwood was playing, the audience clearly perked up again when The Rocket Summer took the stage. Lead singer Bryce Avary easily moved from playing the guitar to the keyboards throughout the set. Occasionally Avary's voice became a little too whiny on some songs, however he is frequently able to counter that as evidenced on "So Much Love," a fun dance song that made it clear why so many people enjoy Avary's music.

Armor For Sleep made excellent use of their time on stage by playing a number of crowd favorites, including "Car Underwater" and "Awkward Last Words" from What To Do When You Are Dead. Along with songs from their second album, AFS included a songs from their latest album, Smile For Them. "Hold The Door" with its slow introduction and moody lyrics quickly kicked into a strong song that was far enough from the others on the list to make it stand out, but not so far afield as to get away from the type of music AFS is good at. The band was unrelenting throughout the set and that fire and vigor makes them a hard band to take one's eyes off.

The Academy Is…began their set with "Same Blood" from their latest album, Santi. Beckett and guitarist Mike Carden were unstoppable as they raced around the stage and somehow managed to sing and play the guitar at the same time. TAI quickly moved straight into "Attention" and "Slow Down," both from the band's debut Almost Here. Despite Beckett's fondness for strutting around the stage on his incredibly long legs, he and the rest of his band seemed to genuinely be having a good time up onstage. Each band member was getting into the set in his own way and that excitement managed to pump up the already excited audience.

"Black Mamba" began with what can only be described as a George of the Jungle drumline which could have been simply cheesy, but the verses salvaged the song from this fate even if the breakneck chorus lacked a little. "We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands" offered Carden a chance to break loose on his guitar solo, a nice change from some of the formulaic approaches that many of TAI's songs tend to have.

"Down and Out" won the award for the sappiest song of the evening. With heavy doses of angst and phenomenal sadness, the song was just too repetitive and cheesy to be enjoyable. However, even if it was far from TAI's strongest or best song of the evening, the audience ate the performance up and sang along with every word out of Beckett's mouth. Luckily, the pace picked back up with "Seed" and "Classifieds," both fast-tempoed and energetic, but so similar to many of TAI's other songs that they became difficult to truly distinguish.

One cannot discredit The Academy Is… on the basis of enthusiasm and they seemed to have as much fun on the Michigan stop of their tour as one presumes they had on the first stop. Fans certainly got their money's worth with the number of bands performing and the length of TAI's set. However, unless one is a truly hardcore fan of all of these bands, the night felt a bit repetitive, as most of these artists don't have enough variety to make for a truly interesting, varied and exciting show.