Toads Place is about 20 minutes from my house so I decided to skip the 2 opening bands. I think they were Aloha and meagainstyou. I did end up seeing the last 3 songs from meagainstyou, and I enjoyed it. One cool thing about them was that the singer handed out oranges, bottles of juice and some French bread to the audience. I'm not exactly sure if that's the best way to win over new fans, but I know I was jealous of the guy that got the juice. On to Sparta:
I saw Sparta about 5 years ago on tour supporting their first album, Wiretap Scars. They headlined a 5 band bill, and the ticket was only $5. It was a 5 bands for $5 gimmick. I missed them twice on the Porcelain tour, but luckily I made it this weekend. There really isn't much to say about the show. Nothing really impressed me. They've made line-up changes since then, and their most recent album is pretty weak. Fortunately about half their set was songs from the first album. One thing that really annoyed was their lack of an encore. Both times I've seen them they have not played encores. The first time I assumed it was because 4 other bands had already played, but Saturday night they just walked off stage. If anyone reading this has seen them before, is it common for them to not play encores. Aside from the lack of an encore they didn't play "Cut Your Ribbon" which is arguably their biggest hit. I'm not the kind of music fan that gets down of bands for playing a variety of songs, but hell no encore and no hit, that's kinda weak for a band that's not too big. It was probably the least eventful concert I've been to in years. It felt about an hour long, which means one of two things. 1) They did an excellent job of entertaining us and made the time fly by or 2) they played a really short set and left me wanting more. I think it was #2.
