Cassie The Venomous' Blog

Before you read any further, if you plan to attend TAKING BACK SUNDAY 's TAYF10 ( Tell All Your Friends ' 10th anniversary) tour and do not want to see spoilers, TURN BACK NOW! This review is for the first 2 dates, and there will be spoilers! October 4, 2012 - Cleveland, OH - House Of Blues October 6, 2012 - Chicago, IL - The Riviera Theater --- This has been the year of TBS birthday shows for my best friend Emily and I. At the end of February, 2 days prior to my birthday, we had managed to weasel our way into a show meant for Ohio State students only (Ha! Suckahss!), and the band managed to play 2 days after Emily's birthday at the House Of Blues in Cleveland a few days ago. Pretty cool coincidence, right? What better way to spend my best friend's birthweekend than following her favorite band on the first couple dates of their tour? Before I get into the details of how shows are going down on TAYF10, I just want to gush briefly about the amazing peop...

  "A pair of large, white converse appeared under my nose, which the crowd at Cleveland’s Grog Shop kept planting firmly against the wedge stage monitor and knee-high concrete stage in front of me.   I felt a tap on my back and a familiar voice close to me. “Are you okay?” I looked up at the towering, black-lipstick-and-white-Converse-wearing figure before me. Why, hello, Matt Skiba..." Read my full, first-person review for Indulge-Sound.com  XoXo c. And here's a video that captured the above-described moment:

I've learned every dance move my body is capable of from My Chemical Romance. That was the thought I had on September 10 in Noblesville, Indiana as I found myself strangely dancing (only when not jumping or thrashing) along naturally to MCR. And if you know me at all, you will understand that I do not dance . However, a lot lead up to that dance revelation... In my previous Honda Civic Tour review , I had mentioned my GPS's affinity for backroads and strange routes. As it turns out, no matter what settings I program into the thing, it still wants to take me through horrifying, surely-murderer-filled small towns in the middle of nowhere. Other than being guided away from the beaten path, my bad luck from the last show seemed to have scampered elsewhere. My best friend and I arrived at the Verizon Wireless Music Center one state away from home around 5 p.m., on schedule despite all of our strange detours, to retrieve our tickets. As we walked to the box office, I saw m...

Some shows just can't be justified in words, which is precisely why I was so hesitant in my trying to capture my experience seeing Taking Back Sunday in Cincinnati on July 24. Sometimes, as a music journalist (4 classes from a degree, I think I can officially call myself that now), you step back and think, "Fuck! Who the Hell am I :" When you find Taking Back Sunday vocalist Adam Lazzara suddenly standing on the barricade in front of you, singing your favorite new TBS song quite literally against your face as you fumble for something to do with your hands while there's nowhere to put them but on him . Or, as you watch, over the heads of hundreds, him wading through the crowd all the way to the back with his mic cord held up by the crowd (I assume, for a singer, that has to feel something like being attacked by zombies that don't eat brains, but --rather-- grope you). When he looks you dead in the eye, grins and sustains the look as you pantomime his lyric...

Because this is, as the title says, "unabridged" and, as a result, very long, I have added sub-heads that will allow you to skim ahead. Enjoy! For a more concise review, check out my MyChemicalRomance.com Fan Report. When my friends and I arrived in Chicago on April 15, we barely had time to check in to our hotel and to scarf down cheap Chinese food before we had to be on our way to Aragon Entertainment Center for our scheduled meet-and-greet with MCR at 4:30 p.m.. When we got there, the line was hidden around the corner of the building away from the main sidewalk, so we never got to see just how big it was (we would later when we got in it, and I'll say now "HOLY SHIT!"). My two friends and I, and about 20 others who had won a meet-and-greet through the local radio station, Q101 , lined up in the rain immediately outside the venue's front doors and waited to be let in. The inside the Aragon has a mosaic feel in design. It has dramatic teal and gold...

Vans Warped Tour, whether it's a yearly ritual, just something to do or something one plans for all year, is sure to provide a different experience for each person in attendance. Read my full review at ACRN.com! XoXo c.

With smiles and shared jokes between the band and the audience, Alkaline Trio's Columbus show seemed like a reuniting of old friends. Read my full review here . XoXo c.

"WHAT'S IT FEEL LIKE TO BE A GHOST? LOUDER NOW, LOUDER NOW:" that is what was screaming in my ears at 4:45 A.M. yesterday. My friend Emily, in the spirit of the event for which we were waking, had set her phone's alarm to a Taking Back Sunday song. By 5 A.M., we had left my dorm, and around 6, were sitting outside Lifestyle Communities Pavilion in the chilly weather with which Mother Nature decided to burden Columbus, Ohio. When we got there, the weather was dry. By 9 A.M., we were flooded from our sitting positions on the concrete. We were forced to plan our bathroom breaks and meals around the weather, and found ourselves shivering from cold. This is the way we pay our dues. This is the most we can do in exchange for everything we get from the shows we attend... ----- Check out my live review for ACRN.com here I may post a longer version here. :] XoXo c.

Columbus, Ohio was a ghastly, foggy sight yesterday when the AP Fall Ball tour was drearily welcomed to Newport Music Hall, but that didn't seem to darken the spirits of those waiting in the rain all day to see City Lights, You Me at Six, The Secret Handshake, Mayday Parade, and The Academy Is.... Unfortunately, many of those line-waiters who stuck it out in the rain all day had several roadblocks keeping them from their ultimate goal of reaching the front row. All shows put on by Promowest Productions venues in Columbus, which include The Basement, Newport, A&R Music Bar, and The LC, grant early admission to members of The Decibel Club . For a fee, members of this club receive such [unfair] advantages as: early admission to all shows at aforementioned venues, 4 free tickets to shows of their choosing, special pre-sale offers, and meet and greet opportunities. I would suggest fans who are going to be seeing one of their favorite bands at any of those Columbus venues to join tha...

::EDIT:: Thanks so much for featuring this on the Taking Back Sunday myspace blog and on the TBS main page !! I am so grateful! -c. What's the best way to start a set? Taking Back Sunday certainly are logical when they start at the beginning, with "You Know How I Do", the first track from their debut album, "Tell All Your Friends"- certainly an ace choice for the crowd that gathered for them in Cincinnati on May 15th: a crowd that appreciated the old tunes with fierce intensity and reveled in the new, moshed with all their might to the well-known as well as to the obscure. Taking Back Sunday hit the jackpot with this audience and they knew it, especially when we the crowd, as a screaming mass, yelled back the lyrics to their songs louder than they had been sung to us, causing lead singer Adam Lazzara to grin, praise us appreciatively, shake his head in amazement, and even topple over from his crouching position saying, "I'm supposed to be up here loo...

It's time for Cassie to be a critic. I write this the day after the show, hoping I can remember as many details as possible from the rain-soaked experience of last night that has been calling itself the Believers Never Die Part Deux tour. The Arena District of Columbus, Ohio found itself invaded last night by rainclouds and a crowd of kids in brightly-colored hoodies massing together in the quickly flooding Lifestyles Communities Pavilion. Rain or Shine, this was an outdoor event... Rain. Hmph. The rain, however, was no obstacle for fans who had waited in line all day and those who conglomerated in the downpour when doors opened. In their eyes it was worth a few prune-y fingers to see Hey Monday, Cobra Starship, Metro Station, All Time Low, and Fall Out Boy. But, but was it really? To begin, I would like to narrow down the bands that opened for Fall Out Boy into a couple categories: A.) Bands just being bands -Hey Monday -All Time Low B.) !!DANCE PARTY!! / Dance and don't give ...

As promised, I am now completing my Senses Fail review. I am sorry it took so long, but school has been dominating my life lately. Here are pictures from the show. Click Here to read my review of the show! You know you want the full story! Click the images for a larger view. The Crowd: now with 110% more testosterone! It was REALLY tough to get a shot of the whole band. Buddy knows how to make the audience (and himself) laugh. INTENSE! Keep an eye open for Part Three-- the video section! XoXo c.