Switchfoot at The Roxy

Roxy. Switchfoot. A couple months back a group of us decided that we were going to go see Switchfoot. And so the day finally arrived, November 11th. My friends decided that they were going to head out starting at 5 p.m., because they believed the band was playing at 7 p.m. I was like, I can’t leave that early. I have work. So they took off without me. I headed off around 6 p.m. I caught up with them at about 6:30 p.m. They were in line, waiting. It is sweet having friends who like to go really early, because then you can just cut in line. Anyways, come around 7 p.m. we were still outside waiting. One friend started to wonder what was going on since the band was supposed to play at 7 p.m. Well, when I got there I was given my ticket so I looked at the ticket. Hey, wait a second, it states that the doors open at 7 p.m. Hmm. Well, I believe they started to let people in around 7:15 p.m. Once inside, we waited around some more until the band finally came on at around 8:45 p.m. Interestingly enough, there was no opening band.

There were a number of false alarms regarding Switchfoot coming on stage. Starting around 8 p.m. after every single house music song died out folks felt for sure that Switchfoot was going to start playing. Cheers would go up and then die down. I noticed that one of the band technicians came over and removed the microphone and at that point I told a friend, “They’re going to start.” Soon after, Jon was seen on the VIP section wall. He then pushed through the crowd to get back onto the stage. Actually, he didn’t push through, the crowd just departed for him. He passed right next to me. For some reason, I always find these concert moments interesting. You're packed in close and yet somehow during certain points of a set, the crowd opens up.

Now this Switchfoot concert was dedicated to playing their new album, "Hello Hurricane." I hadn’t purchased the album in advance so I wasn’t familiar with the material. So my honest opinion: I thought the concert was choppy. Some of the songs I thought were awesome. Some of the songs I thought weren’t so great. Perhaps if I listen to the album a few more times I'll gain a greater appreciation of the album as a whole, but for now I have to go with a choppy set.

After playing through their album, they left the stage. They then returned for a seven song set of their greatest hits. Now this part of the set rocked out as I was obviously well versed in the music. A fun part of the show was towards the end (I forget which song, perhaps it was “Twenty-Four”). Jon said they wanted to do something new and a kid in the audience yelled out, probably the following, "Let me sing with the band." Well, he was brought up onto the stage to help with the song. That was cool. During “Twenty-Four” Jon told a story about the time he wrote this song. He was showing off his skate boarding abilities in front of his girlfriend. He fell and broke his wrist. It so happened that he married this young lady.

After this second half of the set ended, the audience demanded an encore. They got it. A final song. Jon asked for a music request. The request was to sing “Dirty Second Hands.”

Some notes: On stage, there were a number of decorative birds hanging from the ceiling. At one point, Tim jumped so high that he sent one of these birds in motion. He took some amusement in this, watching for a moment as the bird swung above him. There were a couple guys near the front of the stage that were jumping around throughout the set. Awesome. Back to 6:30-ish, there was a young couple waiting in line. My group of friends and I spent the rest of the concert hanging out and getting to know them. What was fun on my end was watching one of my friends. She’s a bit Switchfoot fan. Throughout much of the set, her hands were clasped together.

Anyways, here's the set list I found from a blogsite called wereawakening:

blinditachil7 also provided the setlist:
01 - Needle and Haystack Life
02 - Mess of Me
03 - Your Love Is a Song
04 - The Sound (John M. Perkins' Blues)
05 - Enough to Let Me Go
06 - Free
07 - Hello Hurricane
08 - Always
09 - Bullet Soul
10 - Yet
11 - Sing It Out
12 - Red Eyes
13 - Dare You to Move
14 - Stars
15 - Oh! Gravity
16 - This Is Your Life
17 - Twenty-Four
18 - Only Hope
19 - Meant to Live
20 - Dirty Second Hands

Below are some photos I took:



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