Sean Mackin of Yellowcard performs with the band at The Intersection in Grand Rapids. Victoria Walenga/The Pit
[dropcap]A[/dropcap] little over a year and a half ago I was making my way through the crowd at The Intersection in order to get to the front for the Ocean Avenue 10 year anniversary tour.
Fast forward to a year and a half later and I am doing the same thing, like I’ve said before Grand Rapids is a great city for many things: drinking beer, exploring and most of all, welcoming well-known bands back into our amazing venues.
Yellowcard has been around since I was a toddler, yeah imagine that! The band as a whole has changed their dynamic in many ways in order to reach out to their fans over the years.
October of 2014 they released their recent album Lift A Sail from Razor & Tie records. This album is a prime example of the band changing their sound in order to reach out and connect with their fans.
Ryan Key, vocalist for Yellowcard, spoke with The Pit before Sunday’s show at The Intersection. Victoria Walenga/The Pit
The opening band for this tour was One Ok Rock, a four-piece Japanese rock band with popular singles, such as Mighty Long Fall, The Beginning and Re:Make. This band specifically provided some musical diversity to the tour and gave fans the opportunity to get pumped and ready for the headliner along with other opening band, Finch.
The next band on the bill was Finch a post-hardcore band from California with the popular single, What It Is To Burn released from their 2002 album. I was surprised by the fact that Finch was on this tour, but excited at the same time seeing how they were one of my favorite bands back in middle school.
There were many dedicated Finch fans out in the crowd who were head banging and singing along to their songs that were from their old album, What It Is To Burn along with their new album titled Back To Oblivion which was released in 2014 by Razor & Tie.
More on Yellowcard: THE MUSIC BLITZ: RYAN KEY OF YELLOWCARD CALLS IN TO DISCUSS LIFT A SAIL
Next was Yellowcard, a mix of long-time fans and more recent fans gathered in the hall of The Intersection and anxiously awaited the set to begin. Yellowcard is known for having the best light show out of most bands that come to The Intersection, which makes all of the photographers happy because they are able to get quality pictures of the band.
“Overall, Yellowcard is one of my favorite bands to see live because of their stage presence, and of course the hit songs.” — Victoria Walenga for The Pit.
The set starts off with the violin solo from the song Convocation with a dim stage and one spotlight, it then progresses to the whole band walking out simultaneously and joining in at once to the song Transmission Home, all from their recent album.
The crowd goes wild and the light show goes nuts. They played many songs from their new album such as Cash the Gates, Lights and Sounds, Awakening, Believe along with my all-time favorite, Ocean Avenue.
Lead vocalist, Ryan Key had a word with the audience during the beginning of the set. “A couple nights ago Nebraska set the bar high, so I want to challenge you Grand Rapids to top them!” Of course, everyone went wild and started crowd surfing.
Overall, Yellowcard is one of my favorite bands to see live because of their stage presence, and of course the hit songs.
