Howie Day
Fillmore
August 11th 2005


First I want to say something about the Fillmore. This is my very favorite venue to see a band. It is positively dripping with history and the bands that play there seem to feel privileged to do so and play accordingly. That gives the place a great vibe that can’t be found anywhere else. It also has amazing acoustics, the strongest drinks of any club I have ever been to and to top it all off, if you are lucky, you get there on a night that they are giving away free posters for the band you are seeing. Oh yeah, this place is a class act all the way.

Now on to the bands…

There were two openers:

First up was Missy Higgins. She is from Australia and plays sort of folksy, rocky stuff. It is just her playing the electric piano and another guy playing the guitar. Between each song she would tell the audience what the song was about and what prompted her to write it. It was kind of like VH1’s Storytellers – Just with someone you had never heard of.


Anna Nalick was up next. I was not impressed. She seemed to be trying way to hard and came off as over rehearsed and under talented. She sounded like Avril Lavigne trying to do an impressing of Fiona Apple. Just without Avril’s popularity and Fiona’s clever lyrics or charismatic weirdness. Whatever…Next….


The headliner was Howie Day. Oh, the sweet, popy goodness! Fun personal lyrics, good band and all the spiky hair you could ever want. He bantered with the audience and made the show a lot of fun to watch and participate in. At one point he told a lady in the front that repeatedly asked for the same song (Collide); “I remember my first beer too.” And later after she had screamed the name of the song at ever point she could he told her; “When you only have one hit you will eventually play it, so don’t worry, I’ll play the fucking song!”

He did a great cover of Crowded House’s "Don’t Dream, It’s Over", part of "Hey Jude" and even a few bars of Toto’s "Africa." Can you get better that that? I had a great time and left the show one happy camper.