Dashboard Confessional (Swiss Army Romance Tenth Anniversary Tour) with Cory Branan
Wednesday, December 1 at The National
Has it really been ten years since Chris Carrabba took on the moniker Dashboard Confessional? I could go on and on about how it feels like yesterday that I was seeing shows featuring Carrabba, alongside New Found Glory, The Stryder, Midtown and the like, in churches around College Park, Maryland. That isn’t important though. There has been a definite shift in the idea of Dashboard Confessional from 2000 to 2010. Despite that, you cant forget your roots, and that is why Carrabba decided to embark on a solo tour to celebrate his debut release.
The only question that comes to mind, though, is: does The Swiss Army Romance justify an anniversary tour? It was a huge release for that scene during the early 2000s. There is even an interesting story about how the rivalry between Drive-Thru Records and Vagrant Records grew even more volatile as a result of Dashboard Confessional. These songs became anthems for high school kids of that era, but were they still being rediscovered in the present? My contemplation of this question was predicated on recent anniversary tours by the likes of Built to Spill (Perfect from Now On), Jimmy Eat World (Clarity), and They Might Be Giants (Flood), as well as reunion tours by The Promise Ring and The Dismemberment Plan. Whether their current output is still as revered as their back catalog, all of these artists have left their impact with seminal records that still retain a level of excitement, inspiring new legions of fans to this day. Is an album like The Swiss Army Romance ready to be included on such lists?
I wish I had more to say about the other openers, but my discovery that Cory Branan would be playing left me incredibly biased. His abilities as a singer-songwriter are provocative, and not just because of the subject matter covered in his songs. He nestles sardonic wit and hopeless romanticism into each of his lyrics in such a way that it leaves an audience awestruck. It’s not just in the honesty revealed in their presentation. The true beauty of what Branan achieves as a songwriter is that he leaves you craving more of what we dream about--whether it’s the summer days that justify cooling down with a cold beer and a garden hose, or that bartender or waitress whose number you’d love to get marked down on a sugar packet. It’s the inventiveness of his approach that attracts his audience and makes them dreamers.
Carrabba started his Dashboard Confessional set by performing The Swiss Army Romance in its entirety. The varied ages of the audience members confirmed the staying power of the singer-songwriter’s debut album. The audience-turned-choir routine of past Dashboard Confessional shows was in full effect. It was nice to hear this album in a live environment, performed as originally intended. Tracks from The Places You Have Come to Fear The Most and the So Impossible EP were much more powerful examples of what I came to enjoy about Dashboard Confessional in my late adolescence. The continued power of this material was proven by the performances of “The Places You Have Come to Fear The Most,” “This Bitter Pill” and “Remember to Breathe.”
Despite my resistance to acknowledge The Swiss Army Romance as a landmark release for a genre made popular a decade ago, the audience were convinced. Everyone in attendance screamed along to every word. It made me realize how much music fans still lived and died by the words written by Carrabba ten years ago. If that’s what it takes to ignite a level of enthusiasm in Dashboard Confessional fans new and old, perhaps that is all that matters at the end of the day.
