will be one the attendees will not forget. Coming into the venue the
crowd was presented with flame shaped stage decorations with two Verizon
screens on either side that received texts of photos and messages. These
screens were instantly flooded with messages of love for the band and
pictures of their fans waiting outside from earlier in the day in the
freezing cold.
Before the show even began a spokesmen for MTV came on stage to tell the
audience that they were going to play part of 2 tracks by The Academy
Is... so the film crew could get some extra shots of the crowd. These
clips were of The Phrase That Pays and We've Got A Big Mess On Our
Hands.
Come to find out later from the band, that the audio of the kids singing
along was being played in their dressing room before they came out. They
said that hearing their fans pumped them up and eased their nerves a bit
before going on.
For any veteran of a TAI show, it was noticeable that the guys were
nervous on stage performing for MTV. This however did not impair their
performance whatsoever. The music played by Mike Carden, The Butcher,
Adam T. Siska and Michael Guy Chislett was almost as if hearing it on an
album through a great sound system. While William Beckett's vocals
seemed to soar and hit every note effortlessly. During the performance
the band debuted Neighbors off of their new album Santi that came out
April 3rd.
The set list in order as it was played are as follows:
The Phrase That Pays
Classifieds
LAX to O'Hare
Slow Down
Seed
Skeptics and True Believers
Black Mamba
We've Got A Big Mess On Our Hands
Down and Out
Almost Here
Neighbors
Checkmarks
Attention
If there is anything that should be said about this particular show, it
is that no one can doubt the level of energy the band has that is fed by
their equally as energetic fans. The Academy Is... fans of New York City
did TAI fans all over the nation proud.
