Nostalgia reigns supreme for me as I entered the Plaza Live on February 10th to see AFI perform their first show in Orlando in years. It’s hard for me to contain my excitement to see one of my favorite bands from the early to mid 2000’s. Armed with the memories of rocking out in my car to and from high school, and having the time of my life seeing them play The Beacham 3 years earlier, I know I’m in for a hell of a good time again tonight.
But first, I would be remiss if I did not mention Nothing, the direct support. I was extremely excited to finally see them live, as I have fallen in love with their style of grunge and Dinosaur Jr style of emo/pop punk. And boy, did they not disappoint. We arrive right as they began their set, and I rush to get a good spot. Nothing is in the middle of a song, just pounding away at their instruments, creating this wall of sound that The Plaza was able to amplify beautifully. I’m torn between watching the band and doing my own shoegazing dance, because I don’t want to miss anything, but at the same time, I really want to embrace the sound, and get caught up in the music. Cheers on you guys, and please, come back soon!
AFI gets the crowd going even before they take the stage, starting with a thump thump of a heart beat, and lights focusing on the blood drips of the backdrop. 45 seconds into this, the band emerges, and Hunter Burgan drops the bass line to Miss Murder, and the high school in me just came out.
It sounds amazing, as before, but I think even better, due to the acoustics of The Plaza Live. This feeling stays the whole night through, and was even made better by the fact that the band is super into their show, and the crowd is just feeding off of it. Jade Puget looks like he’s having a ball, dancing to the side of the stage with himself, unless he was out in front of the crowd shredding on guitar.
Davey Havok is damn near perfect vocally, but even more, he is energizing to watch. Not content with standing up front, or even moving around the stage, he is engaging the crowd. You can tell every note, every word, is personal, and while he may have written these lyrics, each song is dedicated to us, the fans. And we just ate it up, singing along to everything, even the songs off their phenomenal new album, AFI. But for me, it was all about the memories of the old songs, and boy, did they come flooding back. They didn’t play anything off of the older punk/Misfits albums, but with “Morningstar” and “This Celluloid Dream” as the encore songs, and plenty of songs from The Art Of Drowning and on, there was little not to love about the setlist.
I know I left that show feeling better than I had in a long time. My neck was sore from all the head banging, my throat thrashed from singing (let’s face it, screaming) along with all the songs, and really gaining an appreciation for the new songs that were played. So thank you, AFI, for coming to town, and just blowing everyone, including this reviewer, away with your electric presence and the best damn show The Plaza has seen in a while.
AFI Live Review 2017 by Garrett. AFI Live Concert Photos by Jenn Ross.
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▼ SHOWS TO GO TO ▼
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- The Commission Beer Chamber
- Kingfish Records (Clearwater)
- Nora's Sugar Shack!
- Park Ave CDs
- Montgomery Drive Presents
- RT-Art Printing
- The Mary Jane 'High-Quality' Art Gallery
- The Owl's Attic Vintage Shop
- Broken Strings Brewery
- American Combat Club
- Lazy Moon Pizza
- Ten10 Brewing
- Leguminati
- Mutiny Ocala
- The Tipsy Skipper
- Conrad's Beer Shanty
- AKT Shirt Printing
- Smartpunk Records & Shop
- No Clubs Presents
- DaddyKool Records
- Galactic G Skateshop
