Rams Head Live was jam packed with students and young adults last Thursday night for a concert featuring Yellowcard.
Yellowcard, a pop-punk and alternative rock band, was formed in 1997 in Jacksonville, Florida. (The members of the band met in high school, at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.)
Why has Yellowcard experienced such success as a band, despite its two year hiatus? Why did Yellowcard excel while other bands remain trapped in the confines of a parent’s garage? Yellowcard, unlike most other groups of its genre, features the use of the violin, which adds an unique element to the band’s style of music.
As I found out at the concert, the band’s violinist, Sean Michael Wellman, also composes the orchestration, which is then recorded and played over with live music during Yellowcard’s live performances.
The concert opened up with a performance by the band We Are The In Crowd, which was followed up with a set from The Wonder Years. After the opening acts, the audience was anxious and excited for the main act to appear. At this time, I will have to be honest and admit that I had no idea what to expect from this concert. I had only faint remembrances of Yellowcard from my awkward middle school years, when I used to rock out to the song “Ocean Avenue” with my best friend on the school bus. As an angsty teenager, I thought this song was created to directly address the difficulty of finding true love in middle school. I openly acknowledge that since those middle school years, I have not heard one new Yellowcard song. Since, I only listen to the song “Ocean Avenue” while running at the gym.
(You may be wondering then how I even ended up at this concert in the first place. One of my sorority sisters invited me, and, odd as it may seem because I did not know the band well, I will never pass up an opportunity to get off campus and explore Baltimore.)
As soon as Yellowcard came on stage, I was shocked to see that the band’s lead singer and guitarist, Ryan Key, looked exactly like he did from the music videos MTV aired in the early 2000s. The band brought a genuine energy and enthusiasm to the stage. The members seemed to feed off the audience’s energy as the show progressed. It was obvious to an audience member that Yellowcard treats each performance like it is their last, and does everything in their power to make sure their audience is having a good time.
People around me were banging their heads to the music, jumping and throwing their hands in the air and slamming into each other. The venue’s security guard had a difficult time trying to prevent audience members from attempting to crowd surf in order to make their way to the stage. The band members even kept repeating that this concert was one of their favorites on their entire tour! Although I am sure some artists say this just to maintain their fan base, I honestly felt that Yellowcard was being sincere. There was an odd energy in Rams Head Live that seemed to form a union between the audience and the band members.
Not to sound too corny or existential, but it was as if the audience’s devotion to the band was empowering the band to perform with as much dedication and power as they could muster as a way of thanking their devoted fans.
Yellowcard played a number of songs from their albums “Lights and Sounds” and “Southern Air.” I had never heard these songs before, found them upbeat and passionate — and definitely worth listening to. I was happy to see that Yellowcard had stayed true to its identity from my middle school years. The band also performed an encore, ending the concert with the song “Ocean Avenue,” which made the audience jump and sing along.
For me, this made the concert come full circle. I had learned about Yellowcard’s new music, and reminisced about singing their songs when I was younger. I walked out of Rams Head covered in a glistening layer of sweat and with ears ringing.
