As a longtime fan of Scary Kids Scaring Kids, I jumped at the chance to cover their Sacramento show Wednesday.
The Gilbert, Ariz.-based “scene metal” band made The Boardwalk in Orangevale a stop on its farewell tour.
Being a transplant to Sacramento from Arizona, I have had the opportunity to watch these musicians grow from playing local shows in their hometown to seeing them tour with music festivals and eventually pick up a record deal with Immortal/RCA in 2005 and go on to headline their own tours.
Scary Kids is a very talented and very diverse-sounding band with an eclectic style and a set list ranging from high energy to soft and melodic. I think that this is why it has such a broad following that blankets a multitude of scenes. Scary Kids Scaring Kids is one of those bands that sounds just as amazing live as in the studio, and this tour stop was no exception.
Opening for Scary Kids was an artist whose name is new to me. Midwest emcee Mod Sun was an interesting choice for the opening act, but his energy and crowd interaction seemed to fuse perfectly.
I was standing at the bar when I heard his first song. I couldn’t see the stage, so I had just assumed that there was another band on the stage and that its first song was some sort of a hip-hop cover. Well, the next song was another hip-hop track, and I noticed my friends and I were kind of bobbing our heads.
I moved over a bit to get a view of the stage, and all I saw was one very hyper and very excited emcee. I was genuinely interested and killed my beer so that I could make my way over to the stage.
Picture the lead singer of your favorite scene metal band: long, wiry hair, skinny jeans, tattoos, etc. Mod Sun was the last kid at the show who I would have expected to jump up on stage and rip the microphone to bits, but this guy was great!
The spastic emcee had the whole crowd in a stir, and all eyes were locked on him. His word play was beyond impressive, and just to prove that he wasn’t some sort of poseur, he invited the bassist and drummer from another band to come up on stage and give him an impromptu backing beat so that he could deliver a cunning, word-centric freestyle.
Well, he was actually very clever, very on-point and fed off of the attention of the crowd, using people in the audience as parts of his freshly written story. He showed a lot of love to Sacramento and paid his respects to Scary Kids, stating, "This Farewell Tour is for y’all!" He was right.
This tour was for the Scary Kids fans, and they did a great job of letting us all know it. Scary Kids Scaring Kids took the stage and delivered a set that I’m sure left every true fan of theirs leaving the venue with a smile.
They played songs from all of their albums, opening with a few of their harder tracks from “The City Sleeps In Flames,” and judging by the amount of people singing along in the crowd (yes, I was one of those people), I’d say that Sacramento has a deep-rooted love for these guys.
I have always loved the vibe they bring to the stage and the love that they put off onto the crowd. You can really feel it. I don’t exactly look the part of your average Scary Kids fan, but walking around the venue between sets, I met a lot of new people, added to my phone’s contacts and shared a few drinks with friends both new and old.
I attribute this vibe to the kind of positive energy that the band showers its fans with. People came to have a good time, and I assure you, good times were had. It’s almost tragic that a band with such a solid following is opting to end its career in spite of how well-loved it is. I suppose that if you are going to end on any note, a high note would be the obvious choice.
I’d like to wish the band members the best of luck in their future endeavors, and if by chance they are do a reunion tour, I hope that they know this fan, who has been there since the beginning and was there until the end, will of course also be back in full support.
Kudos to all of the staff at The Boardwalk for keeping the peace, keeping the drinks flowing and keeping the music loud and clear.
*Photos Courtesy Daniel @ www.danieldare.com
