The Sandspur

Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment

After waiting almost an hour on the floor of Firestone from the time doors opened to the sold out Gym Class Heroes concert for the
music to begin, finally the music started up. Gym Class Heroes was heading the Daryl Hall For President Tour, with K.OS, POS, and RX Bandits.

I'll admit, when we first got there, I was a little skeptic. The line to get in was full of the 14-17 year old crowd, mainly girls, giggling and wearing t-shirts with lyrics written across in puffy paint and iron on pictures of Travis, the lead singer of Gym Class Heroes, many of these girls oblivious to the fact that As Cruel As School Children was not Gym Class Heroes' first CD.

The first band to play, K.OS, had a decent set. They had the disadvantage of few people knowing who they were. Their music was mainly rock, but every once in a while, you heard a bit of a jazz or swing sound. It took a while to get the crowd going since it was a very generic sound at first, but as they switched it up a bit, the crowd got more into it. The set was short, and the transaction between K.OS and POS took far too
long to set up.

Now, I'm not very much of a rap or hip-hop fan. But when POS came out on stage and started rapping, I was hooked. His lyrics
that bounced back and forth from the seriousness of gang shootings to the funnier, lighter lyrics had me going.

He got the crowd into his music and put on an amazing set. At one point, he had everyone going with their hands in the air and without missing a beat he rapped into the mic "For everyone whose not really listening, throw your hands in the air!" As I looked around at the hands still in the air, you could hear laughter as hands quickly came down.

RX Bandits came on next. Now for those of you familiar with RX Bandits, you know how
often their music changes from ska to a more pop rock sound. I wish they'd make up their minds. But whatever, as their set came on, the entire floor was sent into a flurry. The crowd moved forward, squeezing us into each other.

As I found my way to the pit, the trumpet blasted and I found myself having some loser trying to get his cheap thrills in attempt
to feel me up. That's when a girl has just got to throw a punch.

Their all ska set was awesome, although through the hollering and screams, it was hard to actually catch any of their music.
The crowd was more riled up during RX Bandits than any of the other sets, including the headlining band.

As the set ended, and the 20 minutes between RX Bandits and Gym Class Heroes breaking down
and setting up, you could feel an excitement building.

For all those people who had come out to the show strictly because they're caught up in the now pop sensation Gym Class Heroes,
their time had come. The screams were deafening as Travis came to the stage. They put on a great set, playing both music off their old CD as well as newer music.

Travis was all over the stage giving the crowd a taste of his lyrical madness. As their set came to a close, they played everyone's favorite, Cupid's Chokehold,
though thankfully not their last song. The light show itself was awesome, but with the beats of Gym Class Heroes, the show was
amazing.

As the crowd screamed "One more song!" after Travis had left the stage, he came out on
the stairs over the bar and gave an awesome last song performance of Clothes Off ! that left the crowd with an intense satisfaction.

It was an awesome show all together, definitely one of the best shows I've been to for a couple years.

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