Article + photos originally published
by Get Some Magazine in November, 2017
On the fourth night of their In Defense anniversary tour, Say Anything played to a sold out crowd at The Troubadour. Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio opened up the show with an acoustic solo set, he even threw in a few Alkaline Trio tracks. Andriano had some fun with the crowd, during “Mercy Me” he sang Matt Skiba’s part and had the crowd sing his usual part with the promise of picking up “any slack”.
Say Anything played both In Defense of the Genre Disc 2 and Is A Real Boy in entirety.
Max’s wife, Sherri DuPree-Bemis (of Eisley), daughter, dad and brother were in attendance and some of the most poignant moments of the show were when he sang to his family watching from a booth above the crowd. Beamis was beaming, arms outstretched as he wailed out the lyrics to Plea.
The intimacy of the venue was put to good use. Max got down on his knees to sing to the crowd up close and personal. He embraced a fan, locked his arm around him, as the two sang forehead to forehead. The band as a whole was playful in their interaction with the audience. Max flew from one end of the tiny stage to the the other and bantered with the crowd, talking like old friends.
For the finale, Max was alone on stage with a guitar for A Walk Through Hell. He prefaced it by thanking the crowd “I don’t deserve this”, then laughed at himself for the way it sounded. The crowd went crazy, and his genuine gratitude was obvious. Max dedicated the song to his wife, dad, and brother as he began to strum. Early into the song, there was a sound malfunction, Max tried to play through it but it was too distracting. “I can’t do it” he laughed, and paused singing while the guitar was being tended to, but the crowd kept going. The guitar was ditched and Max joined them again, the entire song done a cappella by Max and the entire Troubadour in a soul stirring, core shaking rendition of A Walk Through Hell without missing a beat. A perfect ending to a wild and intimate set.
Catch Dan Andriano on the two remaining SoCal dates @ The Observatory November 30th + December 1st. Say Anything will be touring through January 31st with different special guests for each leg of the tour.
Angel Melanson 