All of Fitchburg came to see The Front Bottoms Thursday night at T.T. the Bears in Cambridge. Or at least that’s what some kid said to the drummer, Matt Uychich, outside the venue before the show. The crowd was young, rowdy, and so in love with The Front Bottoms. And did I mention they weren’t even headlining this show? It didn’t matter. Being in the middle of the lineup made all the energy magnetize to their performance.
The show sold out earlier that afternoon and there were people outside practically trying to sell their souls for access to The Front Bottom’s first show in the area in over half a year. I don’t think Uychich and Brian Sella, singer and guitarist, realize how much celebrity status some of their fans give them.
Bram, a kid from Fitchburg I met before the show, said he ran into the guys in a pizza joint earlier and was star struck. He really wanted them to play the song “Bathtub,” but when they cut it from the set, Sella got on the mic to say, “This song is for that kid who wanted us to play Bathtub. Sorry man. Here’s this song instead.” Needless to say, the kid literally shot up in the air in amazement (in the form of crowd surfing, to the security’s dismay).
The Front Bottoms’ set was constant energy. The crowd climbed on each other and the whole front row became a wall of people sitting on each other’s shoulders at one point. And a few brave souls continued to do so after a warning from the club.
The crowd was incredibly anxious as well. It had definitely been too long, in their opinion, since the last time The Front Bottoms were in town. When Sella mentioned he was out of beer, the crowd immediately started singing their song “The Beers,” and it took a whole verse to get the crowd to stop.
There is no other way to sing along to their songs than to yell them back at the stage. Sella’s lyrics cascade out of his mouth like a poetic conversation, and everyone else in the audience joins in. His vocals are more spoken word than melodies, but at a live show, it really becomes apparent that the melodies don’t matter. When lyrics are being sung at such a high volume, it’s hard to maintain the original melodies, so the crowd started coming up with their own.
Sella spent his last moments on stage urging his new mantra on the audience: “The party continues.” Unfortunately, almost half the crowd dispersed after The Front Bottoms’ set was over, despite their praise for the headliner, Cheap Girls. The kids had gotten what they came for and will spend the next few months building that energy back up for whenever The Front Bottoms come around again.
The Front Bottoms Interview 10-18-12 by iktrs
By: Deanna Archetto