Saturday night The Alternate Routes performed at Daniel Street along with City Streets Country Roads and The Candles. City Streets Country Roads were up first, to warm up the small crowd who had gotten to the venue early (most likely to make sure that they got a decent parking spot!) They got major bonus points because aside from saying who they were (you would be surprised how many opening acts forget to ever mention the band’s name!) they also mentioned the titles of a few of their songs – they played Storms In, Easier Said Than Done, among others and they noted that several of the songs were new. Their set started off strong but as more and more people continued to show up I kind of lost my attention span for them.
After CSCR’s set, we got bumped from our table because they had to put the bands equipment where we were! We moved up to the front a bit and cased out a spot that would be decent for the Alternate Routes set. Then it was time for The Candles. I couldn’t really see most of their set due to people standing in front of me but they seemed to be really in to it and every now and then I caught a glimpse of one of the guitarists jumping around on stage. I was able to watch their entire last song through a camera view finder behind held by a woman in front of me, which was kind of neat.
Then it was time for The Alternate Routes! We snagged a spot right up front and waited for them to take the stage. There might have been some technical difficulties or something going on because there seemed to be a longer gap than usual in getting them ready to go and even the lead singer, Tim made a comment about being ready to get up there and play some music! It took me about halfway through their set to realize a) it had been about 2 years since I’ve last seen them and b) I’ve never seen them headline before.
The show was GREAT. (With the exception of the white light that shined right in to my eyes every now and then. Maybe I should keep sunglasses on me at all times because this seems to be happening to me a lot lately!) Even one of the guys behind me said “Man, they are really great tonight!” Of course, I have no other headlining shows to compare anything to but it was one of the most fun shows I have been to in a while! The perfect amount of sing a longs too! (And my cousin got put in charge of the fog machine. Which was going fine until she “broke” it… then one of the venue guys filled it back up with whatever it needed to make the fog, but it still wasn’t working. Then randomly in the middle of a song it started back up again and we all cheered!)
One of my cousins had never seen The Alternate Routes before and had heard about the infamous toolbox used during The Future Is Nothing New. When Tim picked it up and we heard nothing, we all just kind of looked at each other like “OH NO!” Some wires on stage were unplugged and plugged back in – still nothing. Tim took the toolbox apart, still nothing! Finally it started working and the song was able to be finished with the full effect of the tool box! whew! Tim also made a comment about how “everyone wants to be at the show where the tool box breaks!”
I really need to start memorizing song titles again. I used to when I was younger, but at some point I gave up on it. Probably when music became more digital and I stopped sitting on my bed listening to my discman with the CD in my hand reading off the lyrics as the songs played. Also when I started listening in my car – it was easy to memorize lyrics because of the repetition of listening to it on car ride after car ride but if the song isn’t titled something incredibly obvious from the chorus I am clueless as to what it is called!
Photos and a partial setlist are under the cut 🙂
I didn’t keep a setlist for this show – but going through their discography I am fairly certain the following were performed:
Rocking Chair
Kiss Me
Tell Me Your Name
Ordinary
Asked You Twice
The Future Is Nothing New
Carry Me Home x2
Just The Same
…and obviously way more than that.