Dashboard Confessional

Dashboard Confessional at the Glass House in Pomona, CA on January 22, 2012

Last night, Chris Carrabba aka Dashboard Confessional played a solo acoustic set at the Glass House in Pomona. For the longest time, I do not recall seeing anything like this. The crowd response was absolutely phenomenal. . . Opening band Barcelona got off to a good start, warming up the near-capacity house. Though it was safe to say that much of the fans were there for Dashboard, the band was well-received and not just by those who were also fans of Barcelona. It was some fun times, down to the off-key singing heard towards the back.

I realized soon after stepping out of the pit, that though there was a set list taped to the stage floor, Carrabba didn’t necessarily follow the list. I speculated that perhaps he was going out of order. He soon noted to the crowd that he didn‘t play some of those tracks. Even so, the night’s set was no worse for wear. His voice was spot on, and it was amazing to see how hard he throws himself into the overall performance of each song. What really struck me were the throngs of dedicated fans. It wasn’t so much that they were some of the nicest people to come across. Before the set, I spoke with a young lady in the front. She held a sign that read, “ You’re my Paul McCartney.”. She explained that what The Beatles were to her mom, was Chris Carrabba to her. From the looks and sound of the rest of the night, I think the same sentiment rings true to a lot of fans in attendance. It was almost cult-like. At one point the singer quipped that perhaps he should have everybody come and sing on the next record. For every moment that he would pause in his playing and singing, the crowd would pick up where his voice trailed off. It was uncanny how they practically knew the words to almost all the songs. All in all, a great show. It would be hard to dispute that these are the best kind of fans an artist can have.