Images: Say Anything, Eisley, HRVRD, I the Mighty July 9, 2013 at the House of Blues

“Now let’s rip these fucking pants in half!”

Say Anything frontman Max Bemis’ cry rang across the House of Blues as the crowd nervously eyed the increasingly expanding rip in his skinny jeans. That exclamation was the lead in for what is arguably his band’s most popular song, the tale of love and sex during the holocaust “Alive with the Glory of Love.”

That song, from …Is a Real Boy, launched the band into the public consciousness in 2004 as the first single from their Doghouse Records debut. But while that record introduced Say Anything to the world; it certainly wasn’t their first release. After years of disowning their early material, the band recently decided to bring it all back into print with All My Friends Are Enemies: Early Rarities, a triple disk collection of all their pre-…Is a Real Boy material, and I couldn’t have been happier to be there to see them play some of those songs live. They kicked off their set with “Colourblind,” the first track from their actual debut, Baseball, which is one of the only tracks from that record that they ever play live. It got the crowd singing along right from the start, as did other early songs like “Baseball, But Better,” a punked up, full-band version of “The Presidential Suite” and a wistful “Peace Out.”

Between songs, Bemis talked about his Vegas experiences, claiming that the reason they hadn’t been to Vegas in so long is because guitarist/keyboardist Parker Case (formerly of JamisonParker) was in trouble with the mob. Bemis observed that it appears that Cirque de Soleil has since overtaken the mob as Vegas’ owners, (he also promised us a Siegfried and Roy-esq finale with a tiger which never materialized). One of the most heartwarming moments of the night came when Max’s wife Sherri DuPree-Bemis, vocalist of show opener Eisley, came out on stage with their five month old daughter Lucy. She was decked out in big noise canceling headphones and was all smiles for the Vegas crowd. She was handed off backstage while her mother went on to sing her part of Say Anything’s “Cemetery.”

Speaking of Eisley, the indie rock band from Tyler, Texas opened the show to what was a sizeable crowd by this point. Their live set is always very mellow but the audience was really receptive to them and their beautiful harmonies sounded even better live than they do on the records. I don’t think the band has played here since they opened for New Found Glory and Reggie and the Full Effect on the same stage in 2005 and, either way, it has been that long since I’ve seen them so I was particularly excited to hear newer cuts like “Mr. Moon” from 2011’s The Valley and “Drink the Water” from this year’s Currents live.

The first two bands of the night were Say Anything’s Equal Vision Records labelmates HRVRD and I the Mighty. HRVRD played a blend of prog rock and post-hardcore that reminded me a lot of bands like Mandala-era RX Bandits and Circa Survive. Their set ended with frontman Jesse Clasen, who also contributed keys and horns at different points in the set, all the way down in the middle of the fast-growing HOB floor. Running straight to the show from my day job, I unfortunately missed most of I the Mighty’s set, but I liked what I saw, with the band also reminding me of Circa Survive with a touch of mid-period Brand New.

-Emily Matview | https://www.flickr.com/photos/holdfastnow/