Images: Yellowcard, Go Radio, Drive A November 16, 2011 at the Hard Rock Café on the Strip

The crowd went crazy at last week’s Yellowcard show when singer Ryan Key announced to the growing crowd at the Hard Rock Café on the Strip that, although this was the band’s third stop in Vegas this year, it was their first headlining show here since their hiatus. For much of the young crowd, it was likely their first time seeing the long-running pop punkers and the band was intent on making it as memorable as possible, playing an almost two-hour set to a well-receptive crowd.

Though a little older, (violinist Sean Mackin wisely refrained from his once-signature mid-show backflips), the band still packs a lot of energy into their set. Between classics like “Breathing” and “Rough Landing, Holly” and new material that included “For You, and Your Denial” and “See Me Smiling” the band goaded the audience into exploiting a “no moshing” loophole by creating a surging circle pit that tried to reach out to the edge of the floor. The biggest responses of the night came when the band played the three singles from their breakthrough Ocean Avenue, “Way Away,” “Only One,” and the show closing title track.Reaction was still positive but much more subdued for the abundance of tracks from the band’s most recent album,2011’s When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes. Key asked how many in the audience had picked up the disk yet and jokingly questioned why someone would come to a Yellowcard show before buying it. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the crowd simply hadn’t sampled it yet, though with how good the new songs sound live, I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the holdouts stopped by the merch table to pick up a copy on the way out.

Supporting Yellowcard were pop rockers Go Radio, whose sound is reminiscent of Jack’s Mannequin, and rockers Drive A, a highly energetic band that hopped on the show last minute after planned openers Every Avenue ran into vehicle troubles while en route to the show.  Drive A had a harder sound than the other bands on the bill, but the energy and charisma of frontman Bruno Mascolo, who continually goaded the audience into sing alongs and shout backs, was more than enough to quickly endear them to the crowd.

-Emily Matview

Photos by Tyler Newton | http://500px.com/spottedlens