The Sweet Brag tour made a quick stop in Philadelphia last night. This is the tour that includes anti-materialistic band The Devil Wears Prada, Florida's own A Day To Remember, Sky Eats Airplane, and Emarosa. I had no idea what to expect going to the show, and in many ways, the show exceeded those non-expectations.

First off, I am not used to a show starting at 6pm. I was bitching the whole time before the show about the strange start time. "How can working professionals make it to a show at 6pm?" "Aren't these bands sympathetic to people who have to work?" The answers resided in the rows of fans standing outside.

As we made our way to the back of the line there was just rows and columns of teenagers — none seemed to be over the age of 17. That explains the start time. The kids are done school by 3pm and ready to rock by 6 pm. The show was also over at the early time of 10 pm. I can't remember, in my 12 years of concert going, a show that ended before 11 pm.

For those looking for timing of the show, it is the following:

Doors - 6pm
Emarosa - 6:30-6:50
Sky Eats Airplane 7:10-7:45
A Day To Remember 8-8:45
The Devil Wears Prada 9:10-10

As we were standing in line a nice gentleman needed a dollar for his seemingly fake dimes. Being a sucker for a scam, I gave him a dollar in exchange for his fake dimes. Because of my generosity, he decided to talk to us about the show we were seeing and asked who was playing. I told him The Devil Wears Prada, which received snickering and huffing from the teens around me. "What is the Devil Wears Prada, not the headliner?" No one answered because by that point I had outed myself as an uncool mega Wentz. Damn kids!

The nice man went on to booze it up and we shuffled closer to the venue. We finally got into the venue about a minute before the first band Emarosa took the stage. Being a post-hardcore punk band means down-tuned guitars drowned out by lots of bass and drums with screaming vocals during the verses and melodic singing during the chorus. I liken it to rap where you forget about the terrible music during the verses just for that catchy hooky chorus.

Emarosa had a great following and the crowd seemed to be into them from the start. Being an uncool mega Wentz I had to ask the hip teens who Emarosa was. "Oh dude that's Jonny Craig from Dance Gavin Dance, he really helped transform this band into what it is today."

The next band was called Sky Eats Airplane. They were ok, but judging by the crowd, they didn't have the following that Emarosa had...at least in Philadelphia. The band had more detuned guitars, louder distorted bass, and pounding/driving drums. I enjoyed Travis Orbin on the drums. I found his drumming to be the best out of all four bands on the bill.

A Day To Remember was the band everyone was there to see. From chord one, the reaction to the band was amazing. A Day To Remember was clearly the reason everyone was there and the reason why the kids outside snickered when I said The Devil Wears Prada was the headliner. I have been deafened by Motorhead twice in my life, but nothing compares to the screams of excitement by 400 teenage girls. My ears are still ringing from the shrill squeals of delight when A Day To Remember appeared on stage.

The band ripped through their first three songs and then I got pushed out of the photographers area and squished to the side of the stage. I couldn't see the band's live performance at all because the Trocadero was packed full. There was no room to move and whenever a pit broke out, it moved the entire bottom area of the Troc. Everyone felt the ripples from the pits.

Speaking of the pits, I have been to Ozzfest and Warped tour and A Day To Remember's pits are far more impressive. They are organized cyclones of swirling teen mass. Bodies colliding and bouncing around in controlled chaos. Each pit had a black hole like effect on the surrounding teens - sucking teens into it's frenzy and spitting them out like cum from a hooker's mouth, wet, dirty, and changed forever. Noone seemed to mind either. They danced, moshed, sang, and followed their idols as if they were the Israelites leaving Egypt.

Since I can't attest to the live stage show because I couldn't see it due to my sardine impression stage left. But, the band sounded amazing. Jeremy Mckinnon's vocals were clear (even his hardcore screaming), the band was tight, rehearsed, and had excellent pacing through the songs.

Another amazing testament to this band's popularity, they just released their album Homesick on Feb 2, 2009 and everyone knew the words from the album. That is a month and half after it's release and these kids knew the lyrics by heart. An impressive feat when established bands are struggling.

The Devil Wears Prada had to follow up A Day to Remember, but it just wasn't as energetic. This may have been because 1/3 of the crowd left after A Day to Remember. The Devil Wears Prada had a good number of people singing along with their tunes, but the energy from the crowd just wasn't there. It is a shame, because they are a good band, but last night in Philadelphia they were second best.

If you are a fan of the genre these are four up and coming bands that shouldn't be missed. If you are not a fan of the bands or the genres, at least pick up A Day to Remember's album Homesick and see if changes your mind. If it doesn't send all refund requests here:

We Don't Care
24 Wettner Corporation BLVD
Suite# This address is fake
Wilmington, DE 19010.

Here are the pictures of the band performing. As with all our pics, you can click any of them to enlarge them. Some are a bit blurry, but that was because I was dodging beach balls, bouncers, and sweaty crowd surfers. Damn I missed the alliteration there. Beach balls, bouncers and bitches.