Who would’ve thought that Dynamo in Eindhoven (NL) would sell out on a rainy Thursday evening. It was a pleasant surprise, and by 8 o’clock the venue was packed. However, the majority of the people were clearly there to see The Story So Far play, and opening act Life’s Too Short For Us couldn’t get the crowd going with their energetic Pop-Punk songs. With off-keys aplenty and not a lot of variation to the songs, the local band didn’t impress a whole lot.

The American Scene have been on tour with The Story So Far for a while now; first in the States and now in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe. Putting a label to their music is close to impossible. You could call it Pop-Punk, but that’d get you off too easily. As guitarist Chris Purtill pointed out in an interview before, “we’re just jamming”. And that’s that’s probably the best definition there is. The American Scene plays a mix of melodic yet spheric songs that portray emotion and stories. The band played a good show, yet took away a bit of the energy from the room. Check out this session they did for The Waiting Room:

When The Story So Far entered the stage and the first note hit, the crowd set off immediately. The band from Walnut Creek, California had a reputation to uphold after their great set at Groezrock Festival, not more than a month ago. Yet, they seemed to have no problems doing just that. From start to end the five guys kept up an impressively energetic performance, playing songs from their latest Billboard charting album What You Don’t See, and debut album Under Soil and Dirt. Kids were singing along to all songs, and stagediving like their lives depended on it. The Story So Far dazzles, both on record and when performing live on stage.

The Story So Far: Facebook / Twitter / Tumblr

Written by Tim van Reyswoud
Photos by Niels Davidse – check all pictures of the show here.