Thirty-four shows in two months, and a thousand pounds of eyeliner and lip gloss; the seventh annual Sub City Take Action! tour recently came to its conclusion on 3/23. More than just an excuse to air out the vinyl vest and work on your best pout, the tour’s main goal is tour bring music fans together, teach them about the necessary and positive outcome of donating your time to good causes, and to help make a better world by introducing concepts of community activism. And, you know, TO EFFING RAWK.

Here are some pretty rad stats about the 2008 tour:

The Impact of the 2008 Take Action! Tour:
-Over $75,000 raised for Do Something which helps young people make a positive difference in the world - based on 10% of ticket revenue and additional tour related fund raising.
-Over 27,000 fans in 34 cities proved that the world can be made a better place one voice at a time
-Nearly 7,000 copies of the Take Action Volume 7 Compilation already sold
-Take Action Grants, empowered by the Hot Topic Foundation, MySpace Impact and Hopeless/Sub City Records, were awarded to 9 amazing young people who want to make change in their communities.

As we’ve discovered, the tour’s headliner Every Time I Die certainly bring the rock music, but I didnt’ know they actually care as well. Awwww…… Along with From First To Last, The Bled, August Burns Red, and The Human Abstract, the tour was by all accounts a rousing success. Cheers to Louis Posen and company, here’s to building positive change, a pair of ears at a time.

For more info:
www.subcity.net
www.takeactiontour.com
www.hopelessrecords.com/

As ETID’s vocalist Keith Buckley discussed with our very own Mike Kieran in Synthesis Digital, Every Time I Die knows how to throw a good party. (Actually, they discussed literature and life on the road…same thing, really.) Part of this includes making every person at the show feel like they’re a part of that show. (It also involves the ample use of cowbell.) Sometimes they just have to have every screaming kid in the audience up on stage to sing with them…

Now, sometimes the security at the venue isn’t quite ready to handle the rush of bodies to the stage. Kinda like what happened last week at The Warehouse as part of the Take Action tour. Thus far, unconfirmed reports of ETID’s show in Houston, TX on 3/6/08 include a near-riot when the band invited the crowds to join them on stage. Apparently, the security tried to stop the crowd and ended up briefly fighting members of Every Time I Die.

From Absolute Punk:

I’m sure I won’t be the first to report this, and hopefully someone else has more info, but tonight at the Take Action Tour during the last song (Ebolorama) of Every Time I Die’s set, Keith invited literally EVERYONE from the crowd on stage with him to sing. So, needless to say, after an invitation like that, the crowd went nuts and trampled over the barricades past the security guards onto the stage. It was absolute pure chaos on stage and in the crowd. One of the security guards at the venue (Warehouse Live) kept trying to hold kids back that were trying to get on stage, and the next thing I know, Jordan of ETID is being attacked by the aforementioned guard for letting them up. Keith aparently dropped the mic and rushed to his aid. After a couple seconds, the music stopped, and Jordan came back on stage, his guitar head completely snapped off. He kept flicking the guard off and spitting at him as he was leaving. Keith was bleeding, and disappeared backstage. The lights came on and the venue cued the background music, and all the kids on stage kinda scrambled off the stage slowly. Jordan and Andy came back out and were talking with kids in the crowd. I don’t have the entire story, but hopefully the band releases a statement on the altercation. This was the Take Action Tour, and I swear there was more negativity here than at most shows I’ve been to recently.

Surely the Security have their side of the story. In other news, good rock shows are nutz.

At first listen, Every Time I Die may not seem like much of a “literary” band. And while they’re certainly no Decemberists (some would say “thankfully they’re no Decemberists…“), singer Keith Buckley’s brain is a bit more interesting than your average hard rock/party all night vocalist.
Synthesis newbie Mike Kieran chatted with Buckley a few weeks ago, and during the interview they touched upon the subject of readin’ and writin’.

Have you read any good books lately?
I read this book God is Not Great, which I know a lot of people will not want to read just by the title, but it’s an amazing book about history and the hypocrisies that have evolved with it, and the argument of science versus religion.

Are there any other books that you’ve read that have really had a powerful message?
The biography of Andy Kaufman. His bio Lost in the Funhouse kinda changed the way that I look at public perception of characters; individuals that are in that situation where people either look up to or admire or hate them. That guy was in complete control of everything that he encountered. Everything. His personality, and the way that he understood his relationship with people was really inspiring. It’s really admirable to know there are people out there who are fucking insanely genius, that can do that. And it kinda made me jealous. I wish I had that ability to just understand exactly what and why people are saying about me and why they thought that. He had a million or so personalities, and he made every one of them entertaining.

Are you doing any kind of writing right now that doesn’t have to do with the band?
Yeah, in AP I review an ‘80s movie every month. It’s kinda hard on tour; I’m just reading instead of writing. But reading is the prep work for writing eventually, so when I get home is when I sit down and start writing stuff.

Which brings us to AP…no, not the news wire service, but the pop-punk magazine that is taking great strides to combat illiteracy by offering…free(ish) subscriptions to their informative magazine.

From the press release:

“Alternative Press and Every Time I Die have joined forces to help promote reading by offering fans free issues of the magazine. Right now, when fans buy this month’s Alternative Press magazine - featuring Every Time I Die on the cover - at Barnes and Noble, they can send in their receipt and receive a FREE six-month subscription to the mag!”

Just take a moment and savor the idea of how the Alternative Press promotes literacy.

I thought our boys over at AP just promoted questionable fashion choices, nauseating page design and cookie monster vocals.
But what am I talking about, at least they’re at Barnes and Noble….

Be sure to check out next month’s Synthesis Digital featuring an interview with Every Time I Die’s Keith Buckley.