ACE ENDERS @ The Balcony

I went up to the Balcony @ the Trocadero on Wednesday, August 15th to see Ace Enders, former lead singer of The Early November, on his first solo tour under the monicker Ace Ender & A Million Different People. Opening for Ace were Pete Nischt, the first artist signed to Ace's Regular Music label, and Paper Rival, straight outta Nashville. This is my biased review of the show, I'm hopefully going to complete a formal review of the show tomorrow and probably post it on AbsolutePunk.net.

I arrived at the Balcony at 7PM, doors had opened at 6PM and the show was sold out so by the time I climbed the steps up to the venue, the place was packed and no band had even gone on yet. So I immediately made my way to the bar, grabbed a quick Yeungling and then went back in to catch the beginning of Pete Nischt's set. First let me talk about the crowd at the show tonight. Like usual, it consisted of high school girls with big hair, the usual scene kids who need to be seen, and an odd mix of some surfer dude preppy fucks. The crowd can be summed up by an encounter that this one girl had with Ace Enders. It wasn't even an encounter. As we're standing there waiting for them to set up the equipment for one of the bands, Ace just casually walks by, I notice everyone around me just seem to tense up, possibly there were some jaws dropping. After he passes, I watch this girl grab her cell phone and text a message that begins, "OMG Ace Enders just walked by me..." That sums up the crowd. Who gives a fuck if some guy from a band walks by you? It happens all the time. The only encounter I can remember from all of the shows I've attended was the time Tristan was tying his shoe and Kenny from The Starting Line tripped on him and Kenny said he was sorry. For some odd reason we found that hilarious and always tend to reference it in various conversations...

But anyway, the opening act was Pete Nischt, a self-described pop folk-rock singer song writer who's CD happened to be released this past Tuesday. His music kind of reminded me of John Mayer and his bassist was the spitting image of my friend Joe Julien if he wore glasses. The music was alright and Pete did something interesting with his acoustic guitar during the bridge of one of his songs - he sang into the accoustic. It was an intriguing effect to his voice. Very innovative I guess.

The second band was Paper Rival and it seemed to take them forever to get everything set up for their set. They seemed to be in a pissy mood from something that happened to them earlier in the day and that's not something you want to carry over onto your stage performance. And their lead singer seemed to be an asshole, but he seemed pretty cool after their set when I was talking to him over at their merch table. But once they went into their first song, the music was really good. The guitars seemed to have an effect similar to the one that The Killers use on their guitars and it gave them an atomospheric feel. And the singer's voice was pretty versatle. I bought their EP cd and listened to it on my way home and it was pretty amazing. According to the free stickers they were handing out, their first full length album will be out sometime this fall so keep an eye out. That's Paper Rival.

Finally, the closer, Ace Enders entered the stage with his accoustic. It was a family affair on stage, with his brother Dan playing bass, and his wife manning the controls on the iPod. As soon as the set began, it seemed like everyone in the audience had their cameras out snapping shots. I even managed to take a picture with my phone, although it looks pretty crappy as you can see at the top of this post. The show ended up being one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences as the mood of the show was very laid back and casual. Ace didn't even have a set list, he was taking requests from the crowd and he even had some of the lyrics for his new songs written on some paper plates. He ended up playing a good mix of Early November songs, I can Make a Mess Like Nobody Else songs (his 1st side project), and new songs that may potentially be on his first release. Ace spent a lot of time in between songs, joking with the crowd, and interacting one-on-one with the people in the crowd. Highlight of the show had to be when he brought some kid out of the crowd to help him sing "1000 Times a Day" because he was having trouble remembering the lyrics towards the end of the song. The set ended with one of my favorite Early November songs, "Ever So Sweet", ironically a bittersweet ending to the show. He ended up playing between 8-10 songs and made the declaration that this tour would probably be the last time he would ever play Early November songs, which was highly disappointing. So I recommend getting tickets to the second show that was added at the Troc on Saturday, August 18th. It may be the last time you'll see Early November songs performed and you'll get to experience a highly intimate engagement. Can't wait for the new record to come out.