By By Kimberly Pollock
Long Island’s breakout emo band, Straylight Run, kicked off Hofstra’s concert season last Friday.
On My Signal, an up-and-coming band from Brooklyn, opened the show, dedicating one of their songs to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, saying it was “a song about loss.” Their set also included a cover of The Postal Service’s “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.” The general response from the crowd was less than exceptional, but the band had a lot of energy and got the crowd ready for the headlining act.
Straylight Run opened with “Mistakes We Knew We Were Making,” a track from their self-titled debut. During their set, they played one of their demos, “A Slow Descent,” as well as “Costello,” the bonus track from their album. Michelle Nolan, the vocalist’s sister, took over lead vocals for the third song, “Toolsheds And Hot Tubs,” adding a little variety into the mix. “Dignity and Money” started off the acoustic part of the band’s set; Michelle’s harmonica playing gave the song a folky sound that got the crowd moving. She took center stage to sing “Now It’s Done,” the second acoustic song performed. Next was “Your Name Here (Sunrise Highway),” performed solo and acoustically by John, Straylight Run’s lead vocalist and co-guitar and piano player. The slow and touching song earned a great response from the crowd.
The band picked the beat back up with “The Tension and the Terror” and closed the show with “Existentialism on Prom Night,” the single from their album. “Existentialism On Prom Night,” as well as “Another Word for Desperate” and “Sympathy for the Martyr,” which the band played earlier in the set, got the best responses from the crowd.
Those who knew “Another Word” sang and danced along, while those who didn’t still got into it, swaying their hips and bobbing their heads to the beat. The majority of those who nodded along throughout the show sang along (so loudly that it was hard to separate John Nolan’s voice from those of some of the guys in the crowd) to “Existentialism On Prom Night.” Staylight Run closed the show with a lot of energy and enthusiasm.
To keep the show entertaining, John Nolan chit-chatted with members of the audience in between songs, cracking jokes and even poking fun at himself for not even attending college.
“I never went to college. Now I get to sit up here and have college students watch me, like I’m some kind of a lab rat,” he exclaimed, though the jovial and playful tone in his voice gave away the fact that he was joking around. The crowd at the show was small, which made the concert a lot more intimate, and therefore a lot more enjoyable.
Straylight Run is headlining at Bucknell University in October and two shows in November in New York City at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square, supporting Simple Plan along with the Plain White T’s. The band is releasing a six-song EP titled Prepare To Be Wrong on Oct. 2 and a DVD of their show at the Patchogue Theatre is due out in November.