{"id":4006,"date":"2019-03-18T13:48:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T18:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=4006"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:13:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:13:35","slug":"review-state-champs-house-of-blues-3-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/03\/18\/review-state-champs-house-of-blues-3-9\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: State Champs @ House of Blues 3\/9"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ali Audet<\/em><\/p>\n

State Champs brought their Living Proof tour to Boston\u2019s House of Blues on Saturday, March 9th. The tour is in support of their third studio album, Living Proof<\/em>, released last June. Not only was this a sold out show, but it was also the largest headlining show the band has ever played.<\/p>\n

They opened the show with Living Proof\u2019s \u201cCriminal\u201d and \u201cFrozen,\u201d the first of nine songs on the setlist selected from the album. But just because they\u2019re on the Living Proof tour doesn\u2019t mean they overlooked their old material. They followed these two tracks with \u201cLosing Myself\u201d and \u201cShape Up,\u201d two crowd-favorite sing-a-longs from their 2015 album Around the World and Back<\/em>. It\u2019s refreshing to see a band like State Champs give their older material as much respect and playtime as their newer material, especially on a tour in support of a new album. As State Champs lead singer Derek Discanio said, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be one of those bands who won\u2019t play their old [songs].\u201d<\/p>\n

State Champs absolutely lived up to this sentiment. The night\u2019s setlist included four songs from their first album, The Finer Things<\/em>: \u201cHard to Please,\u201d \u201cRemedy,\u201d \u201cEasy Enough,\u201d and \u201cSimple Existence.\u201d These songs were especially powerful, as the band remarked on the fact that in 2019, The Finer Things<\/em> turned five years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s starting kindergarten,\u201d joked Tyler Szalkowski, the bands lead guitarist.<\/p>\n

A particularly poignant moment came about halfway through State Champs\u2019 set. Every member of the band left the stage except for Discanio, who grabbed an acoustic guitar for a rendition of \u201cIf I\u2019m Lucky,\u201d from 2014\u2019s The Acoustic Things<\/em>. It was a well-needed mellow moment to break up the otherwise high energy set.<\/p>\n

The second half of the set saw four more songs from Living Proof: \u201cOur Time to Go,\u201d \u201cSafe Haven,\u201d \u201cSomething About You,\u201d and \u201cDead and Gone.\u201d Other selections included Around the World and Back\u2019s \u201cPerfect Score\u201d and \u201cAll You Are is History\u201d.<\/p>\n

Something State Champs did particularly well on the Living Proof tour is pack their setlist full of music. There was very little banter or long-winded stories from the band, which left room for them to play a breadth of music from their catalog. Yet this didn\u2019t take away from the bands crowd interaction. Discanio remarked about their time playing in Boston, calling it State Champs\u2019 \u201csecond home.\u201d The city\u2019s close proximity to State Champs\u2019 hometown of Albany, NY means it was a key city for the band to play shows in during their earlier years.<\/p>\n

The main set ended with \u201cDead and Gone,\u201d the lead single from Living Proof<\/em>. After a short encore, the band returned to play their two biggest hits in an encore: The Finer Things<\/em>\u2019 \u201cElevated\u201d and Around the World and Back<\/em>\u2019s \u201cSecrets.\u201d To State Champs\u2019 credit, these songs had the most energy of the whole set. They were both exciting and engaging and rounded out the night perfectly.<\/p>\n

Overall, State Champs does a phenomenal job of translating their music from album to stage. Living Proof<\/em> tracks like \u201cMine is Gold\u201d and \u201cLightning\u201d may have even sounded better live than they do on the record. The band packs a serious punch with their live set, and when coupled with the raw energy of a sold out venue and a crowd of adoring fans, the experience is electrifying. It is clear that with every moment that passes, State Champs just keeps getting better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ali Audet State Champs brought their Living Proof tour to Boston\u2019s House of Blues on Saturday, March 9th. The tour is in support of their third studio album, Living Proof, released last June. Not only was this a sold out show, but it was also the largest headlining show the band has ever played. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[202,466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4009,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4006\/revisions\/4009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}