End of Tour

Alas, all good things must come to an end. And this "Appetite For Construction Tour" was a very good thing! With over $64,000 raised for Habitat For Humanity, we have to pat ourselves on the back (at least this time).

Switchfoot, Relient K, Ruth, Thanks for the good times. Thanks for doing something good for this world, for the communities. Thanks for the rock, and the music that so inspires us.

what a great tour! Merry early Christmas guys...

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Jon just put up a blog celebrating this tour.

"among friends"

"hey party people...

ruth and relient K have have been amazing touring friends!

thanks to everyone who came out to sing along with the foot... It was one of my favorite tours ever.

and I'm glad people are digging the tunes. I've heard from a lot of folks who found out about the songs from their friend. That is, in fact, the dream of mine for these tunes. In my opinion it's the only way this type of music should be passed along: from friend to friend- it means a lot to me that you folks are digging it, and thanks for passing it on!

peace,
jon"

Ahh... the grassroots! keep spreading the love everyone! These tunes deserve it.

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Site News

-Now that tour's over, i might have some time to finish up my "Dare You to Move" essay and Jon's Fall EP review. Look out for those.

-If you have any of your own personal stories, articles, concert reviews, album reviews, or anything else that'd you like to see on the blog, send em in to us! email: wereawakening@yahoo.com. I'd love to see what everyone else has to offer!

peace friends

UC Irvine Show Pt. 2: Switchfoot brings the Rock!

Pt. 2 (for Pt. 1 of this review, go to this post)

After about half an hour of stage prep work (after all, this was the MAIN attraction of the night), it was time. The lights dimmed as the band took the stage, to veritably thunderous applause. You could just feel the atmosphere shift, from the poppy, feel-good of RK and Ruth to the down-dirty rock show feel of Switchfoot’s set.



The band came out and played the opening riffs of “Meant to Live,” with Jon Foreman already in a climbing mood, rockin’ out on one of the boxes in front of the crowd barrier. See picture below:



With that teaser, they began to play “Oh! Gravity.” to the cheers of many in the crowd. Personally, it seems more of an obligatory song at this point than anything else, as it was a single, and is the theme song of the popular MTV show “Life of Ryan Sheckler.” The guys did play it with all they got though. A few minutes after the final chords of “Gravity.”, the unmistakable riffs of “Stars” could be heard. Great energy, once again.

They played through the rest of their set with equal energy, equal reckless abandon (especially on Jon’s part), and just pure joy. Notables were the new mash-up version of “Gone/Crazy In Love,” which was pretty entertaining, to say the least.


(American Dream Freeze)

After most of this first part of the set, the band began to settle into a more profound energy. Yes, hits like “Stars”, “This Is Your Life”, and “Gone”, as well as “American Dream” were filled with energy and crowd support, but the night began to turn when Switchfoot played “Dirty Second Hands.” I’d already heard this song live, but it was just as amazing watching it again. Dedicating the song to the thrift stores across America, Jon ranted and raved through the song, singing “here’s the face of everything the breaks you down… are you really as tough as you think?” The raw tenacity and emotion put into this song really set the tone for the rest of the song, and the rest of the evening, especially when Jon pulled one of the drummer Chad Butler’s cymbals and pounded it to oblivion during the rockin’ interlude. Guitarist Drew Shirley’s skillful guitar work shone brightly here, just as brightly as the breath-taking strobe lighting that ensued during Jon’s massacre of the cymbal.

But the song did come to an end, sadly. But shifting from the raging wail of “Dirty,” Chad began to play the drum intro to “We Are One Tonight.” Jon introduced the song as a rock-show song; back as a little kid in San Diego, he felt the connection, at least for one night between perfect strangers that can be had at a rock show. “But if this is a song about unity, then it’s a song about a fight… a fight!” he declared. From the anthemic chorus “We are one tonight, and we’re singing it out” to the slow interludal “slow this evening down, slow it down, slow it down…” ineterspersed with words from “Shadow Proves the Sunshine”, the song bred in many of us that night that rock show feel. We truly were one, singing out as one voice!

That feeling continued, when Jon welcomed to the stage “the Rrrrruth’s, and the Rrrrelient K’s, ladies and gentlemen!” to play the tour song, “Rebuild.” Jon talked about how in the wake of the fires in San Diego, and the fires that consumed Relient K’s tour bus earlier this summer, the song took on a new meaning for him. Then the song commenced, with every single band member from all three bands having fun and singing together, “oh way oh, we’re the regeneration…” It was truly fun to see all the guys on stage just having a good time.

“On Fire” introduced, for the first time in the set, a calm, introspective, yet uniting song. The distinctive keys of Jerome Fontamillas’ piano and Jon’s celloist friend Keith Tutt setting the tone, Jon went full-effort into this song, even going out into the crowd, as is his habit. After yeahhaahhaahing the song out there for awhile with “one big family,” Jon called up the band’s latest hit “Awakening” by saying, “you’re gonna help us start this off!”



This was the most fun I think of the whole set. Almost everyone was jumping, singing “Here we are now with the falling sky and the rain… WE’RE AWAKENING!!!” This song has meant a lot to me since I first heard it, and singing it with a thousand other people makes it even more impactful. Fun stuff.

“Meant to Live” began slow, with Jon talking about how “we breathe in, we breathe out… and nothing happens! This can’t be what these gifts were given to us for… every breath is a gift.” Then, before we know it, “We were meant to live…” was echoing off the rafters of Bren in a very U2 fashion, and the teaser we heard at the beginning of the set was completed with the full song.

The funny thing is, at the end of this song, streams of people were leaving, thinking the show was over. After all, the guys were off the stage, the place was dark… but wait! Why is this crazy kid yelling “It’s not over!! It’s NOT OVER!!!” Maybe we should stay…? That crazy kid was yours truly, yelling at the people passing by, pleading with them not to leave. Haha. That was fun. Anyways, Keith the celloist and Jon returned to stage, to play a beautiful rendition of A Walk to Remember hit “Only Hope.” Hearing it live gets me every time. Beautiful. Then, the rest of the band returned as well, and they drummed, strummed, played, and wailed “Dare You to Move,” a powerful ending to a powerful night…

Setlist
1. Oh! Gravity.
2. Stars
3. This Is Your Life
4. Gone/Crazy In Love mash-up
5. American Dream
6. Dirty Second Hands
7. We Are One Tonight
8. Rebuild
9. On Fire
10. Awakening
11. Meant to Live

Encore
12. Only Hope
13. Dare You to Move

Go Here to see hi-quality photos from Jered Scott. Very cool!

UC Irvine Show Review Pt. 1

When: November 27, 2007
Where: UC Irvine's Bren Events Center
Who: rock bands Switchfoot, Relient K, and Ruth

My show experience began long before the actual show; it began with the sad disappointment of finding the floor tickets for the Bren Events Center in UCI all sold out. And this happening just two or three days of pre-sale closing! I consider this one of those “beautiful letdown” moments; Although I was bummed at missing out on floor seats, I was pretty stoked that tickets were selling out that fast! After overcoming the initial despair and said letdown, I quickly accosted my mom, and we got ourselves tickets for section 120. Little did I know that we had acquired seats in the uppermost row, the “nosebleeds” of UCI’s Bren Events Center. Since this was a relatively small basketball gym however, it wasn’t too much of a problem. I recruited my good friend Jason to come with me to the show, and his mom finally said yes. So we were off!

We got to Bren at around 6:30ish, and we wandered around, and I bought the bootleg/tour program thing, and finally got the Photobook. Needless to say, it’s awesome. I’m sorry… it really is…

7:00 came, and Ruth took the stage for a solid 4-song set. The only song I knew by them is “You Are,” but the rest were pretty solid too. I think they’ll do well in the future. At this point, the floor area was looking about half-full…


After the usual stagework in between sets, Relient K took the stage, to less-than-thunderous applause. I was surprised at how little of the people there actually knew any of their songs. I mean, this was the band that was on MTV a few years ago. Then I realized that the culprit could verily be our Orange County Christian radio station, KFSH, who happens to never play Relient K, and only play Switchfoot’s older material sporadically. They’re playlist consists of 10-year old Christian songs and regurgitated tunes from days past. Anyways, that’s my theory. Enough on that.

Relient K did put on a pretty sweet show, with Matt Thiessen consistently switching between keys and Guitar. The set started with “I So Hate Consequences,” with the primal intro “I’m good good good to go! I’m good good good to go…!” They blazed quickly through some of their other songs, including 2005’s hit “Be My Escape” and even covered “Head Over Heels” by Tears For Fears before segueing into their own 80’s inspired tune, “In Love With the 80’s.” At some point, the lights went out, and the stage crew brought out an inflatable igloo, all while “Christmas Time Is Here” was playing in the background. Interesting, but painfully cheesy. Once the new igloo was set up, Thiessen heartily greeted the new inflatable polar bear sitting next to the igloo, then introduced the tune “Sleigh Ride” off the band’s brand new “Let It Snow…Let It Reindeer” Christmas record. To top this off, the stage rafters began spraying out “snow.” Yes, it does snow in California!

Another highlight was when the band called up three fans to play the last part of their dance floor hit “Sadie Hawkins Dance.” It was something special to see, and probably was the most awesome time for those three fans, one playing guitar, the other two playing percussion. Once this was over, the band played one more, their big 2006 hit “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been,” and it was time for Switchfoot…

to be continued...

Edit: Go here for Pt. 2 of this review

We're taking a break...

Hey friends,

We will not be updating frequently for now. With a new tour and plenty of updates on the official site, daily foot, Switchfeed, and Land of Broken Hearts, we’ll all be able to stay informed. Until a new single comes out, more footsoldier orders come in, or other earth-shattering news (like a new album release..?) we’ll be posting only on an intermittent basis.

This may give me more time to attend to my schoolwork… busy busy times, senior year is. Sometimes, time and distance away from something will afford a new perspective. Keep it real guys… the future looks bright in Switchfoot land.

Oh, and happy belated birthday Jono! May the future bring you more amazing “noise” to share with the rest of us. You frickin’ seriously inspire me, man.

Happy tour! Rebuild should be out soon… go buy it when it does come out!

P.S. I think viewing and playing Switchfoot on their myspace page will help them get up the charts. They’re under the indie column now, on the Top Artists lists… move them up by playing the songs. Thanks guys!

Head Over Heels (Live First Time Ever!)

Thanks AQHYAgrl. This was played October 17, 2007 in Charleston. Pretty sweet. I'd have to say this song is flawless live...

Rebuild (Live in Columbus)

Thanks mrcsr319!!

MP3 Thanks Deborah!

I'm really liking this now...!

Happy Start of Tour!

The Appetite For Construction Tour officially begins tonight.

And, Jon posted a new blog:

October 16, 2007 - Tuesday


mountain mama

the fall tour starts today!
"west virginia, mountain mama, take me home, country roads."

ok, and the ep will be mastered mañana. Every time I hear someone say "master" I think of my friend joey belville. He plays in a band called echoing green and is one of the best and funneist people around. If you know him ask him to tell you the master story. If you don't pee your pants you simply haven't had your fda recomended dose of liquids for the day. I would tell the story but...

here's the list for the ep:
the cure for pain
southbound train
lord save me from myself
equally skilled
the moon is a magnet
and another nameless one...

ok, so, in other news, we're doing a song for the first time tonight- should be a good time.

also, matt T. sang on the rebuild track that we're putting out for this tour...

alright, that's it! ruths, rk's, and north americans: here we come!

peace amigos,
jon

Completely new song? Exciting news! And word is,
"Love Is the Movement" will be making appearances on this tour. It's gonna be amazing.

If you haven't gotten tickets to a show yet, better hurry! They're selling out fast!

Go here to get em!

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Also, thanks to Land of Broken Hearts and Alicia, we have a high-quality, large version of the tour poster. Print it out and post it on bulletins (myspace or actual), facebook notes, etc.



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Site News

We have a new header, as you can see, thanks to Becca!!