In my younger years I used to get to shows too early and had to wait around for the opening band which was a good thing because I picked up some favorite bands in the process.  Well, of late, I’ve been rather late to shows and end up missing most of the opening act.  I apologize, as a music enthusiast I should know how to schedule my time better.  That being said, I did miss all but the last 30 seconds of Hollis Brown’s set.  I’ve never seen that band before so I would have at least liked to have seen their set.  Hopefully, we’ll cross musical paths sometime in the future.

I did of course make it to Johnny Brenda’s (Philadelphia, PA) in time to see Illinois.  After all, Illinois is one of my favorite bands and for good reason – their live shows are always incredible.  I’ve seen Illinois countless times since 2005 and I don’t recall every seeing a bad performance by them.  So, if Illinois is playing a show in the area then I always try my best to make sure I’m there.  I admire and respect the effort and passion that Illinois put into their music which makes their music sound so good.  By the way, great news, Illinois is going to release a new album soon so keep an ear out for that.

Cheers Elephant was the headlining band for this show.  Although I haven’t seen Cheers Elephant in ages it was nice to see that they had not lost an ounce of their on stage dancing, energy, and antics.  Man, that is one hyper band and that’s exciting when it comes to live performances.  So, it was great to see Cheers Elephant again and their performance made it quite apparent that I really need to see this band more often.

See the entire photo set here.