OK GO with Atomic Tom, The Relay Company, and The Parade

I was at last night's show at Avalon, sponsored by 92.3 FM. It was a good show at a great price. The first two opening acts were local bands and were typical of local bands; they made you glad when the people with recording contracts hit the stage.

The Parade was reminiscent of Panic! At the Disco and fronted by clean-cut Asian boys with a couple of scruffy white guys. I wasn't paying much attention other than that and to note that the lead was alright when he used his boy band register or went into scream-o mode, which wasn't as often as it should have been.

The Relay Company was pretty good for an opening act. One of their songs took the hook straight out of Beauty and The Beast, which totally worked for me. They were cute and could probably go somewhere after a few years of hard work. I hope they do; I liked Second Guitar's dimples.

Atomic Tom was amazing. Great energy, set list, talent, everything. They even did a cover of "Don't You Want Me, Baby?" and won the whole crowd's adoration. My friend spotted the lead, whose name is Luke and not Tom like we expected it would be, after their set and talked to him for a minute. Nice guy.

OK Go was their typical fantastically oddball self. They were in their rainbow suits and rocked it out. I really really liked their rendition of "Return" on the hand bells. It was beautiful. The down side, for me, was that their energy was all over the place and the lead seemed drunk in his patter with the audience. It was kind of annoying patter about how the wifi in Santa Clara sucks and that they don't take requests. Maybe they overused their confetti cannon, but I personally loved it and had way too much fun with the ticker tape.

The club itself was nice, good acoustics, and there was room to move around despite it being a Sold Out show. The bathrooms looked clean as I walked by, the people standing next to me had food that smelled great, and the bouncers at the door weren't too scary. I didn't buy any drinks either, so I have no idea how those rate. Parking sucked a little, but that's to be expected. They at least have a designated parking lot with overflow space from the supermarket that went out of business.

OK Go: Yes
Atomic Tom: Yes!
The Relay Company: Sure
The Parade: perhaps not...
Avalon: Sure