Bands/Rappers: Mac Miller, Taking Back Sunday, Third Eye Blind, Wiz Khalifa
Date: April 9, 2011

Mac Miller – Firstly, the sound in Matthews Arena is a shitty thing. No surprise, though. Watching good ole Mac and his crew rap was like listening to an ole beat-up boom box cranked to max volume. I have no comment on his performance other than that I’m simply not familiar with him.

Taking Back Sunday – At their best they sounded like an impressionable Head Automatica knock-off band and at their worst they made drunk kids fall asleep. It was mostly the latter. “WHO HERE GOES TO COLLEGE?” Oh gee bro I don’t know! Crowd wasn’t feeling TBS and they had a good reason not to be.

Third Eye Blind – This is the point in the show where things improved a lot more. The instruments were much more audible and the vocals mixed just right for Third Eye Blind. The band’s long-standing favorites “Jumper” and “Semi Charmed Life” drew the most notable crowd reaction. The pauses for the crowd to sing got a bit cheesy, but I guess that’s a norm for arena rock bands. For a band that I haven’t really listened to much before, I will say I was impressed. Their set wasn’t draggy and their new tune, which they closed their set with, sounded decent.

Wiz Khalifa – Wiz seemed excited and all to be performing. Opening chants of TAYLOR (GANG), TAYLOR (GANG) were excessive. Even worse was the repetitive WAKE N (BAKE), WAKE N (BAKE). When the dude started rapping for reals, it was hard to tell whether it was his own voice coming out of the PA or that of a recording. I imagine this is the standard for rap shows, though.

Conclusion: Screw arenas! I’ll take a 100 person dive bar or, on the larger end of things, the Orpheum Theatre or House of Blues any day over the distance and lack of personality associated with arenas.