This is my wish, and I'm taking it back. I'm taking them all back.

Every so often, a band that I actually like and enjoy listening to wanders into State College, PA. We're not a huge town by any means. Approximately 45,000 students attend Penn State University, but one has to take into consideration that we ARE indeed located in the middle of nowhere. So, a band that I actually know and like and would consider paying about $15 for coming into town is rare. Give me a break, I'm broke.

Well, The Ataris made it here tonight. Now, I haven't heard anything new about the Ataris in YEARS, but I went through high school owning all of their CD's and legitimately enjoy listening to them. So when my old suitemate texted me asking me if I was going to attend the show, I said I was thinking about it and we agreed to go together.

Last night, Penn State football played against Illinois. If you've never been in the student section at a Penn State football game, you haven't really lived yet. We got there 2 hours before the game started, and stood for oh...around 5 hours. Long story short, it was an AWESOME game. We of course, won, and that brought our ranking up to team #6 in the nation (woohoo!).

My point from all of that is that I was anticipating skipping the openers for this Ataris show. It would be another couple hours of standing after I haven't fully recovered from last night. Also, I've been going to shows since I was 14, and that's seven years of consistently not enjoying the opening bands that I'd never heard of. I either get bored easily with them or they just outright usually suck. Such was not the case tonight. And I was surprised. And happy about it.

The first opener was a band called Clarity. Immediately from the first song, I was hooked. The lead singer's voice worked really well for the type of band they were, which I would classify as emo-pop, if that's a genre (but what isn't these days?). He was also adorable, which helps. They were very energetic and actually knew how to play their instruments. From where I was standing (which, by the way, they should establish a system where the short people get to be up front. It's aggravating being 5'1” sometimes.) I could really only see the drummer, the keyboardist and the lead singer. The drummer was really impressive. The keyboardist was CRAZY. He showed a lot of passion while performing the songs and was totally living in the moment. Aside from the lead singer being adorable, he was great. He fell once I think, but instead of working against him, it worked in his favor. He presented himself to be really approachable and I wanted to talk to him afterwards, but my guts get in the way of things like that. Check them out: www.myspace.com/findyourclaritymusic

The second opener was a band called The Goodnight Anthem. They started out the show by stating that they were in “College Town.” Yeah, that would be State College babe. But at least the other bandmate corrected him. This band also impressed me. Along with Clarity, the lead singer of Goodnight Anthem's voice also worked for the style of music. Their songs were catchy and I'll probably Myspace them. www.myspace.com/thegoodnightanthem

After Goodnight Anthem, my friend wanted to take a break outside because it was roasting inside. Canyon Pizza is right next door, and if you haven't heard, Canyon is the place to go in State College if you want a piece of cheese pizza for $1. It's better pizza under certain circumstances that may occur on or around 2:00am on the weekends, but I won't go into detail on that. So we waited outside for a little while my friend ate her pizza and I stared at adorable Clarity boy. Still not enough guts. Damn.

We went back in for the last band, Split Fifty. I honestly don't have too much to say about this band. I did enjoy them, slightly less than I did the first two, but they were slightly harder than the first two. I did love their one song, with lyrics that went like, “Stop, drop, and roll, there's a fire in my heart.” Cute. www.myspace.com/splitfifty

The Ataris were finally up. The last time I had seen them was in 2003 during the Ataris/Vendetta Red tour. I met my best friend at that show. Good times. Anyways, everyone got hyped up, as was deserved, and they delivered a great set. They started out with a couple old ones, and then went into So Long Astoria, the CD most people knew. Oh, and I forgot to mention, this show was held in a place called Sozo's; it's a tiny venue so the shows are really intimate and close. I thought the Ataris rocked that aspect of it. They claimed they were doing an encore which really was just a 2 minute break and came back and did a cover of a Misfits song and then of course, San Dimas High School Football Rules. (Duh.) After that, the band left and Kris Roe did a couple of acoustics.

All in all, I'm really happy that I paid $12 to see all 4 bands. I was impressed with the openers and the fact they were all actually good bands that I want to friend on Myspace immediately. I recommend seeing any of these guys if you have a chance. Oh, and if a cute smile, nice hair and an eyebrow ring are for you, make sure your guts are intact. ;)