Concert Review: Good Charlotte

Last week I went to the 9:30 Club to see Good Charlotte. I saw them perform in 2004 (or 2005?) at HFStival, an awesome rock concert that the radio station WHFS used to organize*. I figured it would be nostalgic to see them perform again; it would be like I was back in high school!

The opening band was called Waterparks, which I had never heard of. But I thought they were pretty good! The lead singer, Awsten Knight, was quite funny, joking about dying on set when he started choking on his water; he also quoted Jackass: The Movie ("I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.") The guitarists, Geoff Wigington and Otto Wood, were total headbangers with their long hair, and the band encouraged crowd-surfing (I had to cover my eyes; I thought for sure someone was going to get hurt!). Their music seemed inspired by bands like Panic! at the Disco and Fall Out Boy. They're really young, so they still need some time to create their own sound; a keyboardist would really help fill out the band! It was pretty cool that Knight hung out by the merchandise table to meet fans. I feel like only new bands ever do that!

Here are some of the songs they performed:

Mad All the Time

Crave

Silver

 
Then we had to wait close to an hour before Good Charlotte started. But once they got on stage, the sound from the crowd was deafening! Everyone was so excited to see them, and people tried to start a mosh pit almost immedately (I was glad to be safe up in the balcony!). The band said they had performed at the 9:30 Club for the first time in the late 1980's, and they were clearly aware that most of the people in the crowd were born after that time. Good Charlotte is from Maryland, and it was fun to have them give shout-outs to MD, DC, and even Virginia. Throughout the concert, Joel had his idiosyncrasies: giving the photographers two thumbs up, taking selfies with crowdsurfers once they reached the stage, and spitting constantly (ew). The band has four albums (who knew?), but I only knew their older stuff. I don't think I was alone: the crowd kept requesting to hear songs from their first album. The group performed a lot of songs, but in general did not sing them completely. They would sing a verse and a chorus of one song, and then move on to the next one. This is a good way to fit in a little bit of everything, but when you like a certain song, you want to hear the whole thing! Here are some my favorite Good Charlotte songs:

Little Things

Girls & Boys

Festival Song

The Anthem

Hold On

Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous

*While doing some research for this blog post, I came across this piece about Benji's MD pride, and I learned that HFStival was resurrected in 2010! But then I couldn't find anything about it after 2011, so maybe it has died for good? Not sure...