Many audience members stood with crossed arms during much of the show, and by the time Bayside took the stage Anthony Raneri, lead vocalist for the band, had had enough.

Bayside’s performance last Wednesday night at the Turner Hall Ballroom proved to be less than what most fans probably hoped for.

Bayside, out of New York, has been on tour for over five years and has been acclaimed as being “on the verge of blowing up” by various music aficionados. Now on the current run of the Victory Records tour, the band is generating even more recognition.

Despite tickets costing a mere $13 for five bands, the turnout for the show was surprisingly low, despite the leading act’s recently increasing popularity.

The four opening acts’ musical styles differed greatly from headliners Bayside. Driver Side Impact, The Sleeping, A Day to Remember and June offered more of a poppy metal-core sound, which was contrasted with the more mainstream rock and pop-punk vibe of Bayside.

The four, only given short sets, did a reasonable job entertaining the audience while they waited for the headliner to take the stage, however only A Day to Remember stood out. That the openers didn’t seem to resonate with the audience definitely wasn’t for lack of musical skill or talent. Regardless, the audience developed an apathy toward the evening early on.

Milwaukee’s alternative rockers certainly looked at home at the concert; the beer of choice was PBR and handkerchiefs were tied around many necks. However, these scenesters weren’t in the majority.

Many audience members stood with crossed arms during much of the show, and by the time Bayside took the stage Anthony Raneri, lead vocalist for the band, had had enough. Raneri literally scolded the audience for their lack of enthusiasm three separate times during Bayside’s hour-long set.

For some reason or another, most of the audience just wasn’t excited to hear Bayside perform, and the band could tell. This tension in the air between the band and the audience brought an overcast dreariness to the show, resulting in the aforementioned cloudbursts along the way. Crowd members seemed less than talkative and overly eager to sit down while the band did its best to draw more than the die-hard fans into the music.

Bayside played a tight set comprised of a variety of songs that ranged from its early album, “Sirens and Condolences,” to its latest album, “The Walking Wounded.” The band preformed “Duality,” “The Walking Wounded” and “I and I,” which would have been well-received had the crowd’s tension been less foreboding.

Bayside even performed a fairly good acoustic cover of a Smoking Popes song, “Megan.” The band exhibited an impressive ability to explore a wide spectrum of sound, changing from slow acoustic to pop-punk and moving all the way to more hardcore compositions.

While this show was by no means a complete failure, it lacked the exciting atmosphere that can resonate through an amazing concert.

While Turner Hall, the new venue recently acquired by the Pabst Theater, was an aesthetically perfect setting for the show, the sound quality left a little to be desired. Instruments were well-mixed, but vocals suffered from bad acoustics and words were often hard to discern.

It was obvious to everyone in attendance that Bayside and the other performers weren’t content audience’s size or their attitude. This was likely the reason why the concert finished up only a few minutes after 11 p.m., with Bayside disdainfully performing only one encore and threatening to walk off the stage if they saw even a single person with crossed arms. People still did.

– Sean Quast, Isral DeBruin, Sarah Mick and Chris Christen contributed to this report.

> Comments