Last month was my first experience with Georgia-bred pop-punk band Veara. They were the opening band for A Day To Remember on their Toursick 2010 run of dates (A Day To Remember Toursick Concert Review) and completely caught me by surprise.

As I said in that review, most opening bands are pretty average in comparison to the rest of the more-established lineup.

However, Veara could have very easily switched places with any of the other bands on that bill and fit in perfectly.

During their set, Brad (lead vocalist) announced that on May 25th they would be releasing What We Left Behind on Epitaph Records (There is a release party for it Saturday the 22nd, follow either of the links below to get more info on that). Since that announcement, I’d been waiting anxiously to get my hands on a copy of the album; and that day happened to be yesterday afternoon.

Since that point, I’m pretty sure I have listened to the album straight through four times.

Here is the formula for Veara:

Best parts of All Time Low’s So Wrong, It’s Right
+ A Day To Remember’s melodies
- Jeremy’s screams and any metal influences found in ADTR’s music
+ group vocals
+ 1 basket of peaches

VEARA

The record was produced by Jeremy McKinnon (lead singer of A Day To Remember), so if you think it has ‘that sound’ to it, that would be why. That being said, having ‘that sound’ is by no means a bad thing. They are not trying to be an ADTR clone – or even wanna-be. These guys are sticking to the realm of pop-punk.

The album kicks off with ‘We Have a Body Count’, the shortest track on the album (beating out ‘Only Famous People Get Famous’ by one measly second), and giving a great indication of what’s to come. The third track, ‘My B-Side Life’, has a music video in the works, so be on the lookout for that. It’s also one of the catchiest songs on the album – a tough title to claim on an album like this. I embedded that song below, check it out.

‘Waste My Time’ is a classic pop-punk track about the exact subject that you would expect…dealing with someone who is nothing but a waste of your time. ‘Role Model’ has a chorus with advice that everyone should be able to use: “I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve used them well/At least I’ve never tried to play the part of someone else…staying honest is the hardest part.”

All the songs stick to around the 3:30 mark or less, and there aren’t any five-minute-long ballads on the album…both of which are fine by me. For awhile there it seemed like it was mandatory for every album, no matter the genre, to have some kind of long, sappy ballad on it. In comparison, What We Left Behind will keep you tapping your foot and nodding your head throughout all 30:35 of it.

While I have to admit that I did not see any of the sites that listed Veara as one of the ‘Top Bands to Watch for in 2010′, it doesn’t surprise me one bit that they were listed as such.

Jeremy had better watch his back – if they keep releasing albums like this, ADTR might be opening for them in the future.

For more information on Veara, visit the Veara MySpace Page and the Veara Facebook Page.

Here is a sample of what to expect from What We Left Behind:

Veara – My B-Side Life

All photos, music, and videos copyright of their respective owners. Used only for promotional purposes and to gain notoriety for the artists featured.

Silverstein is a band that was featured on the site just recently, as they opened for A Day To Remember on their Toursick 2010 shows (A Day To Remember Toursick Concert Review).

Click here to see the A Day To Remember Toursick Concert Photos and here to see the A Day To Remember Toursick Concert Live Videos.

Here they are again, with their brand new video for ‘American Dream’, off A Shipwreck in the Sand.

All photos, music, and videos copyright of their respective owners. Used only for promotional purposes and to gain notoriety for the artists featured.

If you remember correctly, just last week I was at the Set Your Goals concert (Set Your Goals Concert Review), so I figured that this would be a good time to feature a band that has opened for Set Your Goals in the past, that band being Sky Tells All (STA).

Sky Tells All isn’t the only band recently that has cited The Police as an influence in their musical repertoire; as Yours Truly also listed them (Yours Truly – The Colorage Review). The influence of The Police is apparent on the melodies of a track such as ‘Smells Like Fireworks.’

Here’s a bio of the band:

Sky Tells All is Pensacola’s fastest rising band, recently signed to world-champion boxing legend Roy Jones Jr.’s bhe ROCK Records. This five-piece band is comprised of vocalist Josh, Blake doing double-duty on guitar and vocals, guitarist Brian, bassist Tyler, and drummer Alec.

The fans are a constant source of inspiration for Sky Tells All. “There is nothing better than being on stage and looking out into the crowd and seeing people sing the songs we have written, or seeing a kid at the mall wearing our T-shirt,” says Josh…Brian says, “I hope to have some songs that remain around forever” because “people need something real that they can relate to.” Josh echoes the band’s desire to touch people with their music: “I would love it if someone could listen to our record and really feel alive.”

If you had to read that part about Roy Jones, Jr. twice, I won’t hold it against you – I had to as well. I’ve gotta be honest, I do not see an Atreyu influence whatsoever in their music, but that’s probably not a bad thing – every new band who is entering the scene in that genre is immediately attached with the “cookie-cutter scene band” stigma, so they should probably keep that influence on the DL.

On another note, it’s refreshing to see those last quotes by Josh and Brian – too many bands who are entering this scene are just trying to ride the coattails of Four Year Strong, Set Your Goals, etc. etc. and just make a quick buck by jumping on the bandwagon.

The band has a more mellow vibe than SYG or FYS on some of their tracks, such as ‘I Do’, which is a more ballad-esque track. ‘Mine to Hold’ and ‘Another Break Up Song’ are pretty much the classic pop-punk songs you would expect them to be, but when the songs are well-done that’s never a bad thing.

If they really mean what they said above, they won’t be going anywhere soon but up; and the sky’s the limit (alright, so that was kinda cheesy. You’ll get over it.)

For more information on Sky Tells All, visit the Sky Tells All MySpace Page.

All photos, music, and videos copyright of their respective owners. Used only for promotional purposes and to gain notoriety for the artists featured.

The size of the crowd was somewhere in-between the Haste the Day concert and the Unearth and Veil of Maya Atticus Metal Tour 2 crowd. I was very glad about that, since the Haste the Day show could have been so much better if there hadn’t been a total of about 14 people in the crowd.

The first band to take the stage was Smart Bomb, a band from Massachusetts that wouldn’t be out of place in a show alongside Lagwagon and Millencolin. They are pretty much a straight-ahead, no holds barred punk band. Their music translates pretty well live, so if you are a fan of the whole skate-punk/’classic punk’ (for lack of a better term) sound, definitely give them a look. Find out more about them at the Smart Bomb MySpace Page.

Next up was Title Fight, a band that I had checked out on YouTube earlier in the day. They seemed like more of a pop-punk type band from the song I heard on there, but live in concert they were anything but. From a quick check of their MySpace, they sound like they’ve taken some cues from Set Your Goals and added a bit more of the hardcore influence into the mix. I personally feel that their tunes don’t translate very well live. Then again, the guys have toured now with both Four Year Strong and Set Your Goals, so maybe they were just having an off-night. Check out their tunes on the Title Fight MySpace Page.

Next on the bill were the Canadian hardcore band Comeback Kid. I’ve always heard a lot of really good things about this band, but – to my own admission – never got around to checking them out. If you haven’t heard of them, they are a perfect example of a traditional (in the ‘classic’ sense of the word, not the ‘boring’ sense) hardcore band. They tore through their set at breakneck speed, but no one was complaining. They were the first band that truly got the circle pits going and the hardcore kids doing their crazy moves. If you don’t know what I mean by ‘crazy moves’, just watch the video below (FYI: I have never seen giving a piggy-back ride in anyone’s dance move repertoire. Dunno what that’s all about).

They had a TON of fans in the audience – so much so that we were actually waiting to see if people came specifically to see them and would be leaving after their set. One guy had the brilliant idea during the set to fling himself backwards into the crowd…he then promptly landed right on his head. I thought they were gonna have to stop the show because the kid had seriously injured himself, but he either got extremely lucky or the adrenaline kicked in pretty hard. Either way, I’m sure he woke up with quite a headache. They also announced during their set that they had titled their new record Symptoms and Cures. For more info on them, head to the Comeback Kid MySpace Page.

Set Your Goals finally took the stage, and if you have read our previous Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong, and Fireworks Show Review, then you know that Matthew pretty much nailed their performance. Matt and Jordan delivered a very high energy set as they tore through songs that were both old and new. In fact, at one point Matt announced that they were about to play a song that they hadn’t played on tour in three years – their cover of ‘Do You Still Hate Me?’ by Jawbreaker. I thought they put on an awesome show, and their dual vocals worked really well live. They are definitely going to make a lot of people happy on Warped Tour this year, that’s for sure. If you haven’t seen them live in concert, I highly recommend you go see them when they come to your area. Or go to Warped Tour. Or both…that’s my plan. To see more about Set Your Goals, check out the Set Your Goals MySpace Page.

For those of you who have been fans for awhile, I’ll leave you on this note:

All in all, it must really suck to be Four Year Strong right now.

To see the photos from this show (and the others aforementioned) visit the Outsider Vocals Facebook Page (are they still called ‘fan pages’ at this point?).

If you don’t feel like doing that, make sure to at least hit that ‘Like’ button over on the right sidebar!

Special thanks goes out to Opus One Productions for giving us tickets to the show.