The James Logan Courier

By Anjelica Ramos, Courier Staff Artist

PacTour, a series of shows by a variety of music acts, sponsored by clothier PacSun, stopped by San Francisco's Sunday.

This stop of the tour consisted of local San Francisco band Picture Me Broken, Eye Alaska, Innerpartysystem, and P.O.S., with Saosin as the headliner. The show took place at The Fillmore. There was also an in-store acoustic performance that took place at the San Francisco Shopping Centre in PacSun.

Before the actual show started, my friends and I decided to go to an in-store performance at the PacSun in The San Francisco Shopping Centre featuring Saosin. We showed up around 3 PM because the set originally was supposed to start at 3:30 PM. We came into the store to find out the performance had gotten pushed back an hour later. We waited and Saosin showed up at exactly 4:30 PM to our disappointment.

Fortunately, set up was quick and they got started as soon as possible. Cove Reber (lead vocals), Chris Sorenson (bass/backing vocals) and Justin Shekoski (guitar/backing vocals) came to play, without Alex Rodriguez (drummer) and Beau Burchell (guitar/backing vocals) played a beautiful acoustic set. Although, during the set, everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Chris, who sang a shortened Garth Brook's cover song.

Laughs were enjoyed through the set and afterwards, the three members stayed awhile for a signing and photo op for anyone who came. After unsuccessfully attaining a ride to the venue from the band, my friends and I headed on bus to the Fillmore.

When I entered the venue, I felt a lot of excitement and there was a local band playing called Picture Me Broken. They weren’t very bad, at least for the two songs I heard. After a quick set up for the next band, Eye Alaska, they played and I thought it was just horrible. Most of them looked like a bunch of idiots on stage, especially the lead singer who was doing some crazy things. I could have sworn he was on something illegal, just by the way he was walking back and forth the stage, as if he was on a tightrope. I didn’t enjoy the songs they played, nor the very few girls in front that were going wild for such a horrible band.

The next set was Innerpartysystem. They had a ridiculous light show going on that made me thank goodness I wasn’t epileptic. The music they played wasn’t as horrible as Eye Alaska. It was actually kind of catchy. After them, P.O.S. played. He was a rapper and I thought it was weird that he was in the line-up for this tour, just because it’s really different sounding from the other bands playing that night. Either way, I liked his set. The raps were meaningful and the beats were sick, unlike most mainstream rappers today. He did a good job of getting the crowd excited for Saosin and P.O.S. was much better than the two bands before.

After much waiting and anticipation, Saosin took the stage. Even though the place wasn’t pack-full of people, there was a lot of energy in the air. Throughout the set, people sang along as usual and at one point my friend started a mosh-pit. I got a couple of hits to my back, but I didn’t mind that because I was having too much fun. Again, the crowd sang happy birthday for guitarist Chris Sorenson, who claimed to have turned 14 (he definitely did not turn 14, by the way). Cove Reber’s vocals were extremely well for each and every song. I love his voice, especially when he hits high notes for some songs. It’s so incredible to hear Saosin live. Like any other show, at least the one’s I’ve been to, everyone was a sweaty and tired mess.

It was definitely worth all the trouble I had gone through that night before the show to see Saosin. Even going through all horrible bands for two whole hours. I’m glad I lived through to watch Saosin tear the stage and play a ridiculously incredible show.