We headed down on a stormy night to Salem, OR to catch the second to last date of The Appetite for Construction Tour featuring co-headlining acts Switchfoot & Relient K, with special guests (and some-what local boys) Ruth. We left early anticipating an interview with Relient K. When we arrived we got situated and sat down with Dave Douglas (Drums) and Jon Schneck (Guitar, Banjo, Bells). We discussed the tour, The Office (we’ll get to that later) and their two current releases Let it Snow Baby…Let it Reindeer and Five Score and Seven Years Ago. Unfortunately as we neared the end of the interview, I realized my voice recorder was improperly working, resulting in nothing to go by, other than sheer memory. Upon arrival a group of my buddies and I headed towards the front. We were in position and left standing for a decent amount of time. As the crowd piled into the small stadium a crowd of people in middle began singing “Jesus Loves Me” an assuring fact that this was going to be a friendly concert. Shortly after the chorus ended a quick roar of cheering came from the hyped up crowd, only to wait another forty-five minutes.
Leading off the show was Ruth. A four-piece rock band, just up the freeway, from Battle Ground, Washington (Just outside of where Music Faith is located). Ruth is an emerging artist on Tooth & Nail that is gaining popularity very quickly. The band had a sense of a hometown crowd due to being from the area. The band came out and performed an amazing five-song opening set. Strutting their stuff from their debut release Secondhand Dreaming, Ruth included their radio hit “You Are” and other crowd pleasers “Cross This Line,” and “Mr. Turner” into their impressive set. Lead vocalist and guitarist Dustin Ruth resembles similar qualities of Switchfoot frontman, Jon Foreman. Ruth has huge potential, and was a great opening act! I was very pleased to see them featured on the tour, and I’m excited to see where they go next.
During a rather long set change, I couldn’t help but notice the amount of people being pulled from the crowd. It was a very squished and very uncomfortable crowd. Swishing back and forth. The lights dimmed and the crowd roared louder than any of the actual live music, as the boys from Canton, Ohio embarked the stage. Kicking off with their “I So Hate Consequences” followed by a newer one, “Devastation and Reform” and popular crowd-favorite “Be My Escape.” At this point lead-singer Matt Thiessen shared his apprieciation for the 80’s. Playing an old Tears for Fears cover of the verse and chorus for their hit “Head Over Heals” followed by another crowd favorite “In Love With The 80’s (Pink Tux to the Prom).” Matt followed with asking the crowd to do the wave. He followed with a pun, saying we need to get jerseys, kicking into the intro of “Must’ve Done Something Right.” Next they played one of my favorites “Which to Burry, Us or the Hatchet,” closely followed by “I Need You.” Earlier in our interview with Dave and Jon they said “I Need You” is one of their favorites to play live because they enjoy watching Matt Thiessen attempt to be a frontman, something they joked about saying he isn’t very good at it. Next were two radio-hits “Give” and “Forgiven.” After those, Matt shared about the release of their Christmas CD, Let it Snow Baby…Let it Reindeer. They welcomed everyone in joining they’re sleigh ride. Snow started shooting out and the crowd was very delighted. The band also had “Mr. Penguin” join them on stage while they played their song “Sleigh Ride.” After that Matt confessed his love for NBC’s show The Office. In the interview I asked Dave and Jon about the show and learned that the whole band agrees it’s a great show. I also asked what characters are their personal favorites, besides the obvious lead characters, Jon followed quickly telling me he likes the old guy, Creed. While Dave says he likes the socially-awkward Toby. The band went through and had their merch guy come out and they began playing a short tribute song and theme song. “Michael Scott, Pam and Jim, you got me glued to my television, Angela you’re way to cute, to be messing around with someone like Dwight Schrute. Relient K and the Football Hall of Fame are from Canton, we wish someone would just transfer us to Scranton.” Next was “High of 75,” Relient K then pulled a group of people from the audience to have them help perform “Sadie Hawkins Dance.” Relient K bidded farewell with an older radio hit “Who I Am Hates Who’ve Been.”
After a very long set change, Switchfoot came out teased the crowd with the intro to “Meant to Live” before going into the title track from their latest record “Oh! Gravity.” They rushed into their hit from Nothing is Sound, “Stars.” The band played many songs from their past three albums including hits like “Awakening,” “Meant to Live,” “Gone,” “Dirty Second Hands,” “I Dare You To Move,” and “We Are One Tonight.” Throughout the entire set I couldn’t help but think of how similar it was to their set at Creation NW. It left me a little disappointed and surprised. I think they could’ve expanded their set and add more flavor to it. Regardless it was still a great set and performance. The production and creativity Switchfoot brings is always amazing. It was cool to see them perform in the small-stadium format. I would’ve liked to see something new than their recent tour of festivals, but still their show was pretty amazing.
Article by Jeremy Koering
