Dec 13, 2019

THE SPILL CANVAS: A Parent's Perspective

To anyone who grew up listening to pop-punk and emo in the early 2000's, Sioux Falls, SD own The Spill Canvas has definitely made their way on your mixed CD or playlist at some point in your life. The band is currently celebrating their 15 year anniversary of their breakthrough, debut album Sunsets & Car Crashes, released by 111 Records in 2004 on the appropriately named "The Decade and a Half Tour" with acoustic performances by The Juliana Theory and singer/songwriter Cory Wells.

All three bands have been trucking across North America for the last few months, breaking the tour up into two separate legs, currently on their 2nd of the tour which is set to finish up in Orlando FL, on Dec. 15th. I recently had the opportunity to check out the show first hand in Pittsburgh this past week.

The show kicked off at 7pm at The Rex Theatre on East Carson St. with hometown opener Steve Sobosali of Punchline's alter-ego Blue of Colors who ripped through acoustic renditions of songs like Watch Your Mouth and Edward Norton with a cover of Elvis Presley's Christmas classic "Blue Christmas."

After a brief intermission of indie-rock and pop-punk blaring over the PA system, California native, singer/songwriter Cory Wells hit the stage dishing out a set's worth of emotionally charged tunes from his debut full length album that just dropped this month "The Way We Are." I had a chance to sit down and chat with Cory about his latest record, his recent tour with Dashboard Confessional in the UK and a whole lot more. You can check out that interview HERE.

After another brief intermission of more pop-punk nostalgia over the PA, Pittsburgh's own Juliana Theory hit the stage for an intimate, acoustic set of tunes sprawling over the last two decades as a band. The acoustic duo ran through their hit list catalog with songs like You Always Say Goodnight, Goodnight from their 2000 album Emotion Is Dead to 2002's Do You Believe Me? even playing an impromptu rendition of The Backstreet Boys "I Want it That Way" along the way.

The Spill Canvas hit the stage, closing out the night but not before nearly missing the show entirely due to their bus breaking down as explained by lead singer/frontman Nick Thomas: "We were riding, and felt a bump and then we saw sparks flying from our tires, but we're here, we wouldn't miss tonight for the world." he quipped.

The band played their debut album Sunsets and Car Crashes from front to back while sprinkling other fan favorite tunes of other albums of the band's discography throughout the set, playing songs that have never been played live, all the while taking time to banter to the crowd about a specific song or album's significance and origin, or tell stories to the crowd like the time they played on TRL or were signed to a major label reminding the audience that "we're fucking old."

The Spill Canvas closed out the show after over an hour of non-stop energetic yet mellow emo/pop-punk nostalgia taking time to thank the fans for them still being a band after all these years promising them for a speedy return within the next year. You can check out The Spill Canvas on tour now with Cory Wells and the Juliana Theory this winter on the 2nd leg of the Decade and a Half Tour. Check out the photo gallary from the show below!