A dramatic lineup change and a departure from a popular record label can usually damage a band’s fan base...
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The first band to take the stage was Action Item. Action Item was the perfect band to kick off a nice, entertaining concert in the middle of the summer. Unfortunately, the concert started off with a foul feeling because of the extremely high temperatures in St. Louis. It broke one hundred degrees Fahrenheit easily in the middle of the day. Fans were dripping with sweat as they bared the Midwest heat for the opening of the Friday is Forever tour at Six Flags St. Louis. Thankfully, Action Item took the stage with confidence and rocked the crowd. The singer, Brian Cag, had vocals that sounded decent as they played through a few songs. One fan in the crowd mentioned that the singer has a slight resemblance for Muse’s front man Matt Bellamy. The bassist, David Buczkowski, was hilarious to watch with his amusing facial expressions. As the first band, Action Item made a statement that proved they are an up-and-coming band with a decent amount of talent supporting them.
Pop-punk band All Time Low is currently on their Dirty Work Tour with Yellowcard, Hey Monday, and The Summer Set as support. The quartet has recently put together a new album tentatively named Dirty Work, which will be their fourth studio album release. The first single from Dirty Work, “I Feel Like Dancin’,” was released on April 5th. The ever-energetic Alex Gaskarth, Jack Barakat, Zach Merrick, and Rian Dawson show off their quirky talents on the enthusiastic Dirty Work Tour.
First to take the stage at the sold-out, 2,300 capacity venue in St. Louis, Missouri was The Summer Set. This relatively young band had a short but sweet set. Lead by front man Brian Dales, The Summer Set easily pleased the energetic crowd with a couple of new songs, as well as some fan favorites “Chelsea” and 
“Punk-Drunk Love.” Dales’ vocals were clear but slightly annoying. All of the band members were very encouraging of the audience and tried to interact with as many people as possible. It was impressive to hear loud screaming for the first opening band. There was a fair amount of fans there that bopped to the beat and sang along to every lyric. Overall The Summer Set was a crowd pleaser, and I am glad that they chose to tour on the Dirty Work Tour.
After a huge gain of loyal fans through the three well known tours Bamboozle, AP Tour, and Warped Tour, The Summer Set took opening bands The Downtown Fiction, ModSun, and Stereo Skyline out on a headlining endeavor that they called “The Travelin’ Show”. The tour began on October 18th and ended recently after over a month of stupendous shows. With the goal of creating an intimate show that fans will create a stronger connection between band members of fans in mind, The Summer Set took on a very successful headlining tour. Although the tour is now over, it was an incredible event and I encourage you to see each act that was a part of it. Austin Gibbs was unfortunately ill during the date of the tour I attended, however I have heard nothing but excellent reviews about his performance as well.
Making a grand entrance to the all time favorite "Pump It" by the Black Eyed Peas, The Downtown Fiction showed a crowd of unfamiliar faces that they were there to put on an awesome show from the very start. Singing most songs off their latest EP "Best I Never Had", The Downtown Fiction Shad crowd members
all around the gymnasium warmed up with their hands in the air during their entire set. With lead singer Cameron Leahy providing an insane stage presence filled with countless eye locks and hand holds to ensure that each fan in the audience was having an awesome time, it was nearly impossible to be less than ecstatic to watch this talented rock/pop band put on an outstanding performance. Effortlessly taking control of a crowd containing very few people who had heard of them previously, The Downtown Fiction did an excellent job of making sure to put on a flawless performance in order to suck in as many new fans as possible. Even with a few technical difficulties towards the end of their set, bassist David Pavluk was unphased as he nonchellantly communicated with those invoved in the difficulties to ensure that the problem would be fixed when it was time to proceed into the next song. After an outstanding set filled with nonstop dancing and fan girl shrieking, The Downtown Fiction ended with a song that everyone in the crowd seemed to know. This track is "I Just Wanna Run" and it was made very clear that it was the favorite from the crowd by the way they sang to every word as an instant reaction. Dancing around harder than before, because they clearly knew the song very well, left and right the crowd was going absolutely insane for this band that they had once been fooled to believe they had ever heard before. The Downtown Fiction put on a powerful performance that proved they are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to their genre in the music scene.