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April 11, 2007

Online Exclusice

When in Dallas…

Bands give audience relatable and dazzling performances

Story by: Rebeka Baltazar

The Shorthorn staff

Courtesy of Dustin Ryan

The crowds left Vega4 and Augustana’s Dallas concert cheering and happily buzzed off of beers and musical intoxication Monday evening.

Each band presented itself differently.

Vega4 started with a strong front, constantly reassuring the audience that they were “amazing” and dazzling them with their sexy foreign accents.

Lead singer Johnny McDaid strummed his guitar strings and won the crowd over with his melodic Irish pronunciations during and in between songs. With sparkling eyes and a smiling face, everyone could tell McDaid has a passion for his music.

Drawing audience members in by responding to catcalls and insults, playing games and simulating dazzling acrobatics made for an amazing performance.

When asked how Texan beer compared to his native country’s, McDaid simply showed The Shorthorn his glass of wine, indicating he had not joined his band mates in the tastes Texas had to offer that night. He did mention that all the band members enjoy sampling choices from local breweries wherever they may be.

“When in Rome,” he said.

Telling the audience about their stay in Dallas included adventures in watching bass player Gavin Fox get a tattoo and McDaid buying a cowboy hat that helped make the band seem more down-to-earth and likeable.

Courtesy of Dustin Ryan

Audience members also participated in making a recording for McDaid’s four-month-old godson, Edward Patrick, who had been christened earlier that day in Ireland.

Walking through the crowd, adapting Vega4’s song “Life is Beautiful” to Dallas, McDaid, climbing the side of the stage, left the audience wanting to be carted off to Ireland or New Zealand to continually enjoy the excitement and joy that filled their hearts for nearly an hour.

A short set change and Augustana — which sounds like a mixture of country, rock and a splash of punk, with a few random instruments like harmonicas and steel guitars thrown in — appeared on stage, much to the audience’s excitement.

After such a lively opening act, it was hard to be drawn in to the new performers’ slow music that was almost overpowered by audience chit-chat. The band didno’ put on a bad show, but it wasn’t all too amazing either.

Lead singer Dan Layus introduced new songs from their upcoming album, including “I’ll Meet You There Someday,” written for his six-month-old daughter. The song was obviously written behind strong emotion, with soulful lyrics explaining that she only knows his voice through a microphone. Credit goes to Layus for writing the song, but it still evoked two questions: Why the random cursing in a song for a baby and where exactly is “there”?

Frustration from the era of Meatloaf’s “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” came flooding back at full throttle. What was “that?” Listeners still don’t know.

Apparently Layus finds this to be an excellent question for the masses to try to figure out. Where is it? Puberty? Prom? Heaven? Hell?

The two performances left everyone feeling both beautiful and loved by the two band. It was worth the 30-minute wait of terrible background music played during the initial setup.