On Wednesday night in Dallas, fans came together for an intimate show with The Almost and their special guests in the Cambridge Room at the House of Blues.  This show was to feature their 2007 release Southern Weather in its entirety.  To give context, the Cambridge room is a smaller venue on the second floor of the House of Blues.  I’ve always liked this room because you get to be up close and personal with the bands and that intimacy was key for fans primed and ready for a rocking night.  Add in the fact that this was the last show of the If I Believed You Tour and we were all off to the races!

To get things kicked off, a local band from College Station, Odd Folks, jumped on stage to get the show started.  Getting their start in 2015, Odd Folks have been working on making their impact in the scene and think this was a great show for them to get noticed.  Opening with their song “Friends”, you could really tell the crowd was enjoying it.  Odd Folks was the perfect band to open up this show.

Next up was the one-piece act, Riley Matthew Anglen (better known as “ROWDY”).  He's also the current bassist for The Almost.  Rowdy took his performance in another direction that night as he pulled out his acoustic guitar and started playing some country songs he wrote with Aaron Gillespie in the middle of a desert.  My favorite song he played was “Hang It On”.  It was a beautiful performance and complete change of pace for the show.  I never thought I would be so into hearing some country tunes in the middle of a rock concert, but these were special.  Well done!

Following Rowdy were Alabama natives, Ghost Atlas, a band that has a huge talent for making emotion come alive through their songs.  I think I was most impressed with the talent of Jesse Cash, who is also guitar and vocals for the band ERRA of Sumerian Records.  Jesse has a way of hitting notes that seem impossible to hit while screaming.  Ghost Atlas started as a side project for Jesse and it has blossomed into a phenomenal band.  The song I think I liked the most was their closer, “Sacred Organs”.  It was a burst of pure rock grit and they really crushed it.  I plan to see them next time they come through Dallas.

Giving Ghost Atlas a run for their money were the coastal boys in All Get Out.  Formed by Nathan Hussey (Vocals/Guitar) and Kyle Samuel (Guitar), these guys came out without skipping a beat and picked up where Ghost Atlas left off the previous set.  Never seeing All Get Out before, I knew was in for a treat as they had the coveted 2nd spot right before The Almost.  Unconventionally,  they opened up with their most streamed track on Spotify, “The Season” and it definitely got the crowd’s attention.  Song after song, All Get Out was not letting up until they got to their final song, “ATX”.  It’s like they slowed it all the way down just to go the hardest they could at the end.  Great performance all around.

After a number of great bands had performed, The Almost was finally ready to take the stage.  Their singer and guitarist Aaron Gillespie, also the drummer in the band Underoath, had a stage presence to him that exuded so much confidence which made for great photos.  They all came out rocking the stage with the song “Summer Weather” and the crowd was there for it.  The Clearwater, Florida rock band was so in sync and giving it their all on this final performance of the If I Believed You Tour.  They played more of the hits from Southern Weather like “Drive There Now”, “I Mostly Copy Other People”, and “Say This Sooner” to name a few.

The night was phenomenal in every sense and I enjoyed every second of it.  At one point the band members, besides Aaron, said thank you to the crowd for a great night and tour then exited the stage.  Aaron stayed on stage and grabbed his acoustic guitar.  He said he doesn’t understand the point of going off stage to come back on, so he just went straight into the encore, playing two songs, “Dirty and Left Out” and “Amazing Because It Is”.  Everyone could feel the energy in the Cambridge room during those two songs and it was awesome to see the entire crowd singing along.  Aaron ended it on a soft note thanking everyone for coming out to see them on this tour run.  What a show!