Tuesday evening was most definitely one for the books as Chris Carrabba and Dashboard Confessional took the stage at the House of Blues in Dallas for a sold-out show.  I remember listening to Dashboard on my MP3 player in middle school and the night definitely brought back the nostalgia of my younger emo days.  Piebald accompanied them on the 20 Year Celebration Tour and the crowd began piling in around 7PM.  I was looking forward to two great performances.

Starting off the night was Piebald.  They hail from Andover, Massachusetts and got the crowd going right away.  I had never heard of them before, but I really enjoyed their incredible 17-song set.  Kicking things off with their song “Long Nights”, they brought an awesome groove to the HOB stage.  Piebald was very high energy and really fun to watch.  You could really tell they have been doing this for a long time.  After doing some research, I found out they have been performing since 1997 – and to be fair, it showed through the talent they exuded on the stage.

For being the opener, Piebald really gave it their all.  They played some of their classic jams like “Grace Kelly With Wings”, “King of the Road”, and “American Hearts”.  I think “King of the Road” was probably one of my favorites from their set.  As Piebald's show came to a close, they finished off with their hit,  “Karate Chops For Everyone But Us”.  It was a fantastic performance and really set the tone for Dashboard to come out and blow us away.

As fans stood toe to heal in the sea of people, Dashboard Confessional took to the stage in an unfamiliar fashion.  Chris Carrabba decided to start things off a little slow with some acoustic jams including “The Best Deceptions” and “So Beautiful”.  It was a truly a beautiful way start to the set and set the stage for the rest of the show.  At this point in the night, the House of Blues was packed, and you could barely move throughout the venue.  Being up so close was literally a dream come true as we all yelled the lyrics to all of Dashboard's incredible songs. Carrabba continued with some more of the hits like “We Fight”, “Screaming Infidelities”, “The Swiss Army Romance”, and so many others. Fans in attendance were loving every moment.

The night was coming to a close,  and you could tell Chris was saving the best songs for last.  Everyone knew it wasn’t actually over when it was “over”.  Moments later, lights come up and they ran right into “Vindicated” and the roars of the crowd seemed to blow the roof off the house.  You could hear every word being sung in the venue.  Dashboard continued the encore with “Stolen” and closed with fan-favorite “Hands Down”.  The performance took me back to a time and place when all that mattered was the music, and I was happy to be able to experience Dashboard Confessional's 20 Year Celebration Tour.  Carrabba and company rocked the House of Blues and never let up the entire time.  If you have the chance to catch them on this tour, you definitely should.  Simply put, it was a great show!