I’m not going to lie; I am an AFI fan boy. Anytime AFI is in Arizona, I am there. As a grown man and a card carrying member of AFI’s fan club, the Despair Faction, you will see me in the front row screaming like a like a 14 year old girl.

I was first to show up at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe, sitting outside while it was still dark at 7am. Surprisingly, the next 12 hours went by fast, after more people started showing up and we talked about our excitement. We were able to listen to AFI’s sound check through the back door and heard covers of “Stop” by Jane’s Addiction and “Nothin’ but a Good Time” by Poison. Definitely a rare treat for all us fans.

Once the doors open and everyone started packing into the venue, the opening local act Audra, took the stage. They performed their set well, including classic Audra song “Your So Pretty (The Basement Song)” and a few songs off their new album Everything Changes.

In contrast to Audra, next was the straight edge, hardcore band Ceremony. Ceremony brings their own brand of hardcore, which intensifies the crowd. Ceremony was riveting to watch as vocalist Bret Helm spent most of his time running along the barricade getting everyone to participate. To be completely honest, I was shocked at AFI fans huge response to Ceremony.

After Ceremony, you could feel the crowd’s anticipation for AFI with everyone squeezing together, swaying as a group. After 30 minutes, the background music softened and red lights pulsed on stage to the sound of a beating heart. Guitarist Jade Puget, bassist Hunter Burgan and drummer Adam Carson entered the stage. Their set started with “Medicate”, the lead single off of 2009’s album Crash Love. Singer Davey Havok rushes the stage and instantly the exchange of energy between AFI and the crowd was overwhelming. Time went by too fast, as their set was non-stop, with little talking in between songs.  As every song started, the crowd would respond with a roar, especially with the radio hits “Girls Not Grey”, “The Leaving Song Pt. 2” and “Miss Murder”. AFI did play a few older songs off of 1996’s album Very Proud of Ya; “File 13” and “Love is a Many Splendored Thing”. To slow the concert down, AFI played “The Leaving Song” from 2003’s album Sing the Sorrow. Adam and Hunter left the stage for the song since it is only vocals and guitar. It is a deeply emotional song for Davey to perform and for us fans to sing along to. This makes it one of the most memorable parts of the night for myself. The set picked back up with “Death of Seasons” and eventually ended the show with an encore of “Silver and Cold”, a single off of album, Sing the Sorrow.  It was a great show that did live up to my fan boy expectations.

Set list:

Medicate
Girl’s Not Grey
The Leaving Song Pt. II
I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here
Kill Caustic
End Transmission

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