It was a blazing 90 degrees at 8 pm outside the San Diego House Of Blues on July 28th as a massive mob of fans waited in line for hours to see the only thing hotter than the sun "Circa Survive"!

The first act of the evening was a band from Texas called The Keating, and boy were these guys boring! The music was a dull mix of Counting Crows and Sunny Day Real Estate, both good bands, but not here. The whole performance, musically and stage presence just seemed lifeless, no heart, no soul, no desire or emotion. In all honesty I almost fell asleep, as I think 1/2 the audience did. So moving on...........

Next was the incredible Portugal The Man, I've been a fan for a while and I'm sure they won over everyone in the house that night. Of the people around me no one had even heard of them, within 2 songs I heard about 100 people saying "God damn!" or "These guys kick ass!" Combining Rush like prog rock with what (unfortunately) can only be described as Mars Volta, Portugal set the stage on fire! Unmatched energy and enthusiasm and a sound that just encompasses you and forces you to rock. These guys are without a doubt headlining material.

Third was another buzz band Receiving End Of Sirens. I really don't know what to feel about this band, their cd is good, kind of boring, however live is a whole different story! This is one of those bands whose live show is just ridiculous and the sad thing is they just can not capture their raw power on cd. In my opinion THEY were the best band of the night, not a dull moment in the set. 30 minutes of earsplitting pulse pounding rock and fuckin roll! I think they may be the best band I've ever seen live.

Finally the moment everyone was waiting for, Circa Survive. The stage was set with huge posters matching the artwork of their breakthrough record "Juturna", complete with the fountain, the woods, the weasel and all. The background was painted by the lighting, which seemed to be almost like the inside of a lava lamp, which made you feel as though you were in a fuckin weird acid trip! The crowd went absolutely insane! At one point singer Anthony Green jumped in the crowd and the girl next to us licked him, obsess much? They played every song off their debut, as well as "Handshakes At Dawn" and a couple new songs which were massively better than their previous work. At the end about 20 clear beach balls with glow sticks in them were thrown into the crowd, only further adding to the acid trip feel. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Circa Survive will be a huge force to be reckoned with!

-Boss Anjo