It was a hit fest in Ybor City last night as Florida boy done good Chris Carrabba brought Dashboard Confessional to the Ritz for a sold out show. The 41 year old Carrabba — slicked back hair and all — stuck to the hits and leaned on the early part of his discography for a night of singalongs that is rendering at least 1,000 people voiceless over the weekend. Here's part of what we saw:
He wasted no time making fans happy thanks to a 1-2-3 opening punch of “The Good Fight,” Saints and Sailors” and “The Sharp Hint of New Tears” from those, his first two, LPs. Carrabba — flanked by guitarist AJ Cheek, longtime bass player Scott Schoenbeck and former Brand New/Bad Books/Manchester Orchestra drummer Ben Homola — also spent the night switching between an acoustic and two charmingly worn down Telecasters, but he really only paused to tell a little tale about inclusion before playing a new song, “We Fight.”
The band also played a Twin Forks cut and even worked through that new song written as a reaction to all this hoopla happening these days.
Check out a playlist of songs they played, and read our full review here.
This article appears in Feb 16-23, 2017.