The Maine, Metro Station, Good Charlotte, and Boys Like Girls: July 10, 2012.

The Maine, Metro Station, Good Charlotte, and Boys Like Girls.

That was the lineup for July 10 at the Val Air Ballroom.

With the area filled with mostly teens, as you looked around you could see scattered adults in the crowds or sitting near by. Whether they were accompanying a child or there for their own enjoyment was unknown, but it was a show where you couldn't help but enjoy it. The atmosphere was set with sweating attendants, flying water bottles, and an air conditioner that you couldn't feel.

Opening was 'The Maine', an Arizona based band. They started with an upbeat song, then going into a humorous cover of Akon's "I wanna love you." Shortly after they asked the crowd a few questions. Some including, "How many of you guys have heard of us?" Which in itself was amusing because earlier on they explained they just released an album, and seemed to be pretty unknown to the popular music scene. Yet many people, (myself not included) seemed to have heard of them, as they sang along with their songs.

Next was Metro Station, a California based band. The band includes a Trace Cyrus and Mason Musso, the lesser known sibs of a Miley Cyrus, and Mitchell Musso, who co-star on Hannah Montana together. They are a very synth, dance pop group. With the hit single "Shake It" and "Control" they seem to be pretty well known to more of the teens and other attendants. Yet other songs by the band, were not as well known, maybe its because many people only knew the songs on the radio, not the ones on their album as well. There was jumping and dancing in the crowd as everybody moved along to the music that you couldn't just stand still to, therefore making a very energetic and fun show.

Third band up was the well known group Good Charlotte. They opened with "The Anthem" from their 2003 album, The Young and the Hopeless. Which was fitting with lyrics like, "That I don't ever wanna be like you,
I don't wanna do the things you do.." as an anthem to teens to stand out, as many at the show did. They continued on with a newer single, "The River" then did a flashback to some older stuff, which I was happy about, since I was not very familiar with many songs off their newest album Good Morning Revival. They were very involved with keeping the crowd pumped, and jumping around the stage. As they closed, many people were out of breath, and sweatier than ever.

With the last band approaching, my legs were slowly increasing with pain from standing so long, so I sought out a chair and waited. After a good 20 minute wait, Boys Like Girls finally graced the stage. They immediately mentioned the heat, but pointed out that it would not stop them from having a great time. They opened with a song very familiar to everybody, and the music charts. Slowly after that, they got into songs I didn't know. I'll admit, I skip over a majority of their songs on my iPod. Their set had no encore, and maybe thats because they played every song on their album. To put it simply, many people thought that with only one album, they should not have been the main act. But they did have the attitude and presence of a main act, with their running around, and standing on stereos, they acted like they had been doing this for years. All in all, the three and a half hour show was worth the leg pains and the dehydration.