Disclaimer: I have been a massive Close Your Eyes fan for a long time. I own every single available release from the Close Your Eyes Ep to the Prepackaged Hope EP. I've seen the band twice prior to this set at Warped Tour and honestly thoroughly enjoy "Line in the Sand" (the only full album release with new vocalist Sam). Close Your Eyes has been a favorite band of mine for a while now.
After the set in Camden, my thoughts have seriously changed.
I've narrowed down my thoughts to three major reasons why I was seriously disappointed with the CYE set at this year's Vans Warped Tour.
The first comes down to stage presence. The band that I saw was not the band that I was expecting to see. I've seen tours before and I've seen shows that have been terribly off and haven't held that against the artists; after seeing this set, I really feel that they took this entire set as a joke. I can take some silliness, but the overall goofiness didn't come off to me as fun, rather it came off as a complete joke. Examples including yodeling during the lyrics of songs, jumping into the singing of songs late and missing lines, and the overall look of the group on stage. This may seem really intense (and maybe it was just a one day thing), but it's really how I walked away feeling.
Going right off of that, another frustration I wanted to bring out was the struggle of cohesion between this basically entire new lineup. There is only one original member in Close Your Eyes and in hearing the line up, I found that the overall sound didn't mesh. It didn't work. It sounded all over the place and definitely didn't seem like a solid, well rehearsed, touring band (which shouldn't be the case, especially if a lineup has had the opportunity to perform day after day, after day).
My biggest frustration though came back to the setlist itself and the confusion in many of the songs that were performed. Sam Ryder is not Shane Raymond, nor does he perform any of the vocals on heavier CYE songs live. As a result, harder vocal duties were just passed around throughout the group members or through special guests. Honestly, if you can't do the vocals, then limit the songs that you can't do and focus on ones that you can. The back catalog would be rough in that respect, but with that said focus on crowd favorites and past singles obviously throughout the set (Song For the Broken, Valleys, Digging Graves) and on current songs that focus in on Sam's strengths (Frame and Glass, Kings of John Payne, even throwback songs like Erie, etc.). The setlist was all over and needed to be reworked to reflect the band as it is now and not as it once was.
Maybe I am being harsh but after reading just a couple of the thoughts after the show, I felt that I wanted to just express my disappointment after what I thought would be one of my highlights of the day. Will I give Close Your Eyes another chance? Absolutely and in all of this, I still really enjoy each album release.
Bands change and shift and so do listeners. At the end of the day, the guys in CYE need to continue to do what they feel will keep them relevant and what will keep them going. It's not all about me and I recognize it. I'm just happy to be able to share my opinion on this whole thing.
- Jeffrey Schultz
After the set in Camden, my thoughts have seriously changed.
I've narrowed down my thoughts to three major reasons why I was seriously disappointed with the CYE set at this year's Vans Warped Tour.
The first comes down to stage presence. The band that I saw was not the band that I was expecting to see. I've seen tours before and I've seen shows that have been terribly off and haven't held that against the artists; after seeing this set, I really feel that they took this entire set as a joke. I can take some silliness, but the overall goofiness didn't come off to me as fun, rather it came off as a complete joke. Examples including yodeling during the lyrics of songs, jumping into the singing of songs late and missing lines, and the overall look of the group on stage. This may seem really intense (and maybe it was just a one day thing), but it's really how I walked away feeling.
Going right off of that, another frustration I wanted to bring out was the struggle of cohesion between this basically entire new lineup. There is only one original member in Close Your Eyes and in hearing the line up, I found that the overall sound didn't mesh. It didn't work. It sounded all over the place and definitely didn't seem like a solid, well rehearsed, touring band (which shouldn't be the case, especially if a lineup has had the opportunity to perform day after day, after day).
My biggest frustration though came back to the setlist itself and the confusion in many of the songs that were performed. Sam Ryder is not Shane Raymond, nor does he perform any of the vocals on heavier CYE songs live. As a result, harder vocal duties were just passed around throughout the group members or through special guests. Honestly, if you can't do the vocals, then limit the songs that you can't do and focus on ones that you can. The back catalog would be rough in that respect, but with that said focus on crowd favorites and past singles obviously throughout the set (Song For the Broken, Valleys, Digging Graves) and on current songs that focus in on Sam's strengths (Frame and Glass, Kings of John Payne, even throwback songs like Erie, etc.). The setlist was all over and needed to be reworked to reflect the band as it is now and not as it once was.
Maybe I am being harsh but after reading just a couple of the thoughts after the show, I felt that I wanted to just express my disappointment after what I thought would be one of my highlights of the day. Will I give Close Your Eyes another chance? Absolutely and in all of this, I still really enjoy each album release.
Bands change and shift and so do listeners. At the end of the day, the guys in CYE need to continue to do what they feel will keep them relevant and what will keep them going. It's not all about me and I recognize it. I'm just happy to be able to share my opinion on this whole thing.
- Jeffrey Schultz
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