By snoadmin
Good Charlotte took a night off from touring with Justin Timberlake to rock the House of Blues in Anaheim Saturday night.
The band opened with a song from its new album “Good Morning Revival” before playing the fan favorite “The Anthem,” which made the crowd scream and jump. The mix of old and new songs kept the crowd cheering and dancing.
The audience was made up of people from all age groups. There were fans under 16 that had to be accompanied by an adult as well as fans who looked to be in their 50s.
Good Charlotte’s new album features songs with more of a dance beat such as “Dance Floor Anthem.”
Lead singer Joel Madden was a crowd favorite, especially when he signed pictures that had been thrown at him from the crowd. One fan with excellent aim hit Joel right in the face.
The band played songs that kept the audience rocking and jumping for most of the show, but it slowed things down at one point and asked the audience to hold up their cell phones in honor of someone they love or care about. Some audience members hugged their friends while wiping away tears and singing along to “Hold On.”
During the show, most of the band members walked off the stage, leaving guitarist Benji Madden alone with his acoustic guitar. Benji played two songs on his own, including the ballad “Emotionless.”
When the whole band reassembled onstage, it asked the crowd what they wanted to hear. There was a deafening cry for the band’s earlier songs such as “Waldorfworldwide” and””Little Things.”
Good Charlotte showed an appreciation for the audience and all of Orange County, talking about how much it enjoys playing there and how beautiful the residents of the O.C. are. Joel even said it was “the best-looking crowd in Orange County.”
At one point in the night Joel had most of the people standing in front of the stage join him in doing the “Robot.”
The band played “The River” and left the stage as if the show had ended. When coming back for an encore Joel joked that, since they had been touring with Justin Timberlake, they weren’t really used to playing for so long. He said they would keep going as long as the bar stayed open, but the band only played a few more songs before ending with “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” which thrilled the crowd and made most of them jump in unison when Joel asked them to.
Good Charlotte took a break in the middle of the last song to encourage aspiring musicians in the audience to keep trying. Making music and performing for fans was the “best thing that could have happened to [them].”
Although the House of Blues in Anaheim is located in Downtown Disney, there was nothing Disney-like about the atmosphere in the concert hall that night. Good Charlotte’s mix of old and new songs was an oasis of punk rock in the midst of family fun.
