The Weakerthans, The New Amsterdams & Raising the Fawn | Town Ballroom, Buffalo

The Town Ballroom, which usually does a great job of brining acts that will fill out its performance space to capacity, was about only half-filled Sunday night, but the crowd was a devoted one, excited to see their favorite band from Winnipeg.

I came in during Raising the Fawn's set, which was mostly an uninspiring alt-rock set, despite the fact the band features John Crossingham of Broken Social Scene. The band released "The Maginot Line" earlier this year.

The closest I would ever get to seeing The Get Up Kids was when The New Amsterdams took the stage. Led by former GUK frontman Matthew Pryor, the band creates a beautiful blend of emo, folk, and alt-country. At times their performance was a bit mild, sparing a few songs where they picked up the pace, including a great upbeat rendition of "Proceed with Caution." There were some devoted New Ams fans in attendance, but some of the crowd was getting impatient and bored with the bands style. Matt Pryor & Co. could benefit greatly from a smaller, more intimate setting. The band is supporting their latest release, "Story Like a Scar."

John K. Samson took the stage all by himself to start off The Weakerthans set with "One Great City!" and it only got better from there as the band played songs from all three of their albums, but mostly from their last two, "Left and Leaving" and "Reconstruction Site." Besides his guitar solo on a new song, which featured his "guitar solo face," Samson was very still most of the night. But bassist John P. Sutton and the touring guitarist really got the crowd going as the night went on, jumping around and doing some flashy guitar work. The band also debuted several new songs, one about bus drivers, and another about Bigfoot! The bands newer material is more downtempo and more folk, alt-country influenced, as several of the songs are on "Reconstruction Site." "Aside," "Watermark," "Plea from a Cat Named Virtue," "and "Our Retired Explorer" rocked and the band definitely didn't disappoint this devoted crowd.

Tomorrow I will be in Toronto again, rocking it old skool this time with my Pops for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young!