The Starting Line Band • Page 10

BOATS is my favorite but all their releases are very good

 

I don't like SILYMI. BOATS is good and Direction is hit or miss

 

Love that song. I still really wish Nights and Weekends would've made it onto BOATS.

 

Where the hell are all these B sides coming form that I've never heard??

 

Gone are the days of buying 4-5 different versions of an album for the bonus tracks exclusives! The internet is a beautiful thing. B-sides galore!

 

My favorite starting line song by far

 

Everyone should listen to Nights and Weekends. I've been saying so for years

 

Oh shit I never heard this version of Nights and Weekends! I used to know it by it's demo name, "Is It True Do You Hate Me?" - Probably the TSL song with the highest play count on my iTunes.

 

I'm not sure if this is exactly where they came from, but I remember back in the Purevolume days, The Starting Line held polls periodically where fans voted on which b-side they wanted them to upload next. It was pretty cool digging into their catalog like that.

 

Pictures and Time to Run from Direction are both awesome bsided as well

 

I've seen quite a few comments around criticizing the drummer but that drum part on Saddest Girl Story is so cool

 

Where? He's always been on point every time I've seen them; not revolutionary by any means, but he's always been solid. I think that "safe" might be a good word to describe his drumming.

 

Live videos for the most part, where comments are either "he sucks at keep time" or just generally "drummer sucks". I've also heard different people speculate that a session drummer was needed to do some parts on one or more of the albums or something? I can't imagine that's true though. If it were, I think that information would be far more prevalent.

I think he's good too, though. Even in the live videos where he might seem a bit too eager I think he holds his own

 

The rumor was Trombino did the drums for their first album.

 

Tom plays the songs fine in all the live videos from around that time. Do you know where the rumour came from?

 

Heh. I'm pretty sure I heard it from someone at DTR the first time.

 

He had some good parts on BOATS for sure. Intro to Making Love and verses of Stay Where I Can See You come to mind. Other than those moments and maybe a couple others in their catalogue, he's pretty unremarkable imo. Love TSL to death and he absolutely has done a solid job throughout their material, but he doesn't typically have much else to add other than being a strong backbone for whatever rhythm the stringed instruments are begging for. Considering the genre they've pretty much always stayed within/close to though, I think that's fine.

As far as the live performance stuff, I've never noticed an issue. Back in the SILYMI days they played the songs fast as hell but that was just sorta part of the genre back then haha. Before click tracks became so prominent in the scene, bands just wanted to play as fast as they could it seemed.

 

I actually recall seeing them early on and thinking their drummer was off, then later learning he started playing to a click track because of that, and I saw them afterwards and it was a vast improvement. I don't remember where I heard about the click track, but I would bet money it was on AP

 

Saw them in 05 and it was so much faster than the album. Seen them since in '12 and '16 both were played at correct tempo.

 

Weren't some of Tom's parts on Direction rerecorded behind his back? I think specifically Island. I always thought that was pretty shitty. I don't think it was the band's call, just something producers did when he was out.

I could be wrong..

I remember a few times early on some tempos changing quite a bit in songs, slowing way below tempo and then trying to catch up. Last few times I saw TSL it wasn't an issue at all and Tom was super solid. I don't know why anyone wouldn't play to a click track.

 

Because it's not punk rock \m/

 

touché

 

I remember seeing them right after BOATS came out and it was very clear they'd begun playing to a click, or were at least making an effort to slow themselves down. They opened with Best Of Me and it felt so slow.

 

BOATS is my favorite of theirs, Direction my least favorite. Saw them back in December opening for TBS and it was so amazing, hadn't seen them live since high school, like 2006-ish. Kenny jumped up to the barricade, gave me his pick, and made me pluck the bass strings at the end of "Leaving." Top 3 moment of my musical life right there.

 

I need them to announce their holiday show so I can convince myself to fly-out for it.