Hit The Lights’ “Skip School, Start Fights Tour” – REVIEW

We had the chance to attend the Chicago date of Hit The Lights’ “Skip School, Start Fights Tour” with Major League, Light Years, Brigade, and July. You can check out our review of the tour, after the break.

Skip School, Start Fights. For many this was a very important album during their early teenage years. Several years later and this cd is still being jammed out to. Hit the Lights have come a long way and I love that they are still around and making music for those who love them now just as much as before.

Starting off the night was a Canadian band called July. I honestly need to start giving more credit to opening bands. The fact that they played to a not so full room and were still very energetic, I give them props. They were better than I expected and I would love to see them live again. Check out their new album, What We Signed Up For, to see what I mean. They were also super nice guys talking to everyone after the show and giving out free stickers.

Brigade was up next and they too surprised me. Having never heard of them, I personally liked what I heard. To listen for yourself, you can download their EP, Crocodile Tears, on Amazon. Hopefully they are on tour again soon and in Chicago again.

Up next was Light Years. Now I’m glad they came back to Chicago considering only about three months ago their last time here, in the same city, at the same venue, their van got broken into. I also like how this seemed to turn into a joke among the bands, talking about breaking into vans in Chicago. They seemed good sports about it though. Their album, I Won’t Hold This Against You, was released last year and I myself, love the song, “Parking Lots”. So check them out and see what you think.

New Jersey natives, Major League, were up next. The energy in the room when they started definitely went up. People began jumping from the stage into the crowd and several circle pits started up. They are a fun band to see live and I feel like they are always on some tour so I would go check them out if you haven’t already. Their album, Hard Feelings, is out now and in the fall they should be ready to put out some new music so be on the lookout for that.

I love when a band does an album tour. First you get to hear ALL the songs on that album that otherwise you probably would not hear on tour. Second it brings people together who can reminisce where they were when they first heard the album, any songs that hit them the most, and since usually the album tour revolves around a pretty influential album, fans can always talk about past and newer albums. Hit the Lights picked the perfect album to do a tour around. Playing Skip School, Start Fights in its entirety plus a few extra such as “309”, “Speakers Blown”, and others, it was a great throwback night. Everyone was singing along, even the band members and people were also moshing and jumping from the stage onto the crowd. Nick was engulfed in the crowd whenever he went to the front and let people sing into the mic as well. It’s a special thing when fans can bond over the same album from different age groups. I’m excited to see what’s to come next from them. They also picked some great up and coming bands for their fans to get to know and support as well.

If you were not able to make it out to a date on this tour, then you missed a great pop punk lineup and show.

Information about this review:
Tour – “Skip School, Start Fights Tour”
Bands – Hit the Lights, Major League, Light Years, Brigade, July
Reviewer – Ali Jimenez
Date – June 7, 2014
Venue – Subterranean in Chicago, IL