THE STARTING LINE AT FRANKLIN MUSIC HALL IN PHILADELPHIA, PA
The Starting Line played their annual holiday show at the Franklin Music Hall in Philadelphia this year. With support from Thin Lips and State Champs, the evening was full of pop punk goodness and energy for the audience. It was my first time making it out to see The Starting Line (Yeah, I know, how did I miss them until now?!) and I was very pleased with the performance I saw.
Opening the show was Thin Lips, a band local to Philadelphia. Their set started off a little slow until audience members warmed up to them. The vocalist/guitarist and their other guitarist had some really great moments together when singing harmonies throughout the set.
Next up to play was State Champs. The crowd immediately went wild the minute they walked on stage. State Champs played a great mix of newer and older songs throughout their set. Watching front man Derek DiScanio and bassist Ryan Scott Graham run around on stage was entertaining, as was watching guitarist Tony Diaz head bang and jam out. State Champs has a great way of getting the crowd pumped up and really had every dancing and singing along. Crowd surfers came flying over the barricade through the entire set and watching the crowd was equally as fun as watching the band on stage.
Headlining the show was The Starting Line. First thing right off the bat you could tell that the band was incredibly personable on stage. Their stage presence is a force to be reckoned with. Frontman Kenny Vasoli was quiet between songs at first but started really interacting with the audience a couple songs in after you could see the band was warmed up to being on stage. As the night progressed, the band got more and more energetic until eventually members were jumping on stage and heavily jamming out. Fans of the band heard tracks such as “Quitter”, “Birds”, and of course “Best of Me”. You could really tell throughout the show that the band and audience were having a great, carefree time.
I am so happy that I was finally able to make it out to see The Starting Line. Keep an eye out next year to see where they’ll be playing! I would highly suggest you don’t miss it as they really don’t tour anymore and it’s a great way to catch them!
Nicole DiBenedetto is a photographer based out of New Jersey. She likes making new friends and meeting new people so catch her out in the pit and say hi!