During a week of heavy rain storms coming across the Portland area, there needed to be a break from the grey weather of life in Portland. Switchfoot rolled into town during their fall tour to give the wet Portland crowd something to cheer for along with opening act Paper Route. Having seen Switchfoot last year in Spokane Washington I knew the performance would be good. I’am not even sure what they did or how they did it but there performance on Thursday night at the Crystal Ballroom was 100% better in every aspect then the first time.

Having been touring on Vice Verses(their most recent album) for over year now, Switchfoot’s setlist have started to incorporate more songs from previous records. Singer-Frontman Jon Forman walked on stage wearing a black leather jacket and hoodie with the hood up, behind his brother/bassist Tim Foreman, lead guitarist Drew Shirley, drummer Chad Butler, and guitarist/keyboards Jerome Fontamillas. The opening began with the heavy, fast, and crowd participating song The Sound. Jon Foreman grabbed the mic and took off his guitar, hung the strap over the mic stand. The performance that followed was both unbelievable and intense. During the first three songs I was so into the performance and music happening in front of my eyes that I was forgetting to breath. Even my nervous system could not control itself. Second opening song was the popular song was Stars. With an incredible stage performance from Switchfoot and an equally impressive lighting design elevated each song more then they where on the cd, each song being design to be heard live.

Pushing incredible boundaries from recorded music to a what I think might be the performance of the year from the past concerts I have been to Switchfoot preformed more great songs to come including Restless, Dare You to Move, Hello, Hurricane, and Dark Horses. During the end of The Original Foreman made his way to out into the crowd and becoming one with the fans. He got all the way to the side of the Crystal Ballroom and stood up on a bench near the wall. All of the fans soon were attracted to the side of the room before Forman began the next song and made his way through the crowd to join his band members back on stage. After an incredible night from the Christian based rock band Switchfoot and impresive encore the last song of the night began, Where I Belong. As the soft music began Jon Foreman was given a white banner from a fan in the crowd with the song title written on the front. Foreman held up the banner in front of him while he began the song. As the song ended and the nights end was nearing the band all koing arms and arm at the front of the stage to give a final bow before heading off stage ending a night the fans of Portland would not soon forget.

Setlist

The Sound
Stars
The War Inside
Mess of Me
This is You Life
Restless
Rise Above It
Meant to Live
The Original
Dare You to Move
Hello Hurricane
Dark Horses

Encore:
Souvenirs
Where I Belong

Switchfoot 1-28 (Photos by Logan Westom)