The moon is down and heaven is waiting....

A day or two ago, I was talking to my friend Carlos about Bamboozle 2005. His band, Lakota, played the big 3 day music festival last month in Asbury Park, NJ. One of the most anticipated sets during the festival was Further Seems Forever's, not so much because everyone is a massive Further Seems Forever fan, but because for this one day only, Further was going to perform all the songs from their debut record, The Moon is Down, with their original singer, Chris Carrabba.

I first heard about Further Seems Forever in the summer of 2001. I think everyone goes through little periods where they get tired of some of the stuff they listen to. That was definitely the case with me. I think I was listening to so much heavy stuff and needed to tone it down a bit. Further was good for that. I read a little news item about them on some music site. Along with the little bit of news, there was a picture of a tattooed guy with really dark hair leaning into a sea of kids. He was singing to them, and they were singing back. Then I started hearing from other people that Further had just put out this cd called The Moon is Down and that is was so incredibly amazing and that I had to hear it ASAP. I found a couple of songs online, and loved them. So I went out and got the cd.

It was a while before I realized that Chris Carrabba had left the band by the time I started listening to them. I was surprised to learn that not only had he already recorded and released an EP, but two records as well; an acoustic solo cd called The Swiss Army Romance in 2000 followed up by The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most in 2001. Who was this dude, and was he making an album like every 6 months?

So I bought the two Dashboard records when I went back to school in the fall. My friends started getting into Dashboard and Further too, and before we knew it, we were all emoed out! Of course we were thrilled when we heard that Further Seems Forever would be touring with Dashboard Confessional. We had heard that Further's new singer, Jason, was pretty good, and we of course were eager to see Dashboard and scream the words to all the songs out with the rest of the kids. 'Cause that's what you do at Dashboard shows, you sing louder than Chris.

On December 5th, 2001, I went to the Masquerade with my friends to see Fairweather, Further Seems Forever, Seville, and Dashboard Confessional. I wondered if it would be weird hearing someone else sing the songs that I was so used to Chris singing. But Jason did a fantastic job, and after a while, I didn't even think of it. But then in the middle of their last song, New Year's Project (definitely the most emo out of all of the tracks on the album) who should appear from backstage but Chris Carrabba. He had a mic in his hands and started singing, "I'm waiting to give you whatever the world may bring..." and the place just errupted. He sang for maybe a minute, but I enjoyed that short moment more than anything else I saw that night. Most of the people who loved The Moon Is Down like I did never got to see Chris with Further. So it was definitely a treat to hear him sing part of New Year's Project. I thought, "Yes. Now this is the way it's supposed to be."

Jason is no longer with the band. They have a new singer named Jon. It was very cool of Jon to step aside and let Chris perform with the band for Bamboozle. I'm sure it was an amazing experience for everyone who saw their set.

I didn't think that there were any more pictures of FSF with Chris floating around on the net, but after a little searching, I found one!

Lakota recently toured with Further Seems Forever, and Carlos told me that he had a great time out on the road with the guys. I haven't heard much from them post How to Start a Fire, but they've still got tons of kids coming out to see them, so they're still going strong.

The Moon is Down is a really fantastic album, and I still listen to it often. Give it a listen if you ever get the chance.