Evansville
is not one of the places you’ve come to fear the most if you’re Dashboard
Confessional. With three EPs and five studio albums (three gold, one platinum)
under their belt, success and longevity has proven the band from Boca Raton, Florida,
sparked by creative engine Chris Carrabba, doesn’t have much to fear at all.
RISE OF EMO
Dashboard Confessional has come a long way since Carrabba
put together his first song: a comedic country tune crafted to make his brother
laugh. His emotionally charged musical evolution has taken him to great heights;
bringing success and tremendous recognition, not to mention the monster smash
“Screaming Infidelities.” Dubbed the poster boy of emo (a title he’s resistant
to embrace) in the early 2000s, Carrabba has transitioned into a respected
career artist, and with the addition of talented band mates, propelled
Dashboard even further into the limelight.
Carrabba
cut his musical teeth fronting bands The Vacant Andys and the hard rock
Christian act, Further Seems Forever, before a friend encouraged him to pursue
his solo projects full-time. Driven by simple, stripped-down acoustics and an
uncompromised passion for individual and honest expression drenched in emotion,
Dashboard Confessional was born. Meaning behind the name comes from a line off
of his first full-length debut, The Swiss Army Romance: “on the way home, this
car hears my confessions.” He decided against using his identifying name to
catalog his music, instead choosing something that would encompass the efforts
of his musically-inclined friends as well.
Carrabba began incorporating a full-band
sound on 2002’s Summers Kiss EP and 2003’s
A Mark, A Mission,
A Brand, A Scar, which reached the million-selling mark. Soon after,
the band’s revolving lineup was finally made official, and remains unchanged
today. Along with Carrabba, the band includes Scott Schoenbeck (bass), John
Lefler (guitar) and Mike Marsh (drums).
THE MAN BEHIND THE PAIN
At times, Dashboard’s music revolves largely around an
outpouring of pain; a big middle finger to those responsible for the heartbreak
and suffering Carrabba has endured. Songs are forthright with the strife and insecurities
that fill his life performed with vocal clarity and tremendous confidence,
despite Carrabba’s often guarded demeanor and difficulties with stage fright. Carrabba
states, “I may be a very minor public figure, but I’m an extremely private
person.”
For a man
who sings intensely about his feelings, Carrabba might unfairly be
considered soft
by some; a sensitive melodramatic that sits in a dark room all day, crying and
seething to his guitar. Take one look at him and you’ll probably notice the
near mirrored, intricate tattoos covering both of his arms—he acquired his
first tat in a backroom from someone he knew wanting to try out a recently
purchased tattoo gun. He frequents the gym, watches boxing and found his way
into scraps and scuffles throughout high school and college. “They probably
wouldn’t think that because I’ve written about feelings and not about getting
into fights,” he says. As a youth, he developed an affinity for punk-rock music
and even garnered a few sponsorships as a trick-performing skateboarder, shedding
light on the contrasting layers that embody the Dashboard front man today.
Now, in his
early thirties, this former after-school and camp counselor routinely finds
himself on stages all over the world, charged with electricity, pouring his songs
out to participating audiences that often shout along with fierce vigor. The
songs Carrabba creates on his own and with the collaboration of his Dashboard
band mates are more than just songs;
they foster emotional connections to audiences that most bands will aspire to
but never reach throughout their careers. Carrabba’s deep passion for his
music, along with intimate performance atmospheres and enthusiastic crowd
participation help make Dashboard performances memorable for all in attendance.
He remarks, “Any show I do, big or small, just playing some random place, it
always makes me feel really alive.”
ROLLING ON
Their latest album (released October 2007), The Shade of Poison Trees, marks a
return to the sound Carraba became known for years ago. Driven by singles
“Thick as Thieves” and “These Bones,” the album is still going strong. Even
then, Carrabba is always inspired to write new songs, indicating the band is working
on their sixth studio album, which they are recording with producer/Fountains
of Wayne and Ivy bassist Adam Schlesinger. No matter what the future brings for
Dashboard, success seems imminent.
Dashboard Confessional
will be playing April 19th at 6:45 p.m. with special guest Five Times August at
Springfest 2008 on the campus of USI.
Tickets will be made available to USI
students ($10), faculty, staff and alumni ($20), and the general public ($25. Tickets can be
purchased in the Orr
Center Lobby from 8 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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Sources (quotes):
Rollingstone.com, “Dashboard Confessional’s King of Pain,”
Gavin Edwards, posted July
08, 2002.
EW.com, “Five Rounds with…Dashboard Confessional,” Caryn
Ganz, posted June
09, 2006.
Vagrant.com, Vagrant Artist Info,
www.vagrant.com/artist/index/11
