Drive-Thru Records Showcase

featuring Allister, Midtown, Dashboard Confessional, and New Found Glory

The Lion’s Den, New York City, NY • October 21, 2000

Steve Schwadron

I arrived in New York City for the 2000 CMJ Music Marathon faced with four of the busiest days of my life, and I was damn well going to see the Drive-Thru Records Showcase. It was a matinee show, so it took a little extra effort fitting it into my schedule, but when I showed up at the venue around 3PM and there was a line around the block, I knew that I was going to be treated to one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.

Allister played first and kicked things off with an impressive pop-punk set. They even played a cover of the Backstreet Boys, I believe. Midtown was second, and they had good stage presence. With lots of energy and jumping around the stage, they played pop-punk as well (Drive-Thru Records is mostly a pop-punk label, if you haven’t figured it out yet).

Next up was the newest addition to the Drive-Thru Records family, Dashboard Confessional. If you aren’t familiar with Dashboard Confessional yet, it is just one guy with a guitar singing. It was very good. I would check out the album, too, because I am sure it is a great record.

Last, and obviously not least, New Found Glory came up. I don’t think that there was one person in the whole sold-out Lion’s Den that wasn’t singing along every lyric to every song. I really haven’t seen anything like it before: 100% crowd participation. The sound system could go out and you would still hear all of the words fine. NFG played a medley of their pop-punk love-song favorites. They did songs from Nothing Gold Can Stay, the new self-titled album, and a song from their very first album, which after playing, they swore they would never play again.

In the end, I thought it was the best show I saw during the CMJ Marathon. New Found Glory gave an amazing set, plus Midtown, Allister, and Dashboard Confessional all impressed me. ◼