Switchfoot – Switchfoot 2021 Tour (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheater – October 14, 2021) – Concert Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic

A week after the Alice Cooper and Ace Frehley shows at Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheater, I’m back for another show. This time around we are seeing Switchfoot as they open for one of my favorite bands, Needtobreathe. I had never seen Switchfoot and like a lot of their songs so I was excited to see them as they are a great compliment to Needtobreathe. A great double bill.

Now there was an opening act called The New Respects. They are a family band out of Nashville and were pop, funk, rock and a whole lot of fun. The lead guitarists is a young lady by the name of Zandy Fitzgerald who was mad woman on the guitar. She also had a lot of style and you could tell she had some star potential. She was very likable. The interesting thing about The New Respects is they are the background singers for Needtobreathe during the show so very cool that Needtobreathe gave them the opening slot to shine on their own. I don’t have a decent photo of them, but when you get to the Needtobreathe Concert review, they will pop up there so go check that review out as well.

Back to Switchfoot, the band is a rock band out of San Diego, California and lead singer Jon Foreman has the surfing, hippie thing going that brings a certain charm to the band live that you don’t necessarily get in their studio albums. Seeing him perform is a different experience.

Being one of the opening acts, Switchfoot played for about 45 minutes and went through 9 great tracks in their setlist. Some I knew and some I didn’t. Bare with me on the Setlist as I didn’t write it down, but here we go…

  1. Where I Belong
  2. Meant to Live
  3. Float (with Zandy Fitzgerald of The New Respects)
  4. I Need You (To Be Wrong)
  5. I Won’t Let You Go
  6. Fluorescent
  7. Stars
  8. Only Hope
  9. Dare You to Move

The band came roaring out with two rockers that I know. “Where I Belong” off their 2011 album ‘Vice Versa’ and a classic from their breakthrough album 2003’s ‘The Beautiful Letdown’. I immediately got to see the free spirit Foreman is as he ran around the stage in an almost care-free kind of attitude taking him where ever the feeling took him. He was in his own little world and it was a magical world filled with rainbows and unicorns. His vocals were great and you could hear the magic you hear on the studio versions. Two great tracks that most fans know and got everything off to a great start.

On the song “Float”, Zandy Fitzgerald of The New Respects came out to assist on guitar and just blew everyone away. And the song was full of bubbles and who doesn’t love bubbles!! A fun-filled energy performance and the crowd was eating it up. Speaking of the crowd, they were singing along with every song and you could tell they loved Switchfoot almost as much as they do Needtobreathe, but not quite as they went ever more wild for NTB.

The band rattled through a few more songs and played a couple off the new album ‘Interrobang’ which I have no idea what that word means, but the songs were great and the fans seem to absorb the new tracks like the were old classics. I especially liked the song “Fluorescent”.

Then we get to the final 3 songs and kicking off that was the song “Stars” from their 2005 album, ‘Nothing is Sound’ which is another favorite of mine. Then the band says they are going to play a song that is not on the setlist and it was called “Only Hope”, here’s the thing. They have played that one at almost every show so I’m really thinking the song is on the setlist and he was trying to make us think they were playing something special. Or they were really lazy and never had anyone actually add it to the written setlist. The final song was “Dare You To Move” and it is probably their biggest hit as it reach #17 on the Billboard Top 40. The crowd was digging it and singing at the top of their lungs an so was I. It is the perfect closer to another great show. I would love to catch them as the headliner so I could get more of my favorite songs, but this will hold me over nicely until then.

27 thoughts on “Switchfoot – Switchfoot 2021 Tour (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheater – October 14, 2021) – Concert Review”

              1. Did that after the Maiden show in ’16. 2.5 hour drive one way to get down there, then 5 hours back in white-out blizzard, really tense, really slow going, wipers on full, headache from three hours of breathing in other peoples’ pot smoke ugh. Not something I want to repeat.

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                  1. Yeah it wasn’t at all optimal – found out the next morning that the detour we had to take out into the countryside at 2am was because folks had died in a collision with a big truck. And I say that as a guy who has lived in through 46 Canadian winters (approaching 47). There are just some trips that, afterwards, you think ‘damn, I should’ve stayed and tried again in the morning.” We never learn lol.

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                    2. And we won’t stop for directions, either! Lol

                      Honestly, the more years behind me, the more I think “I’m too old for this shit” and am less likely to try it. We tried after Maiden because it had been fine on the way down to the city, it only blew up during the show (and buried us all throughout the night). And that was on April 4th. You’d figure that was the tail end of winter, we should be past all that, right? Ha.

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  5. That’s a pretty good combination of bands. I saw Switchfoot years ago in a small club. They were great! At one point, Jon decided he wanted to mingle. He climbed up to a balcony to sing with us.

    On a side note, one of my favourite Canadian acts teamed up with Jon for a song years ago. They wrote On Fire from the Beautiful Letdown album. It almost didn’t appear on the album, as I’m sure the other writer wanted it for himself. Anyway, the other guy started a band called Neverending White Lights. He (guy’s name is Daniel Victor) wrote a bunch of songs, but got other singers to sing them. It’s a different dynamic, having other singers involved. He performed more songs on the subsequent albums, but kept bringing in other singers. I think he’s one of the best writers to come out of Canada in the last twenty years.

    I haven’t heard of NeedtoBreathe. I’ll add them to the list of bands to check out!

    I’m jealous that you’re going to shows!

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    1. Cool you’ve seen Switchfoot. I would like to see them as headliners now. Thanks for the heads up on Daniel Victor, I will look out for his stuff. And NTB is fantastic. One of my favorite bands, worth checking out to see if they are your cup of tea.

      Now, I am out of shows. No more on the calendar at the moment. Need to find more.

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  7. Pingback: Needtobreathe – Into the Mystery Tour 2021 (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheater – October 14, 2021) – Concert Review – 2 Loud 2 Old Music

  8. Just found Vice Verses deluxe edition with the live cd at 2nd hand store. Only had Oh gravity before, listening to that one now.

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