The Morning Call: Metro Station gets crowd to shake it at Croc Rock

Neither electro-pop band Metro Station nor rising Disney star Mitchel Musso have songs that will change the world, so it’s possible someone attending their show Friday at Allentown’s Crocodile Rock could have been disappointed.

But it was a pretty raucous, if harmless, affair for what was essentially a ‘tween concert. And it had enough cool moments – meant euphemistically:  the tightly-packed, sold-out crowd of more than 1,000 actually had the place swelteringly hot — to make it memorable.

And the fact that the crowd was made up of ‘tweens — and their parents, who watched from the back — and judging by the intensity with which the audience jumped, screamed and crowd-surfed — meant probably no one left dissatisfied.

Metro Station’s biggest fault as a headliner is that they only have one record, already two years old, with only 10 songs on it. So even after playing nine of them (they skipped “True to Me”) and a new song, “Coming Around,” they still only played 40 minutes. That’s one song and 10 minutes longer than as the opening act for Simple Plan at last year’s Allentown Fair.

But they did everything they could to make the time count. Lead guitarist Trace Cyrus stalked the stage and by the fifth song — an excellent “Kelsey” for which the crowd screamed — he was breathing hard from running around so much. Cyrus blew the crowd a kiss after they sang all the words – not surprising, since they did on nearly every song. “How many of you know all the songs on the record?” he asked, and they responded with a cheer.

Cyrus also spun his guitar around his neck, took his shirt off before the last song, “Control,” and played that song from his knees. “Don’t let me down, guys,” he told the crowd. “I said Pennsylvania’s the ——- best. Prove it!”

In fact, Cyrus constantly talked to the crowd. He told them on the first song, “Wish We Were Older”: “Let’s make this the craziest ——- show ever!”  On “Now That We’re Done,” he told them, “This isn’t a showroom concert, this is a ——- party!”

Of course, Metro Station is going to have to clean up its language when it starts opening for Cyrus’s sister, Miley, on her tour in October.

Lead singer Mason Musso also dropped the f-bomb, saying the place was so hot because of all the “sexy —— people, that’s why!” And Cyrus used it when Mitchel Musso came out to help sing Metro Station’s big hit, “Shake It,” crediting the younger Musso with introducing the Metro Station front men while working with Miley Cyrus on Disney’s “Hanna Montana” TV show. Mason Musso also kissed his younger brother during the song.

Mitchell Musso’s set was a blink-and-miss-it 15 minutes of driving pop, although he also worked the crowd, singing “Do It Up,” “Get Out,” his hit “Hey” and the closing “Shout It,” for which he took off his shirt and threw it to the crowd.

Amid the chaos of the crowd, it was hard to tell, but it appeared Musso didn’t sing all of his vocals.

Source- The Morning Call