The Office Depot Center on May 10, 2003, looked more like a street fair than a punk rock show. Honda Civic and MTV’s Total Request Live brought the co-headlining tour of New Found Glory and Good Charlotte to Sunrise, FL.

“Working with Honda allows [us] to do things like keep our ticket prices lower. It just brought more to the tour for our fans, you know?” said Joel of Good Charlotte.

More is what concertgoers were treated to, but the question remains, more of what? From the parking lot to the show, the division between advertisement and entertainment became ambiguous.

Bright yellow caught the eyes’ attention as a monumental display tent was set up just to the side of the stairs ascending to the box office and entrance. The tent was home to a multimedia product showcase cleverly disguised as hip or trendy. Up on pedestals were custom Honda Civic cars that were designed by the bands for a contest giveaway. There was also a free digital photo both hooked up to a website so you can download a reminder of the day’s spam.

The arena, capacity 19,250 for hockey, was sold out to the second of the three levels, minus the area behind and to the side of the stage.

The first of the opening bands, Hot Rod Circuit, seemed out of place playing in a venue so large, considering their last headlining show at the Factory in Ft. Lauderdale topped out at around 100 attendees. The Vagrant-label veterans sounded significantly better on the louder, more expensive sound system.

MXPX took the stage next and commanded the audience with ease. The three-piece band was no stranger to this setting after playing countless large-scale tours and rounding off this year with a Diet Pepsi commercial televised during the Super Bowl. To jog your memory check out the website, http://www.pepsi.com/current/diet_pepsi/tvads.html. It is the one labeled “Mud.”

MXPX playing catchy pop-punk songs like “Responsibility” and “Chick Magnet” were the ideal warm-up for Good Charlotte.

Opening with “Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous” may have not been the best move by Good Charlotte, unless they were somehow taking a cheap laugh at their own celebrity-endorsed situation. The lyrics from that song, “All they do is piss and moan, inside the Rolling Stone, talking about how hard life can be…” isn’t too far off from when Benji posted on his own website, www.goodcharlotte.com, his gripes about kids telling him that he is not punk, as he confided to a member of the band Rancid.

The members of GC darted around the stage like hummingbirds. Despite how completely overdressed they were for Florida in the spring, their act was significantly better than it was two years ago when they played the amphitheater stage at the Vans Warped Tour. They also had the luxury of playing twice as long this time around, bouncing between song extremes of “East Coast Anthem” and “Boys and Girls.”

When New Found Glory took the stage they were far less serious. Both sides of the stage were set up with small risers to accommodate 15 to 20 people apiece. After a supervised group of kids were brought up to stand on risers, the show began.

New Found Glory came out moving twice as fast as Good Charlotte with twice the intensity. The backdrop of light bulbs that spelled out NFG was a glaring contrast to the darkened stage of the earlier bands. The exposed potbelly of New Found Glory’s bassist Ian Grushka was another harsher contrast to the dapper gothic three-piece suit that Good Charlotte guitarist Billy wore on stage.

New Found Glory rocked out in the same fashion that they did when they played dirty local clubs like Club Q back in 1998. The only modification to the formula that made NFG so successful is that guitarist Chad Gilbert now showed his onstage leadership. During the opening song, “Something I Call Personality,” Gilbert put his instrument down to grab a microphone and rile up the crowd.

The thirteen-song set that New Found Glory played was full of melodies intertwined with hardcore guitar riffs best noted in songs like “Better Off Dead” and “Dress to Kill.”

Through the hype, glitz and product promotion, the show was everything that a fan of the music could expect. Four of the premiere bands of the punk scene played their best for a large audience at a reasonable ticket price. But there is one question left, do we all owe a debt of gratitude to Honda and MTV?