ENTERTAIMENT

Sitting in the audience when Dashboard Confessional opened their Mizner Park concert in 2006, FAU student Joe Giardino recalls how relaxed and memorable the atmosphere of the concert was as the band played against a shadowy backdrop of leaves and trees.

Giardino, a junior biology/pre-pharmacy major, said he has seen Dashboard perform about six or seven times, and each time, they open the show differently. “I love it, their style is very inspirational and meaningful songwriting.”

This November, lead singer of Dashboard and former FAU student Chris Carrabba will be touring solo in honor of the 10-year anniversary of The Swiss Army Romance album.

“The first record is a solo record, so I’m doing a solo tour playing the whole record as it were,” Carrabba told the UP.

To kick off the tour, he will be performing on Nov. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale.

Carrabba explained that the record and re-release have meaning not just for him, but also for the fans. He was mostly excited that although the record probably means something different to them now, it still means something.

“It had been 10 years since the record came out, and I had a lot of piles of weird stuff that I found, weird pictures, handwritten lyrics, those kinds of things, and I thought, ‘Why not do a limited release?'” Carrabba said.

“Music in general, not necessarily my music, is like the life force, it’s what feeds my life force. It’s a powerful thing,” he said.

“I’m excited to be playing a show in the place where I started this band. It should be pretty exciting, at least personally,” he said. The band was started in Florida and was originally a side project for Carrabba while he was in the band Further Seems Forever.

As a former FAU student, Carrabba said his time at FAU was a great experience, and he made a lot of friends.

Carrabba’s music is fueled by his life experiences and memories.

“It’s a great milestone to still be able to be making music 10 years after our first record in the kind of business that we’re in, you know, we’re not bankers — to have that kind of longevity is pretty incredible,” Carrabba said.

This re-release will be a vinyl-only album limited to 1,000 copies, as confirmed by Andy Adelewitz, a publicist at Paradigm Talent Agency. The special album can be purchased online through the band’s website. The tour is currently scheduled to include 17 locations.

To purchase tickets, visit www.dashboardconfessional.com/swissarmyromance?  or?www.ticketmaster.com/Dashboard-Confessional-tickets/artist/703045