The Audition: Controversy Loves Company

By Collin Quick

Punk bands can be like your significant other.

They like to drag you along, offer some of the catchiest hooks, put a smile on your face and let the feeling of greatness sink in over and over again. They can make your day with upbeat riffs, put you on cloud 9 and keep you there for as long as they want.

Until you get one of those punk bands who says, “You’re so nice. I’m glad you’re my friend. Let’s never kiss, OK?”

The type that sleeps next to you, not with you. The type that spoons with you, in the most non-sexual fashion possible. The type that confides in you all their deep secrets, curls up next to you on the couch, but five days later goes and makes out with someone else, leaving you there with nothing but unanswered questions and a broken heart. The type you realize you need to walk away from before everything goes awry – if it hasn’t already.

The Audition is the type of band that just wants to take you to a party, get you drunk and make out with you in the corner.

“Would you please put on our dance shoes/ ‘cause I’m sick of dancin’ alone,” lead singer Danny Stevens sings on “Dance Halls Turn to Ghost Towns.” The quintet keep the tempo flowing throughout the album and songs gradually fade into one another.

While counterparts like Brand New sings, “You can sin or spend the night all alone” and Fall Out Boy says, “I’m sleeping my way out of this one/ with anyone who will lie down,” The Audition screams, “Say you’ll never let me go.”