It’s only five in the afternoon and already there is a line going around the corner of the Glass House in Pomona. Circa Survive won’t hit the stage for another five and a half hours, but you can already see the excitement in the faces of the people in line.
Across the way Circa Survive front man Anthony Green relaxes in the back of the band’s tour bus. When he peeks through the window blinds at the line you can see in his face the excitement is mutual.
The last time Circa Survive played the Glass House it was a complete disaster. When opening for Saves the Day in March, bassist Nick Beard dislocated his kneecap in the middle of the first song. He finished the first two songs from on the ground and was rushed away in an ambulance right after.
That memory is fresh in Green’s mind today and he is pumped up to play for the sold-out crowd that has come to collect its full Circa Survive set.
The success of the band is impressive considering it almost wasn’t a band at all. Just a few years ago, Green was fronting a different, very popular band.
He moved from his hometown Philadelphia out to California to front Orange County-based post-hardcore band Saosin, but when he arrived things weren’t exactly what he had in mind.
Saosin had already recorded all of its music in the studio. It took Green five days to write three verses and a chorus for each of its five tracks and the band told him to “make it interesting.”
“It was a nightmare,” Green said. “I had only very recently started to even consider music as something I could do for a living and it was like all of the sudden somebody was like, ‘you can be a doctor, but you have to work at this hospital and you have to work with these people and you have to do exactly what they say. That’s the only way you’re ever going to be a doctor.'”
The band seemed to become popular overnight and Green’s unhappiness just got worse. Saosin was in talks with major record labels and planning their first major tour when Green started to freak out.
So Green did what anybody would do when feeling alienated, he went home. He got on a plane and flew back to Philly. It was there that he hooked up with old friend and guitarist Colin Frangicetto and expressed his discontent with the West Coast.
Frangicetto’s band had just broken up so the two started writing together. Green’s passion for music was reignited.
But previous engagements beckoned and Green had to head back to California and embark on the big Saosin tour. It was in his layover in Phoenix where he finally made the decision.
“I almost walked off the airplane before it left Philly, and the whole time it was on its way to Phoenix, I was back and forth,” said Green. “I was like if I don’t do it now and do something ballsy then I won’t ever do it. I don’t even want to go there. I don’t want to see them. I don’t want to say anything. I just don’t want to see California again for a year.”
So he didn’t. He called his friends in Saosin and quit on the spot. He went back to Philadelphia and continued writing with Frangicetto. The two picked up Beard, second guitarist Brendan Ekstrom and drummer Steve Clifford and got a record deal with popular indie label Equal Vision.
Finally, Green had musical freedom. He made sure all the members of the band had equal creative control.
The band members released their first full-length “Juturna” (named after the Roman goddess of wells) in the spring of 2005 and have been touring in support of it ever since.
Green has one of the most distinctive voices in music today. It’s incredibly high and shrill, yet has depth and consistency.
“I’ve always had a really high pitched voice,” Green said. I just have fun. I don’t really pay attention to whether it’s high or low or what it is. Everybody’s voice sounds different. I’m just lucky people like hearing mine.”
When Green hits the stage, he is a rock star in every sense of the word. He has the crowd eating out of his hand as he shimmies across the stage and doesn’t miss a note. The crowd often overpowers him with his own lyrics, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He jumps onto the barrier and gets into the faces of his followers and leads them in the chorus of “Holding Someone’s Hair Back” before going into “Wish Resign.”
The unique voice and high energy show has gained him an enthusiastic following of fans, especially in Southern California. It seems like every show he plays down here sells out, no matter what band he’s with.
When asked about his passionate following, Green almost looks caught off-guard.
“I don’t know man. That’s something I definitely don’t even have a clever response for. I wish…” Green starts and then hesitates, “actually I don’t wish I knew. I’m glad I don’t know. I’m really lucky. I really love singing. And so far it seems like a lot of people share that with me. I don’t know why they like me.”
Green and company lead the crowd through all of “Juturna,” including singles “Act Appalled” and “In Fear and Faith.” They gave the crowd a treat when they previewed a new track from their sophomore album, which Green expects to have out next April.
With the dark lighting and stationary band, Circa Survive comes off as a one-man show. Green’s on-stage debonair is unmatched by even the biggest names in rock, while his band just seems to be jamming out in its own little areas.
The hour-long set came to a close with “Meet Me in Montauk,” Green’s tribute to 2004 movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
When the crowd files out of hot and sweaty room, the level of excitement remains high.