It isn’t very often that Flagstaff has a concert that I’m ‘pee-squirt’ excited about seeing. So when a co-worker mentioned that The Format was doing an all-acoustic show at Prochnow Auditorium I was giddy with glee. The glee didn’t last very long when I realized that the night of the show was the Saturday night before my big Thanksgiving dinner. Boo…big boo. After talking to Lauren, Zac and Jeff and seeing their excitement in seeing a Format show again, I knew I had to do whatever necessary to go. It took quite a bit of scheduling and engineering to have enough finished that I could leave the rest of the setup crew Saturday night and not feel guilty. (Of course, I was the spazz sitting in the 5th row of a concert before the show began trying to schedule the baking of twenty turkeys while most of the other females were squealing with excitement.) Source Victoria opened the evening and while I had never heard of them before, they weren’t too shabby. They kind of reminded me of Gomez. I’ll definitely be checking them out in the near future.

The opener, Source Victoria.

Finally it was time for the Format boys to come out. The crowd was great. Mostly, because The Format is a hometown favorite and many of us in the crowd have been listening to them for much longer than most. With songs that reference actual locations in the Phoenix valley, these songs seemed personal to all of us who were excited to sing-a-long to every word. They sang all of the crowd favorites including, “On Your Porch”, “Dog Problems”.”Tie The Rope”, and my favorite, “The First Single (You Know Me)”. I have seen them before, but this was easily their best performance. The acoustic set was intimate and full of mutual admiration between hometown favorites and a crowd of old friends. It was an incredible night and a great escape from the chaos of our Thanksgiving Dinner.

One of the best parts of the show were the tickets that my coworker’s mom scored us with. Center Stage… 5th row. Not only did we have a great view of the band, but we sat directly in front of the most amazing Format fan ever. There are many different types of music fans, but this woman/girl could easily be categorized as clinically insane. At the beginning of the show, nothing about seemed too off as she confessed to her boyfriend that she has a huge fan and knew all the guys in the band. Within the first few songs, the was gushing about how proud she was of her boys. Then, out of the blue, she started to talk about how the lead singer, Nate, had written a song about her, and as they began each song, she would say with relief, “This one’s not about me. We’re ok.” This carried on for the first half of their set as she stood on her chair in the theatre (blocking everyone behind her’s view) and sang quite loudly to each song. The girl’s obsessive behavior escalated when a nearby fan yelled, “I love you, Sam” to one of the band members. I have no idea what her boyfriend must have been thinking when in response to the loving fan she informed him that she would yell, “I love you” but the lead singer would recognize her voice and get so choked up he wouldn’t be able to finish the show. Dillusional, maybe? As the beginning chords of “On Your Porch” echoed through the auditorium, she excitedly whispered that this was the song written about her and her grandfather. An amazing fact when most of the crowd know that it was written about Nate’s dad. Halfway through the song she had her head buried in her bf’s chest and was soap opera crying. I promise I’m not making this up… As the band left the stage for the quick intermission before the encore, she twice tapped on my shoulder and pulled on my shirt requesting that I start screaming “encore” to force the band back out on stage. (Apparently, she didn’t realize that with a cheering crown… an encore is pretty much a given whether or not I pleaded for their return.)

During the encore, they played “If Work Permits”, a song she claimed to have not just inspired but written. This is the point in the show where the seemingly obsessed and misguided fan became the bitchosaurus fan of the year. The thought that she had written this song and “never given any f’in credit” had pushed her over the edge. She began screaming and cussing out the band… calling each member by name as she hurled expletives at them. Then as the last song began she grabbed her boyfriend around the next and demanded that he sing or she’d kill him. The whole situation left me absolutely speechless. Even now I’m not sure if it was the amazing acoustic set or the state’s most emotionally unstable Format fan or ponderance if the boyfriend was the best boyfriend ever or a new species of spineless mammal that was the highlight of my night, but rest assured, next time The Format is in town I’ll be there.

	Nate, the leader singer of The Format
	Tune Out sing-a-long
	Sam, Format guitarist and pianist master
	The Format Boys