Concert Pick of The Weekend: Use Your Soul Tour

Sunday night brings co-headliners Hanson and Hellogoodbye and openers Steel Train and Sherwood to the House of Blues as part of the Use Your Sole Tour. This tour is unique in that TOMS Shoes, tour sponsor and charitable shoe supplier, has teamed up with Hanson’s charity Take the Walk to bring a but of philanthropy to every show. Each date of this tour has an organized one-mile barefoot walk with the bands before the concert in order to raise awareness and money to fight poverty and health issues in Africa. The bands have united to let each walker decide which cause they sponsor’s dollars to be donated to. Causes range from well water to shoes for children. For the San Diego date, this Sunday, the walk will take place at SDSU’s Cuicacalli Hall at 1 p.m. This event is free so make sure you show up to support this great cause and to hang out with your favorite bands before seeing them that night.

Tickets for Sunday’s show are on sale here for two tickets for only $5 each– making this my personal favorite show of the weekend. (Enter 461422 as the Citi Promo Code)

Hanson is not limited to the MMMBop days of 1997. In the 12 years since that song came out, the band’s sound has evolved into a more mature rock ballad sound. Yet, the band is still unique and incorporates elements of gospel, piano rock, and vocal harmony into more recent work. All in all, it sounds little like the Hanson of the past and almost like what I can best describe to you as a Jack’s Mannequin meets Maroon 5 hybrid.

Hellogoodbye exploded after their 2006 full length debut “Zombies! Aliens! Vampire! Dinosaurs!” was released. Earlier EPs and heavy touring took them on national tours with bands such as The All-American Rejects, Panic! at the Disco, and Motion City Soundtrack. Their shows are filled with energy, dancing, and plenty of crowd involvement.

I feel that Steel Train is best described as a wonderful form of raw indie rock that is born from a mix of the blues, folk driven instrumentation, and at times, powerful guitar lines. The music is ripe with emotional lyrics and delivered via passionate vocalization. The band has just left their long-time label, Drive Thru Records, and now plans to release their next album early next year.

Sherwood is perhaps one of the most underrated bands on the music scene today. Their feel-good combination of indie rock with frequent gang-based vocals and reverberating instrumentation has led to their most recent album “QU” being one of my favorite albums of October. If you’re headed to this show, it’s definitely worth it to arrive early and check this band out. I guarantee that you won’t regret it.