Say Anything tells everything at RMU

By JUSTIN JACOBS

MySpace tour featuring HelloGoodbye and Say Anything Sewall Center Arena Robert Morris… MySpace tour featuring HelloGoodbye and Say Anything Sewall Center Arena Robert Morris University Saturday, Oct. 27 412-323-1919Coby Linder

Say Anything has always been a bit more high-concept than your average emo band – emotional lyrics shrouded in metaphor and clouded by anger, music layered denser than rush-hour traffic and a back story for the ages. Now, with the band’s latest, a double album called In Defense of the Genre, Say Anything has climbed a new artistic peak, with an hour and a half of loud and brash rock ‘n’ roll tackling topics like mental disorders, overmedication, desperation and even Jesus Christ.

And in the midst of the band’s MySpace sponsored tour, drummer Coby Linder took some time out to say something to The Pitt News from a club in Milwaukee.

“I think this club is haunted, actually,” Linder said. “We’re walking up these steps right now and I wish I had a flashlight.”

Luckily for Say Anything, Robert Morris University is far from haunted, as the band will play in the Sewall Center Arena, not far from Pitt’s campus, Saturday night.

With each of its songs packing an emotional wallop, Say Anything takes more than just its name from the classic ’80s teen flick – both are unabashedly poignant and affecting, both tie in a healthy serving of humor and wit with the lovelorn main course and, well, both kick a substantial amount of ass.

Say Anything (the band) was assembled by singer and songwriter Max Bemis and Linder out of Los Angeles, and, in its five or so years of existence, has taken musical cues from bands like Saves the Day and Sunny Day Real Estate. Aside from the band’s last album,