Chris Carrabba feels like a dork.<\/p>\n
It’s a hot fall Phoenix morning (\u201cyeah, but it\u2019s a dry heat\u201d Carrabba notes), and the lead singer and guiding spirit behind Dashboard Confessional is talking about Rock Band, an interactive video game where anyone can be a rock star.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a very good Rock Band guitarist,\u201d Carrabba said with a laugh. \u201cI have a tough time with it. I stop and say, \u2018Wait that\u2019s not where the notes go.\u2019 We did this battle of the bands where we were judges and in between live bands they had these Rock Band ringers, and they were excellent. The singers ruled, but the guy who played guitar was so serious. He taped his thumb up in order to work the pic panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an absolute huge culture that I\u2019m only on the periphery of,\u201d he added. \u201cI mean, I can\u2019t believe I actually feel dorky for playing guitar. I\u2019m not cool enough because all I can do is play guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n
An actual guitarist? What a loser. But then again, if you\u2019re Carrabba, being uncool is not so bad.<\/p>\n
After nine years, seven albums, hundreds of packed shows and millions of albums sold, Carrabba and his bandmates carry certain clout in uncertain times. It\u2019s been more than a year since Dashboard\u2019s last release (The Shade of Poison Tree<\/em>), and while a new album is expected in early 2009, the band still finds itself a key player in one of autumn\u2019s bigger tours. The Rock Band Live tour (yes, that Rock Band) has Dashboard sharing headlining duties with Panic at the Disco (Plain White T\u2019s and The Cab in tow) on a three-month journey promising camaraderie, adventure, and a sea of people sure to sing every lyric.<\/p>\n \u201cThis (tour) was brought to us,\u201d Carrabba said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking to Panic about touring together for years and we\u2019ve been talking to the Plain White T\u2019s for years. We\u2019d all been trying to figure it out for some time. And I\u2019m so happy it happened. We have activities all day long. It\u2019s like being in a summer camp. It\u2019s the weirdest kind of thing, it\u2019s really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n He sounds surprised, yet refreshed, when he says it. Working in an industry on shaky ground Carrabba is quick to note the stern issues enveloping the music business, relieved he’s already lived through the \u201cterrible record deals and all the teenage mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe industry is in a state of flux like I\u2019ve never seen,\u201d Carrabba said. \u201cI think no one knows which way is up and how to make big enough changes to follow the independence of the music culture. It\u2019s this weird perplexing time.\u201d<\/p>\n But a time he embraces. The Shade of Poison Tree<\/em>, which has sold more than 200,000 copies, was released on the band’s MySpace page weeks before its official release on Vagrant Records. Eager to spread his music to as many people possible, Carrabba encourages fans to tape concerts and share live recordings of Dashboard shows on the band\u2019s Web site.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an effort to continue the bond he\u2019s developed with his audience since his days as a \u201cjust a kid with a guitar\u201d playing for friends in small South Florida clubs.<\/p>\n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a huge music scene there but it was a vibrant one,\u201d Carrabba said of his South Florida days. \u201cWe all supported each other. There may have only been 500 kids that would go to shows, but they would go to every show. One thing that surprised me when I started going beyond the boundaries of my ZIP Code was people were remarking how odd it was people would sing every word at our shows. I didn\u2019t think it was odd at all, because that\u2019s how it was in my hometown for every band. I remember being at the first show for New Found Glory and Jordan (Pundik) was singing his lyrics off sheets of paper that were spread all over the stage. We had our Dictaphones out recording, we went home, learned all the words, and the next show we were all singing along. We knew the songs better than Jordan.\u201d<\/p>\n Ten years later little has changed (except for the addition of thousands of fans). The guy who once wrote \u201cI need the chance to be judged\/And then long forgotten\u201d is finding the opposite is true: His legions of fans neither judge, nor forget \u2014 they simply hang on every word. <\/p>\n \u201cThe scene beyond the music industry, where it\u2019s just kids and bands and people making music, is more industrious than ever,\u201d Carrabba said. \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chris Carrabba feels like a dork. It’s a hot fall Phoenix morning (\u201cyeah, but it\u2019s a dry heat\u201d Carrabba notes), and the lead singer and guiding spirit behind Dashboard Confessional is talking about Rock Band, an interactive video game where anyone can be a rock star. \u201cI\u2019m not a very good Rock Band guitarist,\u201d Carrabba said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,3],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-music","tag-chris-carrabba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions\/149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}