While on tour together, Dashboard Confessional and Boys Like Girls have joined forces for the wistful and cathartic “Watch The Fire.”
The track opens with a sweeping orchestral intro, setting a cinematic tone before Chris Carrabba’s intimate vocals cut through the lush strings with raw emotion. As the instrumentation builds, Carrabba’s voice is met by Martin Johnson’s silky, soaring delivery, adding a rich layer of nostalgia and creating a powerful cocktail of sentiment and sound.
“Martin and I had bonded over some horrific accidents we’d had and about the recoveries that we had both worked our way through,” Carrabba shares. “One of the things you carry heavily when your body is laid up and your spirit is heavy is, inevitably, the past. One thing Martin and I share between us was a desire to put the past down for a while. Maybe for good. I hope so. I guess I do know one sure way of putting the past down, for a little while anyway: pick up a guitar. Reckoning with your past can be painful and ugly. It can also be rejuvenative and beautiful. I don’t know whether you get to decide. I just know that it’s worth it.”
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“The year is 2002,” Johnson recalls. “I’m a sophomore in high school destroying the family PC to illegally download the early Dashboard Confessional EPs off Limewire. I eventually coughed up enough cash to cop the MTV unplugged CD and DVD at Newbury Comics in Boston and spun it into submission. I heard something interesting on those recordings that I had no idea would alter the rest of my career as a songwriter and guitar player—a certain tuning where all the strings were played open and strummed top to bottom.”
Listen to “Watch The Fire” below.
Dashboard Confessional currently has Boys Like Girls and Taylor Acorn out on the road with them. You can check out their full touring schedule below and grab tickets here.
Tour Dates:
- Sept. 20 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live!
- Sept. 21—St Louis, MO @ The Pageant
- Sept. 22—Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre at Old National Centre
- Sept. 24—Omaha, NE @ Steelhouse Omaha
- Sept. 25—Des Moines, IA @ Val Air Ballroom
- Sept. 26—Minneapolis, MN @ Uptown Theater
- Sept. 28—Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
- Oct. 4—San Diego, CA @ SOMA
- Oct. 5—Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues
- Oct. 6—Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
- Oct. 9—Wheatland, CA @ Hard Rock Live Sacramento
- Oct. 11 – Forest Grove, OR @ McMenamins Grand Lodge
- Oct. 12—Spokane, WA @ The Podium
- Oct. 13 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
- Oct. 15—Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
- Oct. 16—Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
- Oct. 19—Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young Festival^
- Oct. 20—Las Vegas, NV @ When We Were Young Festival^
- Oct. 22—Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre
- Oct. 23—Albuquerque, NM @ Revel Entertainment Center
- Oct. 25—Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center
- Oct. 26—Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
- Oct. 27—Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factor
^Festival performance.