Let's see if we can keep this straight. John Nolan left Taking Back Sunday to form Straylight Run (MySpace), for which he eventually recruited drummer Will Noon after the band Noon was in, Breaking Pangea, split up. The lead singer of Breaking Pangea had been Coatesville native Fred Mascherino, who then went on to replace Nolan in Taking Back Sunday. While still in Breaking Pangea, Mascherino began work on his own project, The Color Fred (MySpace), which he recently left Taking Back Sunday to pursue full-time. Confused yet? We are, and we sat down and diagrammed the relationships to make sure we got it right. But if you're confused, that's not important.

What is important is that Nolan and Mascherino, and their respective bands—Straylight Run and The Color Fred—will be at the Trocadero tomorrow night. We can speak to The Color Fred from experience, as we saw them about a month ago during their tune-up tour, and we've been listening to the debut CD, Bend to Break, for a few weeks. Last time we saw TCF, they were playing in a tiny venue to a tiny crowd that was unfamiliar with the material. Even so, they managed to put on a really solid show. Tomorrow night should certainly have a larger crowd, and a crowd that will have had some time (and presumably the interest) to digest Bend to Break, so we expect a strong performance and good vibe during their set.

Not-quite-indie, not-quite-mainstream rockers Straylight Run are tomorrow night's headliners. We're going to confess some unfamiliarity with their catalog, though their video for "Soon We'll Be Living in the Future" evidences the kind of quirky rock sensibility we can buy into. They've been out on the road pretty much non-stop since their latest album, The Needles The Space, came out in June, and they were one of the bands we wanted to cover but missed at Warped Tour. So we've gotten a reprieve. Hopefully, this time we'll make it, and you will too.

Straylight Run with The Color Fred, Dear and the Headlights (MySpace), and Cassino (MySpace)
Tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007
The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St.
Doors 7:00 PM (show should start ~7:30 PM)
Tickets: $14 in advance; $16 day of show

Image of Straylight Run's John Nolan via Flickr user erin wyer.