Doors 5:00 PM / Show 5:30 PM

All ages.

On the battleground of Las Vegas' Liberty High School in 2005, a fierce war rages on. Sworn enemies Alex DeLeon and Cash Colligan are fighting valiantly for the affections of the same girl. With such an intense hatred brewing between the two high-school juniors, no one could predict that they would soon bury the hatchet and join forces in Colligan's garage in order to bring their musical minds together.

But it happened. However after posting a Myspace demo of songs they wrote together, newly crowned vocalist DeLeon and bassist Colligan realized that they needed a full band to completely realize their musical vision. Luckily they were able to find drummer Alex Johnson, who brought a pop-punk and rock sensibility informed by bands like Blink-182 and The Bled. Combined with the duo's love for Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson, this allowed The Cab to finally begin to take their music in an exciting new direction that would reconcile all of these eclectic influences.

The Cab's lineup was completed with the addition of pianist Alex Marshall and guitarist Ian Crawford. Although they started out as a twosome, these two building blocks were the final step to solidifying the band's formula for something impressive -- and according to their masses of fans, it was working. In fact, The Cab were already gaining an impressive fanbase through local shows, even without a professional recording. "That's when it really hit us," states DeLeon. "This was what we really wanted to do."

Eventually the band passed a demo onto Panic! At The Disco's Spencer Smith and in the span of only a few months, the band found themselves inking a deal with Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen Records and writing their debut album. "Being on Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen, I think you get thrown into a certain scene, but I don't want to be thought of as a certain kind of band," explains DeLeon. "I want to crossover into other communities and as many people to hear us as possible," he continues. "I never want to be contained to one specific group."

Produced Matt Squire (Cute Is What We Aim For, All Time Low), the Cab's debut makes good on DeLeon's aspirations. Additionally, the Cab are already seeing the fruits of their labor: "I'll Run" was written within hours of their first rehearsal as a full band and it has garnered over 300,000 plays on Myspace and the band were recently featured on Blender Magazine's "Hot List." "We're doing something different, and we can't wait to get it out there to as many ears as possible," Cash adds.

From final exams and graduation to rocking the stage with the likes of Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco, it's easy to see that a promising future lies in store for The Cab -- and their debut disc turn the heads and impress rockers and pop aficionados alike. "We have some songs that sound like Michael Jackson songs and some songs that sound like traditional pop rock songs with a little bit of soul, but overall the record has a lot of different styles to it," explains DeLeon.

So how do the Cab feel about their whirlwind success story so far?

"I don't know if it's sunk in to me yet," DeLeon responds. "A couple of years ago, I was a kid going to local shows and waiting for hours to see Fall Out Boy and it's so surreal being signed by the people I look up to," he summarizes. "Everyone over there has been so welcoming and it really is like one big family; we couldn't ask for anything more."

The Summer Set

"There's this Bruce Springsteen quote that always inspired me," explains Brian Dales, frontman for The Summer Set. "He was talking about how 'Thunder Road' was the first song on Born to Run. He said it was an invitation to a story. I've always held on to that thought."

There is a story -- actually, a lot of stories -- that went into the making of Everything's Fine, the second album by the Scottsdale, AZ upstarts The Summer Set. It's a story about a band that made its mark as teenagers but has since grown into adulthood -- and faced some uncertainty along the way. It's a story about a band reinventing itself....without losing touch with what made them stars in the first place.

It's also a story about a girl. Or, more specifically, "About a Girl," the first song on Everything's Fine, a contemplative, acoustic/orchestral number that may surprise fans of the band who caught the energetic group on the Vans Warped Tour last year. It distinctly sets the mood for what follows, a loosely-based diary of a relationship from beginning to end, and one that both veers into previously unchartered territory and greatly expands on the group's upbeat guitar pop sound, last heard on 2009's Love Like This.

"We couldn't have written a song like 'About a Girl' three years ago," says guitarist John Gomez. "I mean, I was 16 or 17 when we worked on that last record. I couldn't see us musically or lyrically being able to write that then."

But to say The Summer Set is simply growing up is an understatement -- and, actually, a disservice to the collective experience of the group. Although the band released its first EP in 2007, Gomez was only 11 when he and his brother (and current bandmate) Stephen started playing music together, and still just teenagers when what became known as The Summer Set was formed, with drummer Jess Bowen, guitarist Josh Montgomery and Dales. (Fun side note: Jess, Stephen, and John used to be in a band with Kennedy Brock of The Maine).

Growing up in Arizona, the group led a new scene of punk upstarts, inspired by the likes of fellow Arizonians Jimmy Eat World and The Format. "It was a cool scene," says Gomez. "We'd play for 1000 kids on a Friday night. And there were so many good young bands, they would inspire us and push us to get better. It was sort of like a competition."

More experience came from the road. After releasing their first full-length album (Love Like This) in 2009, the group went on tour...and never really stopped, playing 300 shows a year and a main support slot on the 2010 Vans Warped Tour. By the time The Summer Set were ready for album number two, it was almost like they'd become a different band.

"We had a lot going on in the last two years," says Dales, who went from writing a song for a girl ("Chelsea") on the band's first record to essentially documenting his breakup on their latest. "And we were really young on the first record, so I don't think that record was so personal. This time out, I wanted to tap into that. It's hard for a listener if you don't believe what the singer is singing. I wanted to make this a really believable experience for both me and our fans."

For Everything's Fine, the group spent some time songwriting with Paul Doucette of Matchbox 20 and Mike Daly of Whiskeytown in Nashville, and recording with veteran producer John Fields, whose work stretches from the likes of Har Mar Superstar to Paul Westerburg to Andrew WK. "He pushed us hard, and he brought so much in us," says the singer. "We had some early demos that sounded like our last record, but when we were done, everything sounded so new and different."

Sonically, there's a lot of new territory on Fine -- the big choruses and stomping drums of "Thick as Thieves," the more acoustic flavor of "Someone Like You" and "Love to You," and even a hint of country on "When We Were Young," The last part wouldn't be much of a surprise if you knew the band. "A lot of us love country music," says Dales. "That's why we spent some time recording in Nashville, and why we've covered Taylor Swift songs (2010's Love Like Swift EP) in the past."

Besides finishing a new record, the band has been busy recently opening for All Time Low and Yellowcard, as well as experiencing their music in a whole new context: blanketed all over television, from VH1 to "Jersey Shore" to, most notably, "Dancing with the Stars." It was there where Dales' ex (actress Chelsea Kane) danced to the band's first hit "Chelsea." Says the singer: "They had to dance to a personal story, so she called and asked, and I was flattered. I mean, that's millions of people hearing that song, and now I have all these moms thinking I'm super romantic. I'll take it!"

Everything's Fine presents a more nuanced story of The Summer Set. Even the sad face on the album's cover is a hint that there are several new sides to the group. "The title is a bit sarcastic," admits Gomez. "Our first record was just one emotion. Everything's Fine is yin and yang. We've had some ups and downs recently, some breakups, some general trials and tribulations. This is a record that says we're young, but growing up and experiencing new things. So in a way, it's optimistic, too.