Sat. Sept 29

 Listen to Blue October's latest CD "Foiled," their first in three years, and you'll hear "Into the Ocean," with singer Justin Furstenfeld looking forward to a walk into the ocean as a solution. Look up Blue October on the allmusic.com site and you'll find their moods listed as "angst-ridden," "tense/anxious" and "wintry," among others. Ask drummer Jeremy Furstenfeld about the sound and ethos of the Texas quintet - which plays Agganis Arena Saturday Sept. 29 - and he says says, "I think to a lot of people some songs are deep and sad and more honest than they should be. Some people think we're sad guys who like to sing about sad stuff all the time, and it's definitely not true. But it's cool to sing this way. You have a drug adddicton or you wrestle with mental illneses, we're trying to make it where somebody can talk about it. Justin puts it out there. He uses that term 'open book' - one of his lines is 'I'm an open book' - and sometimes we go, 'Hey dude, sure you wanna talk about that?' You're kind of tearing us up a little bit." Blue October is part of Mix 98.5's Mixfest. Also on the bill: Matchbox 20, Mat Kearney, Daughtry and Colbie Caillat. Tickets: $75-$40.

 Listen to Blue October's latest CD "Foiled," their first in three years, and you'll hear "Into the Ocean," with singer Justin Furstenfeld looking forward to a walk into the ocean as a solution. Look up Blue October on the allmusic.com site and you'll find their moods listed as "angst-ridden," "tense/anxious" and "wintry," among others. Ask drummer Jeremy Furstenfeld about the sound and ethos of the Texas quintet - which plays Axis Nov. 12 - and he says, "I think to a lot of people some songs are deep and sad and more honest than they should be. Some people think we're sad guys who like to sing about sad stuff all the time, and it's definitely not true. But it's cool to sing this way. You have a drug adddicton or you wrestle with mental illneses, we're trying to make it where somebody can talk about it. Justin puts it out there. He uses that term 'open book' - one of his lines is 'I'm an open book' - and sometimes we go, 'Hey dude, sure you wanna talk about that?' You're kind of tearing us up a little bit."
   Well, there is a lot of self-recrimination and there's a lot of pain amidst the sound, which can be infused with a certain grandeur. "Justin has his way of dealing with stuff," his brother Jeremy continues. "He paints. The music is therapy and the crowd is therapy and talking to people is therapy. Whatever anxiety we're dealing with isn't as bad. We're just normal people. We started from nothing and learned to deal with problems."
    Violinist Ryan Delahoussaye is their secret weapon. "Ryan is a virtuoso" says Jeremy. "He's classically trained and plays piano, mandolin and viola, too. He sings. He's able to bring that touch of something you don't often hear in music. He can plug in acoustically or make his violin sound pretty wicked, not even like a violin. He brings a certain mystery to the song, and he's a real good hook guy, too"

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