Feel my pain, people! That was what I was expecting to experience at the Saves the Day show Nov. 18 at Ziggy's. I was pleasantly surprised. These guys seemed to actually be having fun.

Oh sure, there were plenty of songs where lead singer Chris Conley's vocals lamented through blocks of several minutes, but for the most part, these vocals were backed by fast, poppy melodies.

Saves the Day had three acts opening for them (even though only two appeared on the ticket) making the show a varied night of rock 'n' roll. The show opener, Circle and Square, seemed to take their inspiration, at least visually, from several of the great rock acts of the past decade. The lead singer seemed to be going for the Weezer look, sporting Brian Bell's haircut and Rivers Cuomo's glasses and on-stage demeanor.

Alternately, the guitarist looked like former Guns 'n' Roses guitarist Slash, and jumped and ran all over the stage during their half- hour set with the energy of Axl Rose.

The music was purely their own though, as the lead singer whined off-key through their set over fast, dissonant power chords. All the same, they got some heads bobbing, and as far as opening acts go, these guys weren't bad.

As for the following band, Something Like Spitting, the name pretty much says it all. Man alive, these guys were awful! There was nothing redeeming to their performance and the members of the audience started to mock the band and I could hear comments of "You suck" under folks' breaths, or sometimes much louder.

Essentially, the lead singer sang, or screamed, or ranted, about something ¯ I'm not really sure what, for their half-hour set. The memorable line from their set, "Your soul has no crossover potential." Gotcha. One thing these guys were right about; as they left the stage they said, "Ash is up next! They're excellent!"

Ash was, in fact, excellent. The final opener obviously had a small following of its own amidst the swarms (and I do mean swarms) of Saves the Day fans. The Irish quartet kept the fans moving with their brand of melodic Britpop tinged with harder alternative rock.

They opened with two older songs, but the set was mostly comprised of songs from their new CD, Free All Angels, just released in the United States this past May.

Singer/guitarist Tim Wheeler had some friendly interaction with the audience, at one point telling a fan, who for the second night in a row on their tour shouted out a request for "Nicole," that they would play it tonight later in the set.

He joked around with the audience a little bit, and near the end got the crowd shouting and jumping around in the pit. They finished off with their radio single "Burn Baby Burn" just stopping at the climax of the song and wandering around on stage, waiting for the manifestation of the audience's anticipation before starting back up again.

Guessing by the line of people who lined up to meet them at the merchandise booth at the end of the show, I'd say their driving performance gained them some new fans.

However, the crowd of people primarily in their mid-teens to their mid-twenties were obviously there to see Saves the Day.

The first crowd-surfer went up during the first song of their set, and three songs later, Conley had to tell the audience to please back up and not crush the people in the front.

The audience obviously got a little frustrated at him for this, as he appeared to have the authority in his voice of a middle-school hall monitor, trying to convince the audience to do the right thing. Still, his pleas worked, he didn't have to say anything to the crowd for the rest of the show.

Saves the Day thrived on the crowd participation; every person in the audience seemed to know every word to every song.

The one time they played a cover, the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation," they got minimal shouting and applause afterward, seeing as no one in the audience knew that song (except for this reviewer, who loved every minute of it.)

Saves the Day's set consisted of some driving beats with furious guitars, a lot of quick punky melodies, and some sing-a-long campy ballads, the most memorable being "Freakish," the first song of their set which generated lighters, and the show closer, "At Your Funeral."

By the end of their show, the music started to get pretty repetitive and almost bland, but the swarms of fans were in rock 'n' roll heaven throughout the entire set. Saves the Day clearly made the fans' night.