I have no shame in admitting that I love Dashboard Confessional. Chris Carrabba is an amazingly talented man who I will follow through any of his endeavors. This includes his other band, Twin Forks, as well as the album he is currently writing for Dashboard Confessional.

That's right, after seven years since "After The Ending," there will soon be new Dashboard Confessional music. Carrabba says that he has written 30-40 new songs for the band and is excited to start the recording process.

In the meantime, Dashboard Confessional has taken one of the headlining spots for Rockstar Energy Drink's Taste of Chaos Tour. To say I was excited would be a vast understatement.

The crowd was already warmed up by The Early November, Saosin, and Taking Back Sunday before Dashboard Confessional took the stage. The crowd had clearly saved a good bit of energy for Dashboard though because as soon as the logo appeared on the video screen at the back of the stage, the crowd went wild.

Starting with "Vindicated," the band poured everything they had onto the stage. It was easy to see that the stage is where Carrabba feels at home, having honed his craft of performance over the past 18 years. With a balance of energy bubbling right beneath the surface released only in short bursts by jumping, he knows how to work the crowd into nothing short of a frenzy by the end of the first song.

This is a sight that Carrabba didn't know if he'd ever be able to see again. He knew that he would return to music at some point even when the band took a break in 2009, during which he focused on side-projects like Twin Forks. He didn't know how crowds would react to them coming back. He expected that he may find himself playing in small clubs and being happy with that.

When Dashboard Confessional went on a shared headlining tour with Third Eye Blind last summer, however, it became instantly clear by how quickly tickets sold that people were more than ready to welcome Dashboard back in their lives after their absence.

A warm welcome is just what the band received when they came back to the same venue they played just the year before. Moving through a 16-song setlist of old favorites and some acoustic numbers, the crowd sang along and welcomed the band back with open arms. This just goes to show that the bands we sang along to when we had a bad date, failed a test, or when our parents "just didn't understand" our teenage angst will always be a part of us. So welcome back to our lives, Dashboard Confessional. Hope you're ready to take up room on our phones instead of our CD racks because that's about the only thing that's changed.