Chis Carraba, front man for popular emo band Dashboard Confessional, put his famous bleeding heart on display for Binghamton University students last Thursday in the Events Center, and the crowd wept and wailed right along with him. Last week’s Dashboard and Brand New show was definitely a case of Events Center half full — in fact, more than half full, with over 4,000 tickets sold.

Following a 45-minute set by opener Brand New, whose performance earned a mostly lackluster reaction from the crowd, Dashboard opened from behind a white curtain and to the cadence of a single drum. Revealing only the shadows of band members, the opening set a theatrical atmosphere for what would be dramatic performance. As the curtain dropped, Carraba and his band appeared before screaming fans, opening with music from the band’s new album Dusk and Summer, which has a slightly less pained tone than the music that made Dashboard famous.

But those songs would come later.

Despite the fact that inclement weather left many ticket holders literally out in the cold (or trapped at home), dedicated fans were not deterred by the snow. The boyish charm and emotional performance of Carraba kept fans enthralled — and even vainly attempting to crowd surf, leading Carraba to deem BU students “the worst f***ing crowd surfers” he’d ever seen. But the female fans in the audience were too busy gushing to be offended.

The band, which has grown and changed over the years, had several members, including a violinist and a guest band mate, John Rawlston, who performed “Gone, gone, gone,” a song Carraba said he “couldn’t live without.” Even with a full band behind him, Carraba’s performance still had the vibe of a one-man show. He kept the performance energetic, playing several different instruments throughout the show.

Despite the sometimes cheesy and over-the-top emotional nature of Dashboard’s music, something about the raw and painful lyrics strikes a chord in teens (including those 14-year-olds in the audience), and even 20-somethings, that fans can’t help but feed into. Maybe it’s something about that perpetual lump-in-the-throat feeling that takes you back to high school — or for some audience members, who were probably still learning their times tables, middle school. I mean, what 14-year-old hasn’t at one point had hopes so high that someone’s kiss could actually kill them?

Was it cheesy? Yeah, but I guess that’s the thing about cheese: everyone likes it. That’s why they serve it at parties.

As most successful artists do, Dashboard saved their most famous songs, “Vindicated” and “Hands Down,” for the encore, which seemed almost too choreographed. Traditionally, an encore follows a kick-ass performance that leaves the audience begging the artist to come back for the proverbial “One more song! One more song!” But in Dashboard’s case, about half the crowd was already making a mad dash for their nearest exits when the first “last” song came. Despite the turn the show took toward the end, with many people leaving early and losing interest, the hairs undoubtedly stood up on the backs of hundreds of young necks in the audience as Carraba sang about what he called “the best day of my life.” Even some of those involved in the mass exodus to the parking lot stopped in their tracks to hear Dashboard’s most popular songs.

On the whole the show seemed a success, but I guess time will tell if BU’s University Programming Board is “vindicated” just yet. We can only hope for another success in this spring.