Since Dashboard Confessional’s first album in 2000, The Swiss Army Romance, frontman Chris Carrabba’s indie-rock band (read between the lines: emo) has built a steady following of fangirls and boys in touch with their feelings and paved the way for bands such as Bright Eyes, Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy. With appearances on movie soundtracks such as Shrek 2 and Spiderman 2 and an MTV2 award for their song “Screaming Infidelities” under Dashboard’s belt, Carrabba spoke with The Diamondback about his concert on the campus Saturday with Brand New, experience working on the soundtrack of MTV’s Laguna Beach and his self-described underdog status.

The Diamondback: What made you choose the university for this show, sponsored by Student Entertainment Events? Was there anything that singled us out as a campus?

Chris Carrabba: Well, I like playing college shows a lot, and we’ve kinda got a big following in Maryland. But beyond that, I’ve never had an un-fun show. It’s been a blast there before; it’s a no-brainer.

DBK: For anyone who hasn’t experienced a Dashboard show before, what should he or she expect? Will your set list include songs from all your albums, from The Swiss Army Romance, The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar and Dusk and Summer?

Carrabba: You can expect a fun show: Exuberant and festival and an all-around exciting performance. [The set list] will be a mix of all the albums.

DBK: Why the decision to tour with Brand New, who will also be playing Saturday?

Carrabba: This is our third tour together. We’re all old friends; we’ve been playing together for several years. And I think our music is similar enough that you would probably like the other if you liked one, but different enough that you don’t feel like you’re seeing the same band twice.

DBK: What is different about playing smaller venues like a university campus when compared to huge concerts? What are some of the positives and negatives of playing a college show?

Carrabba: You’re getting an opportunity to win over people that have not necessarily given you an opportunity before. But then again, you have people just going to a concert because it’s something to do.

DBK: What gets you excited before playing a show?

Carrabba: Of course I enjoy playing with my bandmates … I get excited about the possibilities of where the songs can take you on any given night because it’s always different. You can play the same songs year in and year out, because it’s never the same twice, so I get excited about the opportunity and room for error. It always leads you to a great place.

DBK: After this year’s positively received Dusk and Summer, which produced the single “Don’t Wait,” do you have any plans for your next album?

Carrabba: [I’m] still bouncing it around, but it’s starting to look like something similar to The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, which was two records ago, and the tone was sort of more acoustic-based. That’s what I’ve been writing lately again.

I don’t write in a reactive way to other influences, but I have influences … they’re just a little more subversive than that. I go to where I’m interested in going. It’s always good to get away from something [like the acoustic sound on Places You Have Come] just before you’ve figured it out, so you don’t get predictable. I don’t know that the timing is the best to go back to an acoustic record, as opposed to a more rock record … but I couldn’t care less.

DBK: Rolling Stone recently reported you had worked with MTV on the music for their show Laguna Beach. What exactly did you do for the show?

Carrabba: They asked me to do music supervising for one episode. I hadn’t done music supervision before, and I kinda wanted to at some point in my life professionally. So this is something more like publicity – like this is a recurring theme where musicians come in and choose music for the show. But for me it was like, “Let’s see how this works,” like an intern at a gig.

I watched an episode [of Laguna Beach] without the music, and made them a playlist that corresponded with the scenes. There were about 25 songs, of which they chose four, and that’s probably true to what music supervision really is because you have to please the producer and you probably have to get a handful of your long shots in the door.

[I chose songs] by Camera Obscura, Copeland, The Get Up Kids and I think there was one more … I’ve never heard [those groups] on MTV, because everybody I had chosen have never been heard on MTV. I’m trying to do a few solids for the underdogs.

DBK: Your latest album received positive critical reviews, you’ve won an MTV2 award and been on the soundtracks of two popular films, Shrek 2 and Spiderman 2. Do you think these achievements have broken you through the indie underground into the mainstream?

Carrabba: I don’t really at all. We’re a polarizing band; it’s not like we’re going to be like Coldplay, which is middle of the road. And they’re one of my favorite bands, it’s not a shot at them, but they’re kinda highly palatable. Everybody loves them. But we’re polarizing – people really love us, maybe even to a degree … more so than Coldplay, like with their whole hearts, similar to fans of The Cure and The Smiths. But there are people that hate them, which I don’t understand, but [that happens] whenever you’re in a position of polarization – which I love, by the way, because I love pushing buttons.

We’ve always gotten good critical acclaim, but we also get ribbed for being open-hearted or something, and I love that. This record, it got really positive reviews, and I would read reviews and think, “Wait, I see where this is going…” and stop reading them. I don’t want to be the victor here, I don’t want to be the parade leader, I don’t need to be the captain of the parade. I would much rather be the underdog.

So I don’t know that we’ll ever make it-make it; I don’t much care, though. “Vindicated” [Dashboard’s single from Spiderman 2] was played one time on Top-40 radio, while Panic! at the Disco is huge, blowing up on Top-40 radio. We’re the band everybody’s heard of, but nobody’s heard before, whereas you can’t get away from Panic!. They don’t seem like underdogs [and] I doubt they feel like underdogs.

I would much rather not be the glorious princes of something; I’d much rather be the scrappy underdog. What’s the point of having something if you didn’t fight for it? If I got there [to that level of success], I’d be really wary of it … but the funny thing is, sure, I want to get there.

Student Entertainment Events presents Dashboard Confessional and Brand New Saturday in Cole Field House. Students can purchase tickets at the Hoff Ticket Office in the Stamp Student Union; tickets are $15 for bowl seats and $25 for floor seats. For non-students, bowl seats cost $20 and floor seats cost $30. Doors are at 7 p.m. and the concert starts at 8 p.m.

Contact reporter Roxana Hadadi at roxanadbk@gmail.com.