Dashboard Confessional (Dashboard) started off in Boca Raton, Florida, by frontman Chris Carrabba in 2000. Carrabba had previously fronted the Vacant Andys and the Agency and joined Further Seems Forever. Dashboard was a side project of Carrabba, armed with his acoustic guitar when he wanted to start a side project of music made to be vulnerable and introspective. What he had created soon propelled Chris and the band to become the poster boys of the emo culture.
Dashboard released their debut album The Swiss Army Romance in 2000 before becoming a full-fledged band by 2001 with the release of the sophomore album The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most. The album included the song “Screaming Infidelities” which is considered the band’s breakout single. The song won an MTV2 Award at the MTV Music Video Awards in 2002. Dashboard was asked to perform on MTV Unplugged, and following that, and the release of the live version, the band’s popularity took off.
Dashboard Confessional released its third album, A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar in 2003. The album peaked at number 2 on the US Billboard charts. The band recorded the song “Vindicated” for the Spider-Man 2 film in 2004. The song was featured on the soundtrack and played over the film’s end credits. While “Vindicated” was not on A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar, it was included on most versions and the deluxe edition versions of their fourth album Dusk and Summer (2006).
In 2007, their fifth studio album The Shade of Poison Trees was released, followed by Alter the Ending in 2009. After the release of Alter the Ending, Carrabba pursued a series of solo projects until Dashboard Confessional released its seventh studio album, Crooked Shadows in 2018.
Dashboard Confessional’s most recent album, All the Truth That I Can Tell, was released in February 2022.
Fun Fact: Vocalist Chris Carrabba says he has stage fright but enjoys having “eye sex” where he is looking deep into one member of the audience for a long time.