If Tuesday night’s Dashboard Confessional concert was any indication, the ISU fashion police need not worry — the next few years’ worth of incoming freshmen have finally put away the trucker hats.

It was hard to avoid this week’s trends as thousands of young and young-at-heart fans mobbed the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines to see the mascot of teenage angst, Chris Carrabba — who just turned 29, incidentally — headline the 2004 Civic Tour. Of course, the crowd would’ve been a lot easier to ignore if someone had taught these whippersnappers how to act at a show.

This was clearly a trademark Dashboard show, and the legions of sing-along groupies made sure everyone knew it. What was less obvious, however, was if these kids had ever stepped foot in front of a lit stage before. From the thugged-out white boys dancing spastically to the 15-year-old girls who insisted on sitting on their boyfriends’ shoulders throughout the entire four-hour show, to the fight — that’s right, there was an actual fight during a Dashboard Confessional concert — a generation raised on Britney Spears and the Olsen twins proved just how bratty it could be.

Apparently, Carrabba is used to this kind of crowd, and it certainly didn’t affect his 1 1/2 hour set. Throughout the night, he pandered to his audience’s every whim, playing everything from his latest full-band album, “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar,” to the unreleased piano ballad “So Long, So Long.” And, of course, he paid special attention to the older, acoustic hits that made him a group therapy icon for millions of heartbroken Generation Y-ers.

“You guys wanna hear an old song or a new song?” Carrabba asked halfway through his set, only to be bombarded by a resounding “Old!” from the crowd. It was obvious Carrabba himself was more comfortable with his older acoustic material as well, performing several songs without the assistance of his newly added backing band.

The crowd absorbed every note, motion and gesture Carrabba gave them, screaming in testosterone-free unison each time he hit a high note or stepped closer to the front of the stage. They knew every word to every song, and Carrabba certainly wasn’t afraid to stand passively and allow his legions of followers a little time of their own on the microphone.

Although Dashboard’s show may have set the crowd on fire, the musical highlights of the night were from the three opening bands. Starting the night off promptly at 6:30 p.m., Minneapolis-native Motion City Soundtrack brought the Technicolor walls of the storied ballroom to life with the prog-pop sounds of Jesse Johnson’s moog. Although lead singer Joshua Cain sounded a little bland for a live show, the catchy songs and Johnson’s stage acrobatics livened a somewhat restless room.

“Old school” seemed to be the theme for longtime emo rockers The Get Up Kids when they took the stage. Although the band released a new album just a few months ago, almost all of the songs played — six of eight — were from previous releases. The band even started its set off properly with “Holiday,” the opening track from 1999’s punkier “Something to Write Home About.” Vocalists Matt Pryor and Ryan Pope weren’t afraid to explore their roots, singing all the way back to the title track from their very first and hard-to-find EP, “Woodson.” With the help of the talented James Dewees (Reggie & the Full Effect), Pryor’s two-tone vocals resonated from one song to the next, stretching the seams of this emocore outfit with an amazing performance of the band’s timeless signature song, “Mass Pike.”

But then, things got a little weird. Opening with “Silhouette,” one of the heavier tracks from their latest album, “The Artist in the Ambulance,” the four members of the metal-infused rock outfit Thrice shook the floorboards and scared a few of the younger Dashboard fans in the process.

Compared to the lighter sounds of the other three bands, Thrice stood out like a sore thumb — but maybe it wasn’t so different after all. Hidden beneath a layer of screams and intricate guitar solos was an emotional sensibility, complemented nicely by three-part harmonies and themes of heartbreak.

Even if the fans were there to see Dashboard, all four bands on this year’s Civic Tour had a definite connection. For anyone going through a bad breakup, spending four hours at the Val Air Ballroom on Tuesday could’ve been great therapy or excruciating torture, but such are the joys of being a teenager.