I think after the great success of the When We Were Young Festival last year, I was all in for any emo concert swinging through even remotely close to my hometown. Cut to summertime and I had my reservations about seeing Taking Back Sunday for the first time in years.
I say that because the last few times I saw them they weren’t too great. I think life got in the way of putting on a good show, and I think I even put their last few performances out of my mind because of that. With that, I’m happy to report that they were good! Yes, the lineup looks a little different, but the band seemed like they were having a really good time up there. Adam was maybe the most jovial I’ve ever seen him and he looked to be in great shape both physically and mentally. I hope that Thirty Seconds to Mars can take a look at these guys for some inspiration later this summer…
Anyway, I couldn’t also hide my surprise when I learned this was a sold out show! Emos will always show their love, and even though this is a smaller Cleveland venue, I still would never have expected this to be a sold out show. Luckily, me getting their twenty minutes before the show started didn’t prevent me from getting a good viewing spot behind the balcony seats. Looking down beats struggling to look over someone’s head, for sure. Something else that surprised me was how excited this crowd was! I’ve never been much of a shower at concerts, but the group of women beside me were putting their all into almost all of the songs on the setlist.
Before I get into the rest of Taking Back Sunday’s show, I’d also like to show some appreciation for the one opening act they’ve got on tour. Turns out it’s an Ohio-based band called Citizen. I’ve never heard of them, but they sounded pretty good! As a non-listener, it was harder for me to differentiate the songs, but I’ll definitely be scouring their setlist to find a song they played close to the end of their time onstage. Not a huge chunk of the crowd were there to see them, but I’d be willing to bet they made some new fans last night.
As I do for most shows, I crept on the setlist a few days before, intending to give a listen to some of Taking Back Sunday’s newer work since I haven’t been on the up and up with them for a while. And as most things go, I never made the time to listen to those tracks. That didn’t seem to matter apparently, because I think the new stuff only made up a quarter of the 20-song setlist. A ton of stuff came off of Louder Now, which, for the album that made them, I’d expect that to be the case. There were even a bunch of songs I realized I’d just never bothered to learn the names of off their first two records, but the set ended up being more pleasantly nostalgic than I was prepared for.
Overall, it was a great show and I know I won’t be as reluctant to see them again in the (hopefully near) future! Extra bonus points to the guys for playing, “My Blue Heaven,” one of my favorite and, I think, most underrated tracks off of Louder Now. That was a real treat to hear live.