artwork courtesy of clintprints.com.

for the record, this show is a culmination of this collective blog’s adolescence. granted, we don’t keep up with the genre much, but new found glory and saves the day are two of pop-punk’s seminal acts and have maintained an aspect of youth, consistency and relevancy over the years. both bands have had recent albums (coming home, sound the alarm) that i’ve enjoyed as much as past releases (you know all of em.) so when the chance came for me to see two of my favorite bands perform, including new found glory playing the self-titled record in it’s entirety, i couldn’t pass it up.

hit the jump for the rest of the recap.

-grizzly

photos courtesy of liz levacy.

the fountain of youth within the bears tends to get a bit jaded in almost every sense of the word. however, a show like this (with the addition of a copious amount of vodka and whiskey) tends to bring out the 15 year old skateboarding mallrat out in us. we showed up as hellogoodbye played a bunch of shitty songs that no one ever cared about, until the time came for chris conley and his borderline dementia-laden lyrics to bless us all.

i’ve been a fan of saves the day since 1999 and saw them for the first time last year. i know, i know. not to be an unappreciative asshole, but that setlist was probably the least imaginative and entertaining as it possibly could’ve been. the group churned through a slew of songs off of in reverie and under the boards, two albums i couldn’t give less of a shit about. it’s a tradition to come to a saves the day show and expecting anything from a setlist these days, so i had high hopes. conley would immediately bring the crowd back to ’99 with “all-star me.” go figure – i was at the urinal. that’s besides the point, though.

i would eventually join the festivities and come into a barrage of “holly hox,” “a drag in d flat” and “vast spoils of america.” pants = wet. the band played with two new members and they seemed to fit the profile of ‘the never ending saves the day b-listers’ very well. out of nowhere, “at your funeral” came on and the entire place had a second wind and became hard of hearing, playing off the set on a gleeful note.

photos courtesy of liz levacy.

saves the day served as a delicious appeteaser to what everyone would surely get with the entree of a new found glory set. coming out into an onslaught of fist pumping, stage diving and bouncing, they’d waste little time into flying through their self titled record. the crowd was aware of the rare circumstances and aspects of the show, cherishing the sweet and joyous moments of songs like “eyesore,” “black and blue” and “ballad for the lost romantics.”

once the novelty of the entire self-titled record wore off, the band would exit the stage for a quick break and hit us with a handful of more. i’d like to compare their second wind set to what is most likely the ‘warped tour set’ for new found glory if they were to hop on the tour this year. the group touched base on all of their albums (post s/t, of course) and breezed through crowd favorites AND managed to get punched in the dick (video below) in the meantime.

i’ll keep this brief and devoid of any further giddiness…right after i say this piece. many, many thanks to new found glory and saves the day for taking 2/3 of the bears back in time to relive our past and magnify it to the umpteenth power by playing songs that i know i’ll probably never hear again. i mean, aj was even drunk/happy enough to jump off the stage (forward to 3:40, and proceed to make fun of our little asian) it’s nice to relive it up a bit, and i’m glad i can still have fun at shows instead of being the old guy talking about the old days in the back. i urge many, many more bands to do the same and revisit the records that made people love each other, prevented economic crisis, climate change and shit.

i’m looking at you, 2002.

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[SETLISTS]

[saves the day]

all star me
the end
radio
anywhere with you
firefly
holly hox, forget me nots
eulogy
freakish
delusional
always ten feet tall
a drag in d flat
vast spoils of america
at your funeral
shoulder to the wheel
kaleidoscope

note: stop ending on kaleidoscope! it’s a bum out/blue ballser after you play things like vast spoils and at your funeral.

[new found glory]

self-titled record
–
understatement
something i call personality
don’t let her pull you down
all downhill from here
truth of my youth
truck stop blues
my friends over you

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see a few more videos here.

here’s a clip of jordan getting the almighty cock punch:

here’s the end of the night mayhem set to “my friends over you”:

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till next time, ya’ll.

-grizzly