Images: Taking Back Sunday, Bayside, Man Overboard October 26, 2012 at the House of Blues

It’s hard to believe it’s already been ten years since the release of Taking Back Sunday’s Tell All Your Friends. It came out just as I was starting college and was actually the first album I reviewed during my initial foray into music journalism. I gave it a perfect score then and I stand by that today.

The album’s title proved to be prophetic as TBS became one of the first bands to see their fanbase increase dramatically due to file sharing and the short-lived fad of CD burning. Illegal copies of the album spread like nothing I’d seen and caused their star to rise much faster than it ever could have otherwise. Tell All Your Friends spawned countless imitators, so it’s easy to forget how fresh and exciting it was when it came out. It had a little Thursday, and a little Through Being Cool-era Saves the Day, but it stood on its own. It turned the tide of popular punk rock-based music away from the Blink 182 and Drive-Thru Records style to the sing/scream style that would dominate the underground for years to come.

The band has gone through a lot since TAYF and I’m sure you’re at least passingly familiar with the drama that nearly engulfed the band, so I won’t rehash that all here. Suffice it to say, I was lucky enough to have caught the original lineup, so when they took the stage to play the record all the way through on October 26, I was seriously wondering if they’d match my memories. The band had such unbridled energy back then, with frontman Adam Lazzara content to let the crowd and co-vocalist/lead guitarist John Nolan sing while he whipped his mic around like a madman and climbed the stage like it was a jungle gym. How could they top that ten years later?

TBS’ set started with a “greatest hits” segment featuring songs like “A Decade Under the Influence” and “Liar (It Takes One To Know One).” The crowd happily sang along to every word but you could feel the anticipation as they got closer to the full album set. After “Makedamnsure” the lights dimmed and a distorted version of the spoken word intro to the “Great Romances of the 20^th Century” (a soundclip from the movie Beautiful Girls) played before the band launched into the Tell All Your Friends portion of the night with “You Know How I Do.”

From there, the record was played in sequential order as you would expect, but it was Lazzara’s performance that elevated this night into one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time, even better than the original TAYF tour. He disappeared into the crowd as the band started playing the album’s biggest hit “Cute Without the e (Cut from the Team),” only to reemerge, microphone in hand, on the House of Blues’ balcony. Many in the seated upper area rushed over chairs and arm rails to get close to the singer, with Lazzara happy to share the mic with the thousands of kids singing along. From there, he made his way back down to the floor, where he serenaded even more fans at the House of Blues’ bar. The crowd went absolutely nuts, everyone trying to keep up with the whereabouts of TBS’ fast mobbing frontman. Lazzara made his way back to the stage to end out the Tell All Your Friends portion of the set and sing along with Neil Rubenstein, who provided backing vocals on the record.

The rest of the show was dedicated to the b-sides. Lazzara picked up an acoustic guitar to strum along on the somber “Your Own Disaster” and then the band picked things back up with lost gem “The Ballad of Sal Villanueva.” I’ve waited years to hear that track live, and I definitely was not disappointed.

In direct support of TBS were fellow New Yorkers Bayside and New Jersey’s Man Overboard. Both bands showed their love for TAYF, with Bayside proclaiming that it was that album’s success that convinced them that they too could go from basement shows to big venues across the country. Bayside is only a few years younger than Taking Back Sunday and have amassed a respectable fanbase and catalog of albums themselves. They got the biggest reaction with songs from their self-titled record like “Blame It On Bad Luck” and set-ender “Devotion and Desire.” I would have liked to hear more from their highly under-rated Shutter but I can’t complain too much about that – Bayside are among the most consistent live bands I’ve ever seen and they never fail to deliver on emotion, energy, and excellent musicianship.

Man Overboard are the new kids on the tour and they’re off to a pretty amazing start. I rarely see the House of Blues fill up so early for an opening band and it made me happy to see the place already quite packed when the pop punkers took the stage. Man Overboard was playing to the converted, with much of the audience singing along to tracks like “Dead End Dreams” and “Something’s Weird.” Based on the reaction to their set, I don’t think it will be long before they’re filling up places like the House of Blues on their own headlining shows.

-Emily Matview | https://www.flickr.com/photos/holdfastnow/

Taking Back Sunday setlist:

What’s It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?
A Decade Under the Influence
Faith (When I Let You Down)
Liar (It Takes One to Know One)
One-Eighty by Summer
El Paso
Error: Operator
MakeDamnSure

Tell All Your Friends
You Know How I Do
Bike Scene
Cute Without the ‘E’ (Cut from the Team)
There’s No ‘I’ in Team
Great Romances of the 20th Century
Ghost Man on Third
Timberwolves at New Jersey
The Blue Channel
You’re So Last Summer
Head Club
Your Own Disaster
The Ballad of Sal Villanueva