Let’s all be honest here. At some point during your adolescence, Taking Back Sunday was your favorite band. The group’s long roster of sad rock ballads was the perfect alternative to the short lived “emo” phase of America’s youth in the early 2000s. And if you were regretfully never able to see the pop punk visionaries perform live in their heyday, you’re getting a second chance at Fourth Street Live! this weekend.
When the band released its first album “Tell All Your Friends” 13 years ago in 2002 before the world-changing rise of social media and the development of smart phones, the band gained significant popularity through frequent attention from networks like VH1, MTV and MTV2. And in 2004, when the band released its follow up album “Where You Want to Be” the world was ready for more.
The world’s newest media outlet, YouTube, was still in its early stages, and Myspace had just made its first appearance onto the scene of social media. Taking Back Sunday wasn’t gaining popularity through Instagram and Twitter like the popular bands of today. They were popular simply because they offered a different kind of sound, and it was good.
Since the band’s first release in 2002, Taking Back Sunday has released five more albums, the most recent last year’s “Happiness Is.” And according to the band’s 33-year-old frontman Adam Lazzarra this album is much more personal than the music the band has created in the past.
“For a long time I thought the best way that people could listen to a song and then make it their own was to be as cryptic as they could,” Lazzarra said in a recent interview with Loudwire. “I started to realize that wasn’t the case. I wanted to try my hand at being a little more direct this time around.”
You can hear the new album for yourself performed live, along with several of the band’s classics, at Fourth Street Live! this Saturday, August 8. Doors will open at 6 p.m., and the show will begin at 8 p.m. with a performance by Greek Fire followed by Taking Back Sunday. You must be 21 or older to attend this event. Tickets are available through Ticketfly.
