New Found Glory are touring the country and the Florida punks are here to celebrate 20 years of being band and are doing so in the most epic of formats by playing two albums (pre 2010) in their entirety at every show. Last night in a sold out show in Sydney they played Sticks & Stones and New Found Glory to rave reviews from my piers who said I missed one of the best shows ever. But lucky I am here tonight to witness them play the sensational 2004 Catalyst (personal fav) and the 2009 Not With Out A Fight.
Let me just start off by letting you know even tho this is New Found Glories night to celebrate, I really want to give a massive high five to local Sydney act Stand Atlantic who are lucky enough to have scored the support slot for the whole tour. If you aren’t familiar with Stand Atlantic don’t worry you will have time to get too, these young four piece really caught my attention and the crowds, as the size of the audience watching them only grew as the set went on. Vocalist/guitarist Bonnie Fraser really has a great vocal range and it is a welcome sight to have front women in a heavily male dominated genre if you aren’t familiar you should make yourself familiar and be sure to catch them and before you make sure you listen to Coffee At Midnight which by far was one of the crowd favourites along with the newest release Mess I Made. Look forward to seeing more of Stand Atlantic in the future who knows maybe one day it will be them celebrating 20 years of pop punk greatness
I wasn’t smart enough to grab a ticket to the sold out Thursday night show here in Sydney that featured Sticks And Stones/New Found Glory and even tho when I walked in tonight the sold out sign wasn’t on the door it must have been to far off as for the Metro was packed from the floor to the back, as I look out over the crowd I see a real generational change as I glance upon the audience faces. but hey that is what you would come to expect from a band celebrating 20 years of pop punk perfection.
The first thing you haft to know about these album shows is that its not a case of hearing the tracks played out in there numerical album positioning, no the set list is mixed right up but rest assured you get to hear every single track from both albums there is no short changing us at all. And it sounded freaking awesome there are no song surprises here if you know these albums and believe me every body here tonight knew these albums as we sang every line on every track, song after song, much to the love of the band who appreciated and commented on how our love for them is what is what makes them the band they are today. At one point Guitarist Chad even jokes about the size of the 27 track strong set list saying if he knew they would be on tour performing these albums in there entirety all these years later he would have made the albums shorter lol.
The band sounded as great as they ever have, I could list all my favourite song high lights (I Don’t Wanna know, Your Biggest Mistake, Don’t let Her Pull You Down just to name a few for you) but to do so would be listing two whole albums worth of songs. I will let you know there was one exception in the double album set list and that came when they played title track from their latest album Makes Me Sick.
From start to end the mosh pit was open for business, crowd surfers would get to deliver high fives to front man Jordan as they went over the barrier, shit people even crowd surfed during the breath catchers when no music was even being played it was that kind of high intense energy show that left you feeling all good inside. At the shows end after the last note had been played from All Down Hill From Here, the look of jubilation on the people faces, the hugs been given out just made me think how fantastic live music is and how important New Found Glory are, not just on my musical landscape but on so many others from across generations, all in all the night was nothing short of fucking awesome.
Review – Chad
Gallery – Christian Ross
