Concert Tue Jun 29 2010

Review: Taking Back Sunday @ Metro, 6/27

By Lisa White

Taking Back Sunday's Adam Lazzara (photos by Katie Hovland)

From the second Taking Back Sunday took the stage in front of a sold out crowd at the Metro Sunday night, I felt like I was 15 again. And I'm sure a majority of the crowd felt the same. Taking Back Sunday is one of those nostalgic bands for me, so you'll understand if my misty eyed recollection of my youth is gag inducing at times. Growing up amongst a sea of cornfields in Indiana, driving around with my high school boyfriend, windows down and the album Tell All Your Friends almost blowing the speakers in his car is how I spent most of my teenage years. The album yearned for something more, loud and angry, and pretty much summed up the emotions of growing up frustrated and not feeling like you belong in the world you've been plunked down into. The crowd Sunday night easily could have been a high school reunion for the kids who spent their Saturday nights at shitty basement shows. So for a band that meant so much to so many, it was no surprise the crowd was ready to go from the second singer Adam Lazzara threw his mic in the air and spit out the first lines of "Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From the Team)." Circle mosh pits popped up across the floor, fist stayed high in the air, as every person in the room started to chant along.

So why all the fanfare? Because the original line-up is back together, a pretty big feat for Taking Back Sunday. To make a long story short, the band had multiple fights and line-up changes, and the original guys behind Tell All Your Friends haven't actually been a band for many years. All of that changed this past March, as the original line-up reunited, announcing they would play only a handful of dates together before they head into the studio to record a new album. Despite the history, it felt like they never stopped playing together, bouncing off each other perfectly, thrashing around wearing the biggest grins possible. As always, Lazzara was a charming front man, constantly stalking the stage as he tossed his microphone high in the air, always a jovial ringleader despite the bleak lyrics of a large portion of their catalog. This is how you make angry music extremely fun, a perfect balance of rage and bliss.

The band tore through a decent amount of their discography, but concentrated on Tell All Your Friends, an album that still feels as passionate and violent as it did in 2002, clichés and all. Standout tracks like "Bike Scene" "You Know How I Do" "You're So Last Summer'' pushed the pace, which is how any Taking Back Sunday show should be. The only lull of the night was a few slower songs towards the middle of the set, and although the mosh pit might have liked the breather, it really brought down the energy of everything. But the band bounced back as they closed the set with the 2006 hit "MakeDamnSure," Lazzara climbing limb over limb up the side of the lighting rig before hanging upside down like a child on monkey bars as he screamed the chorus.

The encore ended things perfectly with a crowd sing-along (clearly mandatory for this show) to "There's No 'I" in Team." The mosh pits were at a fever pitch (props to the guy on crutches with a broken leg, who pumped his crutches high above the crowd the whole show), crowd surfers bounced over the sea of people, my fist (with many others) was pumping the air frantically as I screamed along the last lines, Lazzara propelling himself deep into the audience off the front of the stage. Everyone was sweaty, everyone was smiling, and for a few minutes we all felt younger, a bit nostalgic, and a good measure of invincible.