Celebrating 20 years since formation, Taking Back Sunday turned up the nostalgia for their Australian leg of their tour. Not only did their two hour set revisit their second album, ‘What You Want To Be’ AND third album, ‘Louder Now’, both played in full, front man Adam Lazzara also went down memory lane with anecdotal commentary between tracks including, most notably, how the band “borrowed” the ‘oh’s’ appearing on ‘Number Five with a Bullet’ from none other than Hilary Duff, how the inspiration for ‘Divine Intervention’ came out of an adventurous evening at a dog park, and finally a grudge held against an unnamed band for using lyrics featured in ‘Spin’.
‘Set Phasers To Stun’ opened the evening and the ‘Where You Want To Be’ portion of the evening progressing in album track order. A brief band introduction after the third song launched the foursome into hit singles ‘A Decade Under The Influence’ followed by ‘This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)’, hyping the crowd up for booming sing-alongs. Post-anecdote, ‘Number Five With A Bullet’ elevated the three tiers of 170 Russell, wrapping up the ‘Where You Want To Be Album’. They did not waste time before taking on album number two of the night.
Fan favourite album and the album that influenced a generation of pop punk/emo bands, ‘Louder Now’ followed in the same progression, in full [minus ‘Brooklyn: (If You See Something, Say Something)’ and ‘Sleep’]. ‘What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost’ hit the spot before things were taken up a notch with ‘Liar (It Takes One To Know One)’ and personal favourite of the night ‘MakeDamnSure’ released the metaphorical flames. Lazzara’s signature mic tricks were well and truly in full swing, and the mosh reciprocated his animalistic energy levels. ‘Twenty Twenty Surgery’ was met with cheers of encouragement as was ‘Spin’. The high energy stage and mosh antics took a brief pause with an acoustic interlude for a stunning rendition of ‘Divine Intervention’. ‘Miami’, ‘Error: Operator’ and ‘I’ll Let You Live’ closed out a jam packed nostalgia trip.
BUT WAIT: THERE’S MORE!!
Pulling no silly stage exits and reappearance, the punk pop heroes pushed through for a four song encore. ‘You Can’t Look Back’, ‘You’re So Last Summer’, ‘All Ready Go’ and the most anticipated song of the night, ‘Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team)’ rounded out the monster 26 song set. That equates to a song for every year of my life; a life that has been shared with the Long Island lads for the most part, and has only been made better by their 20 year career.
Friday, 11 January 2019
170 Russell, Melbourne
Reviewed by Tammy Walters
Photo sourced from bands Facebook
