Even before Taking Back Sunday took to the stage, you could tell that this gig was going to be a screamer. The crowd, made up mostly of female teenagers, lapped up the support acts with fevered anticipation. Merrily bouncing along, awaiting the main act, they barely noticed that the support’s sets pretty much blended into each other (for all we knew, they could have been singing each other’s songs). They had their minds on other things – like the imminent arrival of Adam Lazzaras and his emo heroes from New York. Chants of “T!” “B!” “S!” from the hyped-up crowd bring Taking Back Sunday onto the stage, and amid the deafening hysteric Beatlemania-style screaming, they open with a blinding performance of the first song from their new record ‘What’s It Feel Like To Be a Ghost?’. The crowd love Lazzaras’ sub-Hives theatrical microphone jiggery-pokery, lapping up every smile and wink he directed toward the adoring fans. | "Taking Back Sunday played a solid gig – hard to fault, and well received by the fans in attendance." | | Ben Murray |
All doubts about Sunday being “just another emo band”, evaporated as the set progressed. Songs from their current album ‘Louder Now’ were incredibly well received and performed with a hint the band had practiced their moves a little too much, rather than getting on-stage and enjoying themselves. ‘Liar (It Takes One to Know One)’ and ‘Twenty Twenty Surgery’ were highlights of the new songs on show, the band playing them loud and proud. Seemingly destined to be lumped as inferior Fall Out Boys, despite their markedly better songs, carving out an entertaining live show seems to be their aim. Their latest single ‘Make Damn Sure’ went down an absolute storm, while songs that the crowd wanted to hear like ‘Cute Without the E’ were greeted by a huge cheer and a new surge of jumping-about-like-a-maniac by a tiring crowd. After a solo performance of ‘Divine Intervention’, ‘A Decade Under The Influence’ (greeted by ecstatic cheering) ended the set. By the grand finale, the band looking as knackered as their young crowd. Taking Back Sunday played a solid gig – hard to fault, and well received by the fans in attendance. As an exhausted crowd left the hall, a sense of satisfaction could be felt, the memory of the gig planting many a grin on the faces of a tired and sweaty crowd. |
