Celebrating 20 years of Ocean Avenue Tour
It has been six years since Yellowcard has gone on tour. Early this year they had announced that they would be going on tour to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of their 3rd studio album Ocean Avenue. When I saw that they had announced this, I knew I had to go to this show. They are being supported by Mayday Parade, Story Of The Year, Anberlin, This Wild Life and Emo Night Brooklyn. When I saw that Mayday Parade and This Wild Life was one of the opening acts, the teenager in me went crazy. On the drive to the venue, I couldn’t help myself and listen to my favorite songs by them such as “No More Bad Days” & “History” by This Wild Life and “When You See My Friends” & “Last Night For A Table of Two” By Mayday Parade. Before I left for the night, I headed over to their merch booth, I had a hard time trying to pick out a couple of shirts, there was a great selection of shirts and other merch available. Next time any of these bands are on tour you do not want to miss out!
Emo Night Brooklyn is an Emo/Punk event that was established by a best friend duo, Alex and Ethan. They wanted to give fans an experience to remember. They play all your favorite Emo and Punk songs, the duo even collab’s with your favorite artists to enhance the experience you are already getting with them. I’m excited to see what the duo has to offer. Emo Night Brooklyn brought an interesting twist to this show. Instead of having a set, set time, they actually played Emo/Punk favorites such as “I’m Not Okay” by My Chemical Romance, “MakeDamnSure” By Taking Back Sunday, “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, and many earlier 2000’s favorites. Fans & Including I were unsure about this take on incorporating a real DJ into the set but by the end of the evening fans and even the security guards were having a blast, singing along to all the other jams Emo Night Brooklyn had ready for us.
This Wild Life is an acoustic duo from Long Beach, California. After a few years of being established as acoustic, in 2014 they were signed to Epitaph records and released their first studio album “Clouded.” This Wild Life’s acoustic nature got a larger response from fans in the Punk/ Emo community. The band has released Five studio albums to date, they just released Never Fade In June of this year. This Wild Life came out strong, they started their set by playing “No More Waiting”, a song of their latest album. Between songs they had referred to themselves as the “Hot Topics Mumford and Sons” and the fans loved it and wanted more from the duo, The band are also well known for doing cover songs, during the set they featured a cover of “I Miss You” by Blink-182. I really enjoy listening to their music, I find it quite relaxing and a different style of music than I normally listen to.
Story Of The Year is a rock band that formed in St. Louis Missouri in1995 under a different name. They went through two different name changes before finally settling on who we know them as Story Of The Year. The band’s music has been influenced by artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Guns N Roses. The band had been around for Eight years before they made their big break. Songs that helped them gain popularity is “Anthem of Our Dying Day” and “Until the Day I Die” fans still resonate with these songs even 20 years after they were dropped. The band currently has Six albums out to date the most recent album they dropped is called Tear Me to Pieces. I love watching story of the year perform live, the entire band is full of energy, performing their hearts out. This show unfortunately their bassist Adam had to tone it down a notch. At one of their shows prior to our date he actually broke his foot and was in a boot. That didn’t stop them from giving it their all, they played a bunch of songs from their album Page Avenue which in addition is twenty years old. The band closed their set out with one of their most popular songs “Until the Day I Die.”
Mayday Parade is a rock band from Tallahassee Florida, they formed back in 2005. The band rapidly gained popularity when they released their first album Tales Told by Dead Friends, Mayday Parade wasn’t even signed to a record label when they sold over 50,000 copies of this album. The band currently has Twelve studio albums including deluxe albums of almost every album they have produced since 2005, This year they released an album called Got Me All Wrong. The band has also been nominated for the most dedicated fan and best music video awards. I’m excited to see what songs they plan on playing from their discography. When Mayday Parade ran out on stage you could just feel the excitement from the band and even more from the fans. They came out on stage playing “Oh Well, Oh Well”, The fans were belting every word of the song back to them, I was also singing while taking photos. Mayday Parade hasn’t toured in this part of NY in a really long time, after they played another song, the band actually apologized for not coming to this area in a while. I loved that they had a piano with them, they pulled it out and played “Miserable At Best.” I enjoyed watching them perform as well, they were jumping around, playing and singing their hearts out. They closed out their set with one of my favorite songs “Jamie All Over”, I hope they come back around this part of NY soon, I would love to watch them perform again.
Yellowcard is a rock band from Jacksonville Florida, forming back in 1997. Yellowcard has released ten albums to date. After announcing this tour back in February to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of Ocean Avenue in May, they released a single called “Childhood Eyes” prior to their album release of Childhood Eyes. Their music corporates the use of a violin, which is rare for this music genre. In 2016 the band had announced that they would be breaking up after playing the entire Vans Warped Tour run. They reunited in 2022 at Riot fest, and a couple other festivals before announcing this tour. Yellowcard is another band I would go out and see again. I loved that their band has a member that plays the violin, Fun fact: when I was in high school, I actually played the violin as well. They played 19 songs that night, at song 10 they had Derek sanders of Mayday Parade to join them on stage to perform this song. They played a bunch more songs and they closed out the night with one of their classic hits “Ocean Avenue.”
