LIVE REVIEW: Taking Back Sunday @ Academy, Manchester

For many people, TAKING BACK SUNDAY represent a specific moment in their younger life. For most this was a turning point in their early teens when the door to a whole new world of music was broken off its hinges, exposing them to a completely different world that exists away from the pop music radio-sphere. This year represents a particularly important milestone in the band’s career, with 2019 marking the 20th anniversary of TAKING BACK SUNDAY. To celebrate this historic event, the band are bringing the anniversary party from city-to-city across the globe and everyone is invited to come together and celebrate the influential career of one of the pioneers of the emo genre.

Given the celebratory nature of the evening, who better to kick things off than someone who’s been an influential fixture of the scene of over 20 years, and that someone is Geoff Rickly. Most widely known as a founding member, principal songwriter, and vocalist of the post-hardcore band THURSDAY, Geoff Rickly is also known for having produced one of the most groundbreaking albums in emo history – MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE‘s 2002 debut I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.

Geoff took to the stage alone armed only with his hollow-body guitar and began with no introduction, and the room became transfixed. In his ultra stripped-back set, Geoff navigated through some of THURSDAY‘s most-loved tracks, some signifying where it all began, and some carrying the banner of the band’s newer material. For those who love THURSDAY, the set was nothing short of a magical experience. The whole performance was akin to being a fly on the wall back when Geoff wrote the songs, before the other members of THURSDAY fleshed them out with the rest of the instrumentation. The informal, stripped-back nature of the set, mixed with Geoff‘s excellent conversational anecdotes between songs, gave the whole experience an unparalleled air of intimacy – and if you’re already a fan of THURSDAY, Geoff Rickly‘s set will have made your whole year.

Rating: 8/10

Shaking the atmosphere up before the headliners, like a bottle of champagne getting progressively closer to exploding, were the deftly energetic surf-punk boys THE FRIGHTS. The band have constantly evolved their sound from album to album, with the result often being a total departure from their previous release. Their unconventional methods when recording an album often lead to the finished product being particularly ‘out there’ and unique. For example, for their second release You Are Going To Hate This, frontman Mikey Carnevale was drunk when recording the vocals for a couple of tracks on the album in order to fully capture the desired outcome.

One thing that particularly stood out about THE FRIGHT‘s set was the intricate, meaningful, and incredibly tactful lyricism that each track confidently displayed. Each track they played told a story, sometimes complex, always relatable, and each one in a neatly presented, catchy musical package. This is where THE FRIGHTS truly shine, if you don’t know who they are and you’re not particularly familiar with their material, even on the first listen you’re bound to get something from it. The pure joy they exude while performing feels like they’re bringing a small piece of the positive Southern California attitude with them wherever they go, and you can’t help but love that.

Rating: 7/10

Finally, it was time for the true celebration to truly begin with TAKING BACK SUNDAY taking the stage to a deafening chorus of cheers. To mark the occasion, on this tour the band are playing their first album Tell All Your Friends from start to finish, with the remainder of their set being comprised of some of the fan favourites from the rest of their back catalogue. Opening their set with You Know How I Do, the first track from their debut album, TAKING BACK SUNDAY got off to a triumphant start. The absolutely packed Manchester Academy was bouncing from wall-to-wall, reliving their youth one song at a time. The passion that this band evokes from those who have been with them from the beginning is second to none. Right from the opening song everyone in the room was singing every word right back at the band, showing them just how much their music meant to each and every one of them.

Taking it all the way back to where it all started, not just by playing their first album, but playing the first song they ever wrote together, the band launched into one of the standouts from their first record Great Romances of the 20th Century. The track further energised the room into a fervent chorus of singing and synchronised jumping. For so many in the room, this song sound-tracked their teen years and to hear it played live is akin to experiencing that time all over again. Between songs, frontman Adam Lazzara prefaced the upcoming song with an intricate backstory about how and why the song was written with the passion of a zealous southern preacher. Throughout the whole show, it was clear that Adam and the rest of the band we’re genuinely grateful at the ardour and unfiltered passion exuded by the fans. Once the band had played Head Club, the last song from their debut album, they blasted through some of their standout tracks from their brilliant discography. Jumping from Tidal Wave, to Liar (It Takes One to Know One), to All Ready to Go, before ending the night with the spectacular MakeDamnSure from the album Louder Now.

To make it to the 20-year mark in anything is an amazing achievement, but to combine that longevity with being held in such high regard by so many people all around the world makes the feat even more incredible. The atmosphere throughout their set never seemed to falter and remained at a high right until the very end – this fact alone shows how much of an impact TAKING BACK SUNDAY have had on people. The whole night was a celebration in every sense of the word, with neither the band nor the crowd keeping anything in reserve. Who knows how long TAKING BACK SUNDAY will be with producing new material, but one thing is for sure – they’ve cemented their name into the annals of emo history as one of the most influential, and dearly loved bands to ever grace the scene.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery from the night’s action in Manchester from Sabrina Ramdoyal Photography here: