Seriously. So many things are turning 20 this year. Page Avenue? 20 year anniversary. Ocean Avenue? 20 year anniversary. 20th Avenue? The street I grew up on 20 years ago. Is that a coincidence? Possibly. But still, someone who isn’t as lazy as me should look into what happened 20 years ago.
But not everyone is celebrating a 20 year anniversary. Openers Youth Fountain formed, like, yesterday. And by yesterday, I mean 6 years ago. So congratulations on your big 5 year anniversary (plus one since 6 is a weird number to celebrate)!
Being such youngins to the scene, I didn’t know who the fuck Youth Fountain was, but I want to now. They were reminiscent of old school Warped Tour openers who would just be so happy to be on a tour with the big boys; they were reminiscent of little puppy dogs if little puppy dogs could play infectious music.
And I like puppy dogs, so therefore, I want to know more about Youth Fountain. Whomever is researching why 2003 was such a big year, research Youth Fountain too please. See if they’re up for adoption.
And congratulations on your engagement to the merch girl! Besides for discounts on shirts, soon you’ll be celebrating your one year anniversary! How nice.
I do know Four Year Strong, and boy did they live up to their name. They were like a fucking freight train of grown ass men invading your ear and eyeballs. The chaotic energy they put out was like that of a child with adhd vying for attention in a classroom of 30. But while you should never ever pay to watch a stranger’s child in any scenario, everyone did pay to see the Four Year Strong freight train on the tracks. And that promised chaos is exactly what we got, so thank you. And congratulations on your 20 year anniversary of The Glory EP!
I started counting crowd surfers during their set. 3 human surfers and 1 banana surfer was the final tally. Was that a lot? Not enough? Well, if I’m being honest, I don’t know how many people one banana counts as.
And finally, Story Of The Year, who somehow made the Ogden Theatre feel like my living room. And I live in an apartment – my living room is small as balls on a cold winter day. Story Of The Year might be a big band, but that didn’t stop them from:
Signing autographs mid set because someone near the front had a shirt and a sharpie.
Singling out people in the back of the theatre because they were wearing an OG Story shirt that had a dragon penis on it. How they managed to spot a random yellow shirt from the stage I don’t know, but if you have an OG Story dragon shirt, it does have a penis on it.
Threatening to buy everyone a beer because people were randomly throwing money on stage. Which is weird because I was right there in the crowd and would have happily taken their money instead. Don’t throw money at the band next time people, throw it at me!
But the love doesn’t stop there. Story Of The Year could easily just played Page Avenue and had a successful tour. Instead of phoning it in though, they treated the fans to some classic punk energy. And that type of love makes me think that, if I let them crash in my living room, they wouldn’t completely destroy it. And for any type of musician, that’s about as lovey dovey as it gets.
This was one of the most enjoyable shows of the year. While the majority of the bands could have done it, no one phoned it in. The stage was small, the stage was big, the stage was intimate, but the stage was never boring.
