Taking Back Sunday performing their Tidal Wave Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Friday 17th February 2017


Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

Aging emo band, Taking Back Sunday, proved last night that they have still got something left in their locker as they thrilled and entertained a packed Rock City crowd.

Making their name in the early noughties with songs of teenage angst and betrayal, they are as relevant today as they were then. Through changing line ups and constant reinventions over their seven studio albums, the band have seen themselves grow with a huge following of loyal fans.

Front man Adam Lazzara’s stage presence was electric because he knew how to work the audience, throwing his mic around so much that those in the front feared for their safety, and guitarist John Nolan looked comfortable to be back after he departed the band in 2003 only to rejoin in 2010.

So it was to a tremendous response that the band opened with Death Wolf from their latest album Tidal Waves, whilst Liar (It Takes One To Know One) got the first early sing along of the evening. With new tracks You Can’t Look Back, All Excess and Call Come Running being very well received, it was the group’s early material that unsurprisingly got the best reception.

Timberwolves At New Jersey got a roar from the crowd when they recognised the first chord and A Decade Under The Influence sounded as fresh in 2017 as it did in 2004 when it was first aired on the bands sophomore album, Where You Want To Be.

With Lazzara looking visibly chunkier and grizzlier than he did in his clean cut poster boy youth, he still commanded the stage with his showman swagger. But he did sometimes struggle with the vocals like on Stood A Chance but with Eddie Reyes on guitar, bass player Shaun Cooper and Mark O’Connell on the drums, the sound was bolstered to hide the few vocal discrepancies, and it was doubtful that these adoring fans even noticed.

Relying upon their extensive back catalogue, Taking Back Sunday played Error: Operator, You’re So Last Summer and Flicker Fade and the crowd went wild. New song Tidal Wave is a fast punk influenced song which had the room re-energised and got everyone dancing, but it was their breakout anthem, Cute Without The E (Cut From The Team) which provoked a sing along which didn’t end until finisher MakeDamnSure was given an outing.

Having been in their current line up since 2010, they are probably a little tired of playing these comparatively juvenile, heart on sleeve tracks that they wrote as teenagers, but on tonight’s performance, this audience will not certainly tire of listening to them.