Shock The System

Getting married, touring with Alkaline Trio and then venturing to Australia for Warped Tour – Cyrus Bolooki has a busy few months ahead. But as he beams, they're “all great things”. The New Found Glory drummer is in a talkative mood, discussing the band's new LP Kill It Live. It's the first time the Florida pop punk mainstays have released a live record and it sees the quintet in fine form, taking control of a loud and sweaty room at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California.

“Chain Reaction has a special place in our hearts,” explains Bolooki of their choice. “We've played there a lot, and coming from Florida, the goal was always like, 'We want to get to California', 'cause that's so far away from Florida, it's almost as far away [in America] as you can get. But I think Chain Reaction is just that kind of place for us that's so special and we knew we were going to get true New Found Glory fans, we were going to get kids that knew every word to every song and that were going to be just as excited to be there as we were and wanting to make it special, and that's exactly what happened.”

The band performed over two nights in March this year and have put together a veritable best-of collection from those shows. In addition, fans also get a late bonus in the way of three cracking new studio cuts.

“We didn't want to just release a three-song EP or something,” says Bolooki, “and we'd been trying to find a way to put out these new songs. So I think what you have [here] is a great setlist – a nice little summary of our career – but also you have these three songs that a lot of people are reacting well to, and I think all in all it's just a great release for us.”

But the making of Kill It Live wasn't without some drama. Guitarist Chad Gilbert was electrocuted on stage by a metal microphone stand about 20 minutes into the first night's set.

“It was just out of the blue, no one expected it,” Bolooki remembers. “And he hits the ground and obviously couldn't return to the show, he had to go to hospital; he was alright and everything but he couldn't play the show that night. All of a sudden the first night just has this weird vibe going on, and I have no idea how Chad was able to, the next day, just put on another show. But we did the second show and luckily that went off without a hitch.

“It's just funny because for us, that's just what seems to happen,” he chuckles, still in disbelief. “We say we're going to do a live thing and actually try and plan it, and then something goes wrong, but you've always got to be ready for little curveballs like that. Luckily our crowds are awesome no matter what night it is or what we're playing or who's playing or any of that kinda stuff.”