Live Review: Taking Back Sunday, Young Lions

It seems somewhat serendipitous that every person with a stable internet connection (read: everybody) is currently completing the ten-year challenge. For those out of touch, social media feeds have been plastered with people’s photos comparing their current self to that of ten years ago. Tonight we’re going back even further as seminal emo-rockers Taking Back Sunday bring their 20th anniversary tour to The Triffid. 

Brisbane locals Young Lions pick up the gauntlet first but not before we wolf down one of The Triffid’s delish burgers. Sustenance is important for tonight’s time-warping. The band are tight and punters who get down early are treated to a solid set of high-energy tunes. It’s the perfect way to ease into what is set to be a marathon of 2000s feels.

A retrospective tour to celebrate their formation back in 1999 (damn, does that mean we are old?!) promising two iconic albums, tonight sees Tell All Your Friends and Louder Now played in full. “Hello, we’re a band called Taking Back Sunday.” Cue squeals at a pitch only dogs can hear. A concept undoubtedly for the diehards, it seems Brisbane fans are split with the choice of Louder Now and Where You Want To Be - the latter to be switched in for tomorrow night’s showing - as the room falls short of capacity. Nonetheless, they rip into You Know How I Do. Three songs in, we have already reached Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team). It’s an early understandable highlight and one we thought may have better-suited omission until the encore rolled around. Looking around though there’s nothing but wholesome smiles and singalongs. It’s music made for putting your friend in a headlock and screaming the lyrics into each other’s ears.

Potentially the politest mosh we have ever been in, punters are generally quiet during the breaks as frontman Adam Lazzara weaves bizarre tales with tangents of life on Long Island, Ford Windstar minivans and the fact Robert Smith was way more sad than him. He tells us to stop him if he is rambling before catching himself and asking us why we didn’t stop him. “Keep going,” one voice in the crowd yells. It’s a wholesome moment where the genuine love for this band is apparent. You’re So Last Summer is another early highlight and props to the girl in front who has been fist pumping and screaming the lyrics verbatim the entire time.

On stage Lazzara is all long hair charisma as he commands the crowd in a way only someone with 20 years in the biz can. We lose track of the number of mic swings but count seven close encounters with John Nolan’s head. 

As Tell All Your Friends comes to an end, there's no rest for the wicked and we are straight into 2006’s Louder Now. It hits hard with MakeDamnSure TBS at their best. More tales from the archive as Twenty-Twenty Surgery’s “You’re so sensitive/I am, I am a machine,” line is credited to Death From Above and someone literally raises their hand to ask a question. It’s a pretty adorable showing from fans just stoked to be in the same room as their teenage saviours. 

A we’re-not-going-to-do-the-shitty-walk-off-stage-and-then-come-back-on encore sees other album hits given the nod and the crowd celebrates being under the influence for two decades now.

“I joined this band 20 years ago and it changed my life... for the better,” Lazarra reflects cheekily.

“I don’t want to lean on nostalgia because I’m not done and we’re not done, but 20 years now - that’s something that needs to be celebrated. I haven’t done anything for 20 years other than being alive I guess.”

And to that we say bring on the next 20.