Taking Back Sunday returned to South Florida on their small club tour promoting their latest album, Tidal Wave, on October 9th, 2016. Considering their last tour was the amphitheater driven Taste of Chaos, stopping into the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale was definitely a much more intimate setting for the Long Island band.
Tidal Wave is the third studio release from Taking Back Sunday since the original line-up – Adam Lazzara (vocals), Eddie Reyes (rhythm guitar), John Nolan (guitar), Mark O'Connell (drums), and Shaun Cooper (bass) – was reinstated. When a band sets out on an album promotion tour, you usually have a few die-hard fans that know all the songs, but TBS fans exude die-hardism, and the club was singing right along with Lazzara despite the album being out for less than a month.
The band spent the first half of the show playing Tidal Wave in it's entirety, with the second half comprised of well loved hits from the band's career. Taking Back Sunday's live show has only gotten better in time. Tidal Wave may be the best TBS record to date, it is the reunion record we have been waiting for, so this tour felt like the ultimate reunion tour. The only thing missing was Eddie Reyes, as he did not appear to be around for the show, not sure if this was a one night thing or for the current tour, but besides Reyes' absence, the set could not have been perfected.
Lazzara thanked the crowd for allowing them to come play their latest record for us, knowing that playing a full brand new album isn't necessarily what the fans are there to hear. I'm not sure which songs will end up being Tidal Wave's “MakeDamnSure” or “Cute Without The 'E'” that stick around on the everyday setlist, but it was incredible to see the album played out in it's entirety. From the intense opener “Death Wolf” to the emotional “I Felt It Too” each song brought a new vibe to the set that the crowd fed on.
The latter portion of the set sent the crowd into a frenzy, as is the norm at a TBS show, as the fans went wild for the songs of their youth. Timeless lyrics from “Liar (It Takes One to Know One)” and “A Decade Under the Influence,” blared through the club as the fans singing along drowned out Lazzara who was happily swinging his mic around. When the crowd is singing over the band, you know it's a killer show you're apart of.
Tidal Wave is a natural growth for Taking Back Sunday; the band has matured with it's fanbase from their first release Tell All Your Friends from 2002. There are few bands that you can pinpoint the feeling where the lyrics match your current situation year after year, but TBS exceeds at this. Tidal Wave is the adult version of the same emotions we dealt with ten years ago when Louder Now was released.
The joy of having an entire crowd of people shouting your own songs out at you was obvious on the faces of the band, as they seemed to be having just as good of a time. I have been TBS many times live but this was the tightest set up I had seen. The entire band truly seems to be giving it their all on this tour, and performing their newest songs, and their old favorites, with equal amount of passion.
If the Tidal Wave Tour hasn't come through your town yet, you do not want to miss this tour. Who knows the next time we'll be able to hear “Fences” or “You Can't Look Back” live (I hope a lot!). The intimate setting of the tour is definitely bringing an old school vibe back to the TBS show, but with the maturity and fine tuned musicianship that they have acquired as a band, it's an even better show than 2010 brought us.
Setlist:
1. Death Wolf 2. Tidal Wave 3. You Can’t Look Back 4. Fences 5. All Excess 6. I Felt It Too 7. Call Home Running 8. Holy Water 9. In The Middle Of It All 10. We Don’t Go In There 11. Homecoming 12. I’ll Find A Way To Make It What You Want
13.Cute Without The ‘e’
14. Set Phasers to Stun
15. Liar (It Takes One To Know One)
16. What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?
17. A Decade Under The Influence
18. Flicker Fade
19. My Blue Heaven
20. Timberwolves at New Jersey
21. One-Eighty By Summer
22. MakeDamnSure
