“Life is gonna leave you quicker than you know.“
Over the last few years, the trend of emo nostalgia has had a fingerless gloved grip on pop culture. Sometimes it has come across vapid – an attempt at capitalising on the culture, a cash grab to drain the pockets of people yearning to relive their youth. This does not apply to Silverstein’s latest tour “25 Years of Noise’’, a show dripping not only with nostalgia but a fondness and appreciation for the scene that birthed them and continues to support them.
On the first of March, the O2 Forum in Kentish Town became a temple of worship for fans of the genre. As I stepped foot into the venue, I was warmly welcomed by the sounds of emo heavy hitters from Paramore to Modern Baseball, lovingly surrounding the audience with familiar sounds of their adolescence. The four band bill also boasted a mix of genre legends and fresh blood, all making an effort in their own ways to acknowledge the reason that they were gathered – one by one it is as if the crowd was visited by the ghosts of emo past and present.
Words by Eylem Boz, photography by Amy Shephard – contact Amy prior to any use.
The first act to take the stage was Sydney melodic hardcore five-piece Bloom. An explosive opener, they launched into their set with a thunderous energy. Bassist Andrew Martin holds his instrument like a weapon, aiming it at his wide-eyed audience. The band’s music is rich in texture, heavy yet extremely danceable. The pop-punk tinge in the drumming style of Jack Van Vliet provided a dense groove, backing a sound heard best in a live environment. Vocalist Jono Hawkey proved himself not only a dynamic vocalist, but a capable and captivating frontman. ‘If you don’t put your hands up you’re not a real emo‘ he says, poking fun at the trend of emo nostalgia while also acknowledging the reason everyone was in the room. From the get go, you could tell that there was a warmth for the genre that ran from band to band, Bloom excellently established this throughout their set – Hawkey asking ‘who here is a fan of emo music?‘ Their melancholic lyrics paired with dual vocals are a band wearing their classic emo influence on their sleeve, a perfect way to kick off a night celebrating the scene.
Atlanta, Georgia’s devilishly witty math-rockers The Callous Daoboys were the second to perform. With a diverse range of influences the band seemingly have something for everyone – but they know this, and want to subvert it. Aside from their drummer Matthew Hague, the band stood as equals in a line at the front of the stage, taking on the audience together as if in battle. Each member put on an exhilarating performance, you could not focus on one person for too long for fear of missing out on what was going on somewhere else on stage. Their music starts and stops, keeping the crowd on their toes, anticipating their next move. It is disjointed yet smooth as all hell, a collage of clashing soundscapes. They are a band that begs the question – what would Korn sound like if someone had shat out skittles instead? The highlight of the performance was undeniably the sudden blasting of Natasha Beddingfield’s “Unwritten” over the speakers mid-set. Just as the song hit its emotional chorus, the band ruptured into the contrast of a seethingly heavy wall of sound. The Callous Daoboy’s are undoubtedly incredible, a perfectly unhinged take on a genre that can often take itself far too seriously.
Next on the roster, the forefathers of third wave emo, New Jersey’s own Thursday. Surrounded by die-hard fans in the crowd, there was a sense of heightened emotion sitting in the air. Having played a small amount of UK dates last year for the first time in quite a while, the crowd was clearly hungry for more, erupting into waves of passion at the band’s entrance. To the band themselves the show was equally as important, with frontman Geoff Rickly sharing that guitarist Norman Brannon had retired from touring, but made a special exception to play the tour’s two UK dates. Their setlist was varied, playing a mix of genre staples like “Understanding in a Car Crash” and cult classics like “Paris In Flames” all to raucous response. To be a band twenty seven years into their career and to still have fans singing new songs back to you word for word is no small feat – the self-referential “White Bikes” soaking the crowd in its bittersweet melancholy as they scream “why am I still waiting” in tandem. It is this passion that the night was all about celebrating, not just the careers of the bands but the fans unwavering adoration. The whole band’s stage presence is enormous, it is clear that Thursday are playing at the top of their game; with no chances of slowing down as their career as newly-independent artists takes them triumphantly forward.
It should also be mentioned that before Thursday’s set began I was handed a zine made by two fans that celebrated Rickly’s obsession with internet fragrance superstar JeremyFragrance. There’s something to be said there about the persistence of the community over the years that the tour sought to highlight, but mostly it was just extremely funny.
Finally, after the second run of Paramore’s emo anthem “Misery Business” of the night, the fabric-draped set pieces were undressed, the lights dimmed and the final band of the night took to the stage. Silverstein, celebrating 25 Years of Noise. A perfectly curated celebration of emo began the set; a video diving deep into the dense history of the culture and its context, taking its audience back in time to when MySpace was king and Silverstein were some skinny jean-clad boys with a dream. Nostalgia courses through the veins of the whole production – not in a fickle and false way but with a genuine heart. Much like the rest of the evening, there was a central theme of memories and the power of looking to the past. The set begins with “Skin and Bones”, released in 2024. Much like with Thursday, the crowd sings every word as passionately as they would a song from 20 years ago. As frontman Shane Told would later reveal, each song played would be in reverse chronological order, taking the crowd on a journey from the present to the not-so-distant past.
The ferocious energy of the band has not dulled over time, jumping from song to song with a fervour only encouraged by the excitement of the audience. It has to be said that the staging, despite being interesting to look at and often aiding in visual storytelling, seemed at times to eclipse the band with its bright LED screens. Told was a captivating frontman, bantering with the audience in between songs as if speaking to old friends; ‘do you guys have frisbee over here?‘ he asked with genuine intrigue as he told a fan to frisbee him a letter from the barricade. As the set progressed the words that everyone wanted to hear left Told’s lips; ‘we are now entering the Discovering the Waterfront Era‘. Elated, the audience drowned out the band on stage as the opening notes of “Your Sword Versus My Dagger” rang out.
As the band left the stage the crowd, thirsty for an encore, summoned back Told with an acoustic guitar in tow. He tells the audience that they are in an intense competition with the previous night’s Manchester crowd to be the loudest crowd in the UK. They take this very seriously – the competition is in London’s hands as soon as “My Heroine” begins. The crowd scream their way through the song, taunted by Told to get louder and of course they cannot help but oblige.
A familiar robot flashes on the screen and the band launch into crowd pleaser “Smashed into Pieces”. People sing along as if the words are pushing themselves out of their bodies. It was clear the band were having a great deal of fun throughout the performance but as the set started to come to a close it really shone through. Images flash up on screen of people’s tattoos of the robot cover star of the band’s first album. It was perhaps the most emotional point of the evening for a lot of people – to see a band recognise and appreciate the fans carrying their work on their bodies was a beautiful gesture. It ended the night in a way that clouded the atmosphere with not only nostalgia for the days of emo past, but appreciation for the community of emo present.
Check out our reviews of Silverstein‘s Misery Made Me, The Callous Daoboy‘s most recent EP and their second LP, and Bloom‘s Maybe In Another Life. We’ll be covering Thursday‘s upcoming album soon.