Boeing Center at Tech Port was taken over by the emos last Saturday for The Story So Far’s “I Want to Disappear” tour. It was time to break out the studded belt, vintage Warped Tour tee and checkered Vans. After years of missing them live, it was my chance to finally catch their set. Their long-awaited sixth album “ I Want to Disappear” was released this June. From the new album, I was excited to hear “Nothing to Say,” “All Time Time” and “Letterman” live.
The Story So Far is 2000s pop-punk music at its core. Even though The Story So Far is relatively newer than the pop-punk bands I grew up with, I have always appreciated their sound, especially their sophomore album “What You Don’t See.” I grew up with Simple Plan, Sum 41, New Found Glory, All Time Low and The Used to name a few, so this style of music is in my blood and defined a significant part of my formative years.
The music was great and the setlist provided a great mix of their new album “I Want to Disappear” and previous records. Kicking off their set with “Big Blind,” you can immediately tell why this song was released as a single, the guitar lick is catchy, the drums are driving and the lyrics are exactly what you want from a pop-punk song and to start a show. “All This Time,” has that classic early 2000s pop-punk sound. It doesn’t keep you waiting, immediately the explosive drums and classic punk riff kick in and it’s go time.
My favorite track off “I Want to Disappear” is “Nothing to Say,” this song is garage punk that veers into pop-punk. It goes from driving explosive punk drums to an open almost halftime bridge and finale. Hearing this live was epic, I love to hear things done on a record live and executed perfectly.
I go to pop-punk shows regularly, and I immediately picked up on the lack of crowd interaction between the band and their audience. The audience was crowd-surfing and holding on to every word being sung, but the band wasn’t reciprocating that energy. Like I mentioned earlier, the bands I grew up with tend to give every show their all and match the energy of the crowd, especially bands like Simple Plan and All Time Low, but that wasn’t the case here. It felt like there was a disconnect between the band and the audience. Whether lead singer Parker Cannon was channeling his inner Liam Gallagher or was having an off day, it just felt like something was missing. Pop-punk shows are synonymous with creating a sense of community and connection with the band and this show fell a little flat in that sense. What they lack in stage presence is counterbalanced by the crowd. The crowd just kept getting more and more energetic as the night went on. At one point, I sort of felt bad for the barricade security; there would be 7 or 8 people crowd-surfing at a time.
Listening to “I Want to Disappear” live and on the record, reminds me why I enjoy this genre of music even 20-something years later. Listen to “I Want to Disappear” here and catch them on tour.
