Breaking Down The Absolute Can't Miss Bands and Songs at the "When We Were Young Fest" aka The Greatest Music Festival Ever Made
Obviously this festival is the biggest news in the world right now. Probably in every universe if I had to guess. Wouldn't shock me if there is a large increase in alien sightings in Vegas that weekend because they saw this festival and didn't want to miss out. Turns out angst is angst, regardless of how many light years away you live. But anyway, this festival is insane. It's every angry band you listened to growing up, plus more. Every time I have looked at that poster over the last day it feels like a new band appears and I'm stunned all over again. But herein lies the issue- somehow this festival is only a ONE DAY FESTIVAL. How Sway??? How????
By my rough estimate, that's like 60 bands all playing on one day. But it's not like normal festivals where the bands in tiny letters at the bottom are playing on the sidewalk for 9 folks, all of whom are strung out on bath salts. The majority of the bands on that poster are heavy hitters. Are bands you NEED to see at this show. The website says there will be 3 stages, which is great, but only increases my anxiety about it, because that means bands and artists will be overlapping, which means of course you will have to miss someone you want to see. So I sat down and listed out my absolute no brainers of not necessarily bands I need to see, but can't miss SONGS. For example:
"The Best Of Me" is probably the number 1 can't miss song. If one song encapsulates the entire show, it might be this. But that's when it gets hard, because....
Obviously "Misery Business" can go 1:1 in our hypothetical draft. The good news is Paramore is headlining. The bad news is they are headlining AT THE SAME TIME AS MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE.
What are you going to do, NOT see "Welcome To The Black Parade" live????? This is a nightmare already!!!!
And then we have some no-brainers. I have a feeling, no joke, one of the most crowded performances will be Avril. She's having a bit of a resurgence right now, but also the nostalgia factor will be heavy with her. Also keep in mind this festival will be all people my age (33) and the boys and girls will be going nuts for her.
So what are the other can't miss songs? The list goes on and on and on…
IT'S 4 O'CLOCK IN THE FUCKING MORNING!!!!
I mean Dashboard is going to wreck some folks.
All American Rejects have SO MANY bangers. Swing, Swing, Move Along, Dirty Little Secret, It Ends Tonight.
THROW IT AWAY FORGET YESTERDAY WE'LL MAKE THE GREAT ESCAPE!!!!!
I'll do my best to watch the full The Maine set, I love them a ton.
Same with Neck Deep. Best pop-punk band to come around in a decade.
When that opening riff hits…
If you aren't excited for 30,000 people to be belting out "DON'T TRUST A HOE, NEVER TRUST A HOE" you're insane. They are gonna have the place going bananas.
Can't believe how massive Face Down was considering what the song is about. I guess if you put anything behind a snappy beat people will go nuts for it, myself included.
RUN BABY RUN, DON'T EVER LOOK BACK!!!!
And then two of my favorite bands, neither of which I've seen live, but I've listened to for millions of minutes.
Jimmy Eat World, probably the most underrated band of our time.
And my personal headliner…
Taking Back Sunday. Not more needs to be said. Greatest.
And then there's still a ton of other bands that I don't really know but I know people absolutely love (Mayday Parade, Alkaline Trio, Senses Fail, Sleeping With Sirens, and many others). It's madness!
I have no idea what to expect. I've seen some people make Fyre Fest jokes about it, and good! If it's Fyre Fest pt 2, who cares? Emo kids thrive on that shit. The rich influencers couldn't handle it, anyone going to Vegas to see My Chemical Romance absolutely can. And spare me the logistics of playing time and blah blah blah, I've seen tweets of people doing the math, shut upppppp. It'll be great. People are trying to poo-poo this and I'm not having it.
The Lil Huddy and Nessa fans though…they might not have a good time. Honestly cracked up seeing them on the poster. Must be nice to know Travis Barker. A little worried they are going to get booed off the stage, but hey, welcome to the real world kids.
Needless to say, I'm very excited for this show. Whether it's a complete shit show or runs seamlessly, it's a must-attend. See you all in Vegas.