Review of Taking Back Sunday at The Academy on August 21st 2011
Photos: Aidan McCarthy
Review: Nicola Byrne
Adam Lazzara is the alternative tween’s Justin Bieber. The mere presence of the Taking Back Sunday front-man sends the crowd of floppy-haired fans into hysterical excitement. Lazarra, it seems, is fully aware of this, and plays up to it at every opportunity. He’s only short of joining the audience in their relentless admiration, assuming clammy skin contact whenever possible.
It’s Sunday evening at the Academy 2, the perfect day of the week for a Taking Back Sunday all-ages gig. The band can be one of many held responsible for bringing a post-hardcore, pop-punk sound to mainstream in the early 2000s—the movement we now know as ‘emo’, bizarrely, as it often lacks legit emotion.
But there is emotion abound tonight. Before I entered the Academy, I witnessed two forlorn teens sitting at the edge of the Luas line outside, a coffee-cup filled with a suspiciously blue liquid lying by their under-age feet. Their Taking Back Sunday tee-shirts and undercuts weeping with what I can only assume was a rejection from witnessing their heroes live.
Meanwhile, Adam Lazzara was tweeting pictures of toilet roll holders, one entitled simply as; ‘“The academy. Dublin.” Perhaps he is calling himself shit? We won’t argue. What am I in for?
Toilet tweets aside, Lazzara is a fantastic front man. He is used to the stench of adolescent sweat, as plenty is omitted in his honour. He has a great relationship with his microphone, swinging it camply, screaming down it like he’s about to swallow the thing. Adam has hinges at the waist. Not content with merely singing into his mic, he must lean over in head-to-floor proportions before attempting a scream.
But hey, it works. Taking Back Sunday are not about pitch-perfect tones, it’s all about energy and the show. Their set might tire, but the energy never flails. The band talk to the crowd in almost cheesy proportions, but attempts to endear the crowd weren’t at all necessary—they were hooked from the start. Every word Adam says is just another excuse to scream in his general direction.
The band released a new album in June, and while the new stuff is greeted with much enthusiasm, it’s the older material that runs familiar. Songs such as ‘There’s no I In Team’, ‘A Decade Under The Influence’, and ‘You’re so Last Summer’ encourage mass sing-alongs and mosh-pit attempts. Newer tracks like ‘This is Now’ are also warmly received as Lazzara decides to up-the-ante by intruding on the crowd’s personal space—much to their delight. A few surprises were also thrown in, such as ‘Existentialism On Prom Night’, belonging to guitarist John Nolan’s side project, Straylight Run.
Taking Back Sunday sound like secondary school. They sound like a time when everything was more complicated than it should have been; a time when everyone was against you; when no one understood. And that’s OK. Because right now in The Academy, the crowd understand each other. Singing along in unison, flipping their black dye jobs back and forth, enjoying the music that unites their tribe. Taking Back Sunday know their fans, and boy do they cater to them. Everyone else just doesn’t ‘get me.’