Jan 17

A Parent's Perspective "STORY OF THE YEAR” Show Review

As our emo selves get older , bands get older but the music stays the same. With age comes anniversaries, with festivals like When We Were Young Festival having bands on the festival playing full fledged albums from front to back while bands are going on their own tours doing the same thing, such as Story Of The Year with their recent tour for their album Page Avenue which has just hit its 20th year anniversary.

Story Of The Year along with We The Kings, Youth Fountain and Four Year Strong as support have embarked on a full month-long tour in celebration for their album.

JANUARY 8TH 2024, MCKEES ROCKS PA: Story of the Year along with We The Kings and Youth Fountain rolled into McKees Rocks PA to the Roxian Theatre, a venue that has become near and dear to my heart over the years. This would be the first show of the year for me. 2023 was an amazing year, and with this show kicking it off makes promise to be an amazing year.

First up was Vancouver, BC based pop-punk outfit Youth Fountain whom recently dropped An amazing EP in 2023 entitled Together In Lonesome. The trio opened up with track "My Mental Health from their 2021 record Keepsakes & Reminders followed by track Century from the same album. They took it back to their 2019 album Letters to Our Former Selves with track Complacient then jumping into a track from their latest aforementioned record Clarity which would be the only track from that record for the evening. Youth Fountain has been picking up momentum with their fast paced, energetic live performance and emotional, relatable lyrics. You. Should definitely check out YouthFountain if you get the chance, they are incredible live.

During intermission, 90's hiphop blasted over the PA system while We The Kings were set to take the stage next. I had the chance to meet lead singer/ frontman Tyler Zanon who is one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever met.

We The Kings hit the stage, a band that I haven't seen since the Vans Warped Tour days. The last time I saw them live they had another bass player, I almost forgot that one of my favorite YouTubers Charles Trippy from CTFxC played bass for the band now. The band kicked off their set with track Skyway Avenue from their breakthrough 2007 self-titled album, immediately followed by track She Takes Me High from their follow-up record Smile Kid in 2009.

Up next was a "fan participation" song as lead singer Travis Clark put on a pair of the new livestream glasses to record part of a music video for their upcoming new single Alien. Track Say You Like Me from 2011's Sunshine State of Mind was up next followed by one of my favorite songs Sad Song from 2013's Somewhere Somehow before closing the set out with a track entitled When We Were Young written in honor of the aforementioned When We Were Young Festival before finishing out the set with fan favorite Check Yes Juliet.

After a final intermission Story of the Year was up. I've seen the band just a year prior in my hometown in Pittsburgh's annual Four Chord Music Festival, and their live performance is amazing. Story of the Year took the stage and opened up with the opening track from Page Avenue, And The Hero Will Drown. The band didn't play the record from front to back in order, which was a little unorthadox as track Dive Right In followed by Divide and Conquor was up next from the album.

One of the band's most well-known tracks Anthem of Our Dying Day was up next followed by title track Page Avenue. Jumping around more was tracks War, Razorblads and then Burning Years. Story of the Year finished the set off with In The Shadows from page Avenue before coming back out for an encore of Tear Me To Pieces from a new 2023 record, following up with track Falling Down from the Page Avenue record. One of the sickest things of the night was the medley of pop-punk/emo songs which started out with Yellowcard's Ocean Avenue, into Taking Back Sunday's Cute Without The E, into I'm Not Okay by My Chemical Romance and then closing with The Taste of Ink by The Used. Story of the Year finished the night off with their signature track Until The Day I Die, the final song to be performed by their Page Avenue record.

If you've never seen any of these bands live, I highly recommend. Any pop-punk/emo/indie rocker has heard at least one track from these bands, and if not from Youth Fountain, I again employ you to check them out. Story of the Year is still on this anniversary tour, if you're in the area, go check them out!

- You can check out a photo gallery, and more below!