Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory performing in San Francisco, CA for '20 Years of NFG'. April 27, 2017. Photo Credit: Jared Stossel

New Found Glory
w/ Trash Boat
Slims
San Francisco, CA
April 27, 2017

Photos and words by Jared Stossel

"LET'S DO IT ONE MORE TIME!" vocalist Jordan Pundik screams into the microphone as pop-punk veterans New Found Glory dive headfirst into "Understatement", the upbeat monster of a track that opens one of their most successful records to date, Sticks & Stones. "One more time" refers to the fact that this is night three of a three night stand that New Found Glory took on as part of the band's twentieth anniversary tour. Tickets went on-sale months ago, with many dates selling out far in advance. You were considered lucky if you were able to snag a ticket to any of the three nights, as the venue they chose for their residency (Slims) packs only a little under five hundred patrons.

The vast majority of anniversary tours, whether celebrating a certain album or the band itself, consist of the same formula: band walks out, plays the full album from start to finish, plays the hits that weren't from that album, big encore, walk off. This formula need not apply to New Found Glory. Each night of the tour consisted of the band performing two albums in their entirety, but the songs were mixed up and rearranged, with fans not knowing what track would come next. This honestly made for a far more interesting night. While it can be greatly exciting to go into a show and know that your favorite album is going to be played in the order you know it was constructed, mixing it up really makes each show unique.

That evening's albums consisted of Sticks & Stones and Coming Home, two pivotal song collections in the New Found Glory catalogue. And with a strong opening set from UK up-and-comers Trash Boat (read a really early interview we did with the band here), this proved to be one of the biggest pop-punk events of the year, at least within the Bay Area music scene.

New Found Glory are one of those bands that, no matter how times you seen them, remain flawless. Not one note is off or out of key, they are perfectly tuned into one another, the crowd is rowdy and excitable during each song, and they play as if they've just been given an unbelievable amount of caffeine, are handed their instruments, and their tour manager just says, "you have two hours. Go nuts." Going to a New Found Glory show is never a bad choice. Always remember that.