Festival Review, Photos: When We Were Young Brings My Chemical Romance, and Fall Out Boy To The Desert
When We Were Young Festival
w/ My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, A Day To Remember, Pierce The Veil, The Used & more
Las Vegas Festival Grounds
Las Vegas, NV
Saturday, October 19th, 2024
Review and Photos by Jared Stossel
When I was fifteen, albums like The Black Parade, This War Is Ours, From Under The Cork Tree, Plagues, Chroma, and countless others consumed my life. They gave me a sense of purpose in an otherwise confusing world, and allowed me to channel my dreams, frustrations, and aspirations by simply putting a CD into the disc tray, snapping the lid shut, and pressing the button that says “Play”. For however long one of these records would play, whether I was practicing my microphone swinging moves like Adam Lazzara and training my voice to sing, or laying on my back and spacing out, I escaped. This was the spirit of this year’s When We Were Young Festival, which returned for its third annual edition at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds next to Circus Circus.
On Saturday, October 19th, 50,000 emo, scene, and pop-punk fans descended upon the Nevada desert, where they gathered for nearly fourteen hours to witness some of the biggest and most important names in the scene's history bring their music to life. This year’s edition had a surprise twist: nearly every band was asked to play one of their seminal albums from front to back, honoring the collections of music considered a touchstone in the cultural history of this scene. For the most part, everyone followed this rule to a tee, blasting through albums from front to back (Taking Back Sunday performing Tell All Your Friends, My Chemical Romance performing The Black Parade, Cartel performing Chroma), while others put twists on their setlist, performing a highlight of songs from said album along with a collection of popular hits (Cobra Starship, Chiodos, for example). It was interesting to watch, and while it was a bummer that some songs from those track listings were omitted, the vibe at every stage was unmatched, filled with diehard fans of these acts.
When We Were Young takes the Warped Tour formula and cranks the juice up to 11; it is a massive and sometimes overwhelming experience, with some stages rather far apart from one another. In some cases, tough choices would have to be made about who to see, but I can say that when you commit to watching one act instead of bouncing between three different at the same time, the experience was incredibly rewarding. It’s one thing to watch a band like The Used open their set as they always do with “Take It Away”; it’s another thing entirely to watch them follow it up with every single song on In Love And Death. No other festival on earth can give an experience like this right now.
Over on the Ghost and Allianz stages, sequestered off to the farthest left hand side of the festival, fans were treated to countless incredible performances, and we would be here all day if we listed them off. Acts like Story of the Year, We The Kings, Silverstein, Motion City Soundtrack, Basement, Boys Like Girls, 3oh!3, and Say Anything played albums that took them around the world and back again, delighting fans in attendance. Earlier in the day, newer acts like The Paradox and Carr kicked things off on their respective stages, while Daisy Grenade opened things over on the main stage. The Verizon stage, a gigantic tent tucked away just a few steps away from the two main stages, was absolutely packed, with some of the heaviest sets of the day coming from acts like Alesana (playing The Emptiness), The Devil Wears Prada (playing Plagues), August Burns Red (playing Constellations), and Atreyu (performing The Curse).
One of the most special things about this festival has been the reunion of acts that haven’t performed together in nearly a decade. On nearly every stage, the most anticipated sets of the day came from artists that were taking their steps back in front of a crowd for the first time in well five or even ten years. The Forecast, Against The Current, Tonight Alive, We Are The In Crowd, Hey Monday, and Pretty Girls Makes Graves packed their stages and put on near-flawless performances, marking the momentous occasion with full album sets. In some cases, bands that never really broke up, but don’t play together that often (Cartel, The Starting Line, Millionaires) were highlights of the fest, exciting everyone in attendance that got to play witness to these reunions.
There’s so much that can be said about the Purple and Pink Stage; I could sit here and analyze every single artist, but it’s going to sound more like a term paper than a show review. I was captivated by every artist that took to the main stages. Earlier in the day, Underoath blasted through They’re Only Chasing Safety, Mayday Parade took the crowd back to 2007 with A Lesson In Romantics, Dashboard Confessional made every feel emo again with Dusk and Summer, and Coheed and Cambria shredded their way through Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV. A highlight of the day came from the highly theatrical Cobra Starship reunion performance, playing hits from albums like Hot Mess, !Viva La Cobra!, and of course, “Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)”. Even with a few technical difficulties towards the beginning, the band performed like they never left the scene in the early 2010s, and everyone was having a blast both onstage and off.
From that point on, set after captivating set took to the stage: Taking Back Sunday played Tell All Your Friends as the sun beamed down on the crowd at its highest point. The Used brought In Love and Death to life on a stage designed to look like a prison yard (replete with pyro galore!). Pierce The Veil played quite possibly the best set of their careers thus far, running through every song on Collide With The Sky as if their lives depended on it. By the time Jimmy Eat World treated fans to their classic Bleed American album, the sun had completely set and the heat of the desert turned into a resounding cool breeze. A Day To Remember brought the party as they performed Homesick from start to finish.
What more can be said about the headliners? Fall Out Boy delivered a hit-filled set that brought songs from every album in their catalog and gigantic production value to the last set of the day on the Pink Stage, ranging from Take This To Your Grave to So Much (For) Stardust). It is the biggest production the band has brought out to any festival to date, and they continue to surprise and surpass expectations. Wiz Khalifa even came out on stage, throwing it back to 2015’s Boys of Zummer Tour, to perform a cover of Charlie Puth’s “See You Again”. And what Fall Out Boy show would be complete with out “Saturday” to close out the night? Bassist Pete Wentz floated above the crowd attached to a string of balloons, screaming his backing vocals as pyro, confetti, and streamers flow out over the audience.
To close out the day, at 10:40 PM, My Chemical Romance closed out the Purple Stage with a front-to-back performance of one of the scene’s most important records, 2006’s The Black Parade. It’s hard to quantify the significance of this record and its impact on fans of this music. The last time the band played their record all the way through was in 2007 on “The Black Parade” world tour, where they were donned in heavy eyeliner and the black-and-white marching band jackets that would become synonymous with the era. This time around, every member was dressed in sleek all-black outfits, looking more dapper than the “marching band from hell” characters they portrayed in the early 2000s. No pyrotechnics or glamorous stage production was present; a large white sheet was draped behind the stage, mainly playing host to the ghostlike shadows of the band members illuminated by bright strobe lighting as they played through songs that hadn’t seen the light of an arena in nearly two decades (“The End”, “Dead!”, “The Sharpest Lives”, “Disenchanted”, to name a few). My Chemical Romance obviously bring forth a much different type of stage show since reuniting in 2019, yet the lack of theatrics doesn’t matter here - they sound immaculate as performers. The music, even stripped down to its barest elements, sounds bigger and better than it ever has. By the time the band finished “Famous Last Words”, I was overcome with emotion.
With my wife and our friends by our side, we started to walk towards the back of the venue during the encore, screaming the words to “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” with every step. The emotion continued to flow over me as the opening to “Helena”, the band’s final song, began. As we walked towards the exit of the venue, we walked with numerous other fans, strangers that we didn’t even know. Yet our faces were all lit up from the moment, screaming the words “so long and goodnight” as the band faded out. Suddenly, we weren’t adults that had been kicked in the ass with the unimaginable horrors of reality - we were teenagers again, naive about the weight of the world and lost in the music that very much saved our lives.
When We Were Young isn’t a festival; it’s home.
