Robyn Writes

The Seven Basic Pop-Punk Songs

You may or may not have heard of a book called The Seven Basic Plots. According to Christopher Booker’s enormous tome, there are only seven basic plots in all of literature, and that everything else is just a derivative from those plots. Well, I’m here to tell you that actually, there are only really seven pop-punk songs. You’ve been to a pop-punk show, you own a Blink-182 album or two. You know it to be true! So without further ado, here’s the seven basic pop-punks and how to spot them.

1. Hometown Blues, Thy Name is Ennui

The first, and possibly the most recognisable pop-punk song, is the one about hating where you come from. And is this not something we’ve all experienced, predominately when we’re about 16 and it feels like the whole world outside of our suburban hellholes is just waiting to be discovered? Plenty of people have made a lot of money writing about this kind of disillusion.

This pop-punk can be flipped on its head as well, and the common theme of ‘I left but dammit, I miss everything and I want to go home to my mum where everything is nice and simple forever’ isn’t exactly uncommon either. And just occasionally, you’ll find both sides slammed into the same song, which is really what it all ends up as when you’re a little bit older and wiser and not just pretending to be a teenager for the record label.

Top pop-punks: Simple Plan – I’m Just A Kid, Good Charlotte – Waldorfworldwide, Count To Four – Lavender Town (actually, this one is basically ALL of these pop-punks in one)

2. That Girl Ripped My Heart Out of My Chest and Pissed On It

Pop-punk found its roots in songs about girls. Descendents built pretty much a whole career on writing albums about their feelings, and Blink-182 perfected it on their classic track ‘Dammit’. And let’s face it, a pop-punk album wouldn’t be the same without a track about how a girl (or well, anyone really) totally broke the singer’s heart and how everything sucks.

Unfortunately, these days, there’s a lot of pop-punk bands who don’t know how to write about anything else, or how to acknowledge that actually, there might be some problems that are their own fault too and not just their lovers. Buuuuut sometimes, when you feel like you’ll be broken forever, there’s nothing like falling back on some good old-fashioned rage. It’s impossible to find a record that doesn’t have traces of heartbreak hidden all over it, or splashed wildly across it.

Top pop-punks: Real Friends – I’ve Given Up On You, Fall Out Boy – Sending Postcards From a Plane Crash (Wish You Were Here), Never Heard Of It – She’s A Dick

3. Positive Mental Attitude, Brah

Hey! Keep your chin up! Do something cool! It’s all about the PMA, dude. And pop-punk has got plenty of it. Far less anger about real important things than straight up punk, but with a sense of fun that punk can easily forget, pop-punk provides the great middle way, full of sugary, colourful fun. If pop-punk was a drink, it’d be orange soda, and not the diet kind.

These are my favourite kind of pop-punk tracks. They’re full of fun and life. These are the kind of tracks that pick me up when I’m down. They keep me on course, and they keep me thinking posi. And that’s what it’s all about. Keep it real, yo!

Top pop-punks: Millencolin – No Cigar, New Found Glory – Selfless, The Movielife – Me And You Vs Them

4. Hanging With The Bros Forever and Ever

It’s time to head out on tour and get crazy! There might lots of drinking, or even a few illicit narcotics, but there’s absolutely bound to be mad hijinks, skateboarding injuries and a prison trip. You guessed it – our next pop-punk trope is about hanging with your bros.

If there’s one thing pop-punk does well, it’s solidarity. All that bitching about your hometown and wasted opportunities just melts away into the background when your friends come into the mix. Just don’t forget that chicks can be bros too.

Top pop-punks: Set Your Goals – Summer Jam, Blink-182 – Reckless Abandon, Mest – Rooftops

5. I’m In Love and I Don’t Care Who Knows It

Of course, before all the torment and the heartbreak, there has to be love. And a good pop-punk love song has absolutely no competition. Pure of heart with loads of melody, you can’t help but feel swept up in a romance that isn’t even yours. And if you are madly in love, then every single song describes how you feel, because they’re way more real and appropriate than anything the Beatles did, or anything in a musical, right?

As one of the happier pop-punk tropes, it’s also one of my top ones. I’ve had a pop-punk romance playlist going since about 2005 and I’ve got no sign of slowing that down.

Top pop-punks: Sugarcult – Lost In You, Say Anything – Crush’d, Candy Hearts – I Miss You

6. I’m Just In Touch With My Feelings, Jeez!

Pop-punk can be deep too, you know. It can reach down into the very essence of human emotion and get all introspective and speculative. Don’t you even accuse it of being pretty and vacuous. Of course, it’s not as brainy as emo, and many of pop-punk’s graduating class (like Brand New, and if anyone says the first record isn’t pop-punk, I’ll fight you) have moved onto bigger, more serious art forms.

However, something neat tends to happen when pop-punk gets serious. Whether it’s battling personal demons, figuring out where it all went wrong or even just trying to decide where to turn to next, a lot of bands tend to turn out some of their best stuff when they start to think a little left-field. And that’s why we’ll never get a decent All Time Low record.

Top pop-punks: Descendents – When I Get Old, Amber Pacific – Follow Your Dreams Forget The Scene, Green Day – Redundant

7. I Hate Everything. Even That Puppy. And Your Mum.

Despite the assumption that pop-punk is a happy genre full of bouncy songs and floppy haircuts, it’s often filled with a lot of rage as we’ve seen above. However, a lot of the time, that rage is simply directed towards anyone and everything, because let’s face it – everything sucks.

Bands like Descendents absolutely own tracks like this, but they do it in a way that isn’t cliché or overstated, opting for a bit of humour instead. Of course, you can go the other way entirely, but virtually everyone knows ‘I’m Not A Loser’ and can’t remember the name of that song by those dudes who supported New Found Glory one time, so I guess they can suck it.

Top pop-punks: Say Anything – Hate Everyone, Descendents – Everything Sucks, Midtown – Empty Like The Ocean

Don’t get me wrong – for all my gentle mocking, I love a lot of pop-punk. But I’m yet to truly uncover a pop-punk track that doesn’t somehow fit into these broadly termed categories. Go on, pop-punk kids of the internet – prove me wrong. Write me a song that doesn’t fit into emotions typically associated with being in your teens or twenties. Or, if you’ve found another basic pop-punk trope, stick your answers on a postcard and email them to ripper@twobeatsoff.co.uk! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put the entire New Found Glory discography on repeat forever and ever and ever.

Robyn’s Top 10 Records of 2014

Another year is over, and what a bloody great one it’s been for music. This year has seen records that I know will stand the test of time. Records that are innovative, playful, punk-as-fuck and just plain catchy. Normally, this list is comprised of just albums – I tend to find I sink my teeth into those much more readily – but this year, I’ve had to alter my expectations and a few EPs can be found here too. Here’s my snapshot of 2014 – grab a cuppa and get stuck in.

Leaving is Bristolian punk rock at its finest. Brutally honest, charmingly melodic and just damn good. The perfect antidote to blustery winter days, Leaving is truly quite wonderful, and the kind of record that finds itself clinging on hard to your stereo. As it’s an EP, it’s not that long, and inevitably ends up leaving you craving more. It also happens to be the finest record that Caves have done to date – check out our review for more.

A glorious return from the queen of punk, Diploid Love is a far more mature record than any of Brody’s previous outings. Main single ‘Meet the Foetus/Oh the Joy’, featuring Shirley Manson, is probably good enough to enter this list itself, but there’s plenty of fantastic moments threaded throughout. Even the bizarre Casio keyboard. There’s a definite QOTSA influence cropping up in the guitar tones, but that just serves to make Diploid Love even sharper and cleverer. We headed down to the Birmingham show earlier this year and had our minds blown.

NFG’s eighth record, and their first without founding member Steve Klein, is an absolute banger. A fantastic return to form, this record proves exactly why pop-punk isn’t dead. I’ve been a huge NFG fan for years, but it’s not all been plain sailing. However, Resurrection harks back to those early days, with songs reminiscent of the incredible Sticks and Stones, but with a much older and wiser feel. It’s still all about girls and staying posi, but it’s damn catchy. It also makes it impossible to forget who really invented the pop-punk beatdown.

Have The Lawrence Arms ever brought out a bad record? The answer, is of course, ‘no’. Another solid entry to the discography, Metropole has a more down-to-earth feel than some of the band’s earlier records, but it still has that same great storytelling capacity that The Lawrence Arms are famed for. It’s also crazy that this is the first full album since Oh! Calcutta! in 2006, but it was more than worth the wait, if only for ‘Drunk Tweets’ alone.

Imagine if Justin Timberlake and Architects got together and jammed. Got that ridiculous notion in your head? You know, if that ever happened, you’d probably end up with the debut album from Issues. IT’S METALCORE MIXED WITH R&B. The how and why are so far past being relevant right now, you just need to know that it exists and that it’s brilliant. Tyler Carter’s vocals are sublime, the songwriting is surprisingly intricate, and truth be told, I’ve never had so much fun listening to a metal record.

Bangers had the mental idea that they were going to write and record a whole bunch of songs in 48 hours, then put whatever they came up with onto a tape. And you know what? It turned out more than okay. Mysterious Ways is classic Bangers, through and through, but it’s also a lot more spontaneous, as one might expect, and it ends up being a whole lot of fun. If you missed out on purchasing this, just try and find a YouTube upload of ‘Mosquito’ somewhere. Totally worth it.

Hebrews is bizarre. Not content with the usual guitar-bending, synth-melding pop-rock bonanza that usually forms a Say Anything record, Max Bemis decided to enlist a string orchestra and went analogue, baby. Even so, half of the riffs on here (coming from violins) are still some of the punkest sounding things I’ve heard in a long time. Also, in true Say Anything style, Max pulls in all of his buddies to guest star, with some pretty surprising results. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but Hebrews is one of the most mind-blowing records of the year.

Andrew McMahon’s first ‘solo’ album proper is one of the most beautiful pop records you’ll hear this decade. After deciding that it was time to move on from Jack’s Mannequin, Andrew decided to travel from studio to studio, practice space to practice space, and came up with ten incredible tracks. Each song has its own personality and identity in a way that most major pop artists struggle to achieve, and the record as a whole is a perfect example of highly emotionally intelligent songwriting. We were lucky enough to interview him earlier this year, and that’s possibly the coolest thing I’ve done with this zine.

Nervous Like Me totally knocked me for six. I’ve been following Cayetana since their first demo was released and they got picked up by Tiny Engines, but I didn’t expect an album that was so clever, so raw and yet so polished, and ultimately, so incredible. The Philly trio have become masters of melody in just a short time, having formed in 2011 while hardly ever having touched an instrument in their lives. We gave this 5 out of 5 earlier in the year, and wouldn’t hesitate to give that score all over again.

Bold. Brave. Beautiful. That’s what Transgender Dysphoria Blues is. There probably wasn’t any other way an Against Me! record could have gone, after Laura Jane Grace came out as transgender, but the result was a cathartic, vitriolic and ultimately enthralling record. Laura’s always been one of the best songwriters in the business, and the sheer variance of sound and style on Transgender Dysphoria Blues, while still sounding like a coherent whole, is testament to that. Everything sounds so good. Even if you can only really sing along to the line ‘you’ve got no cunt in your strut’ in the car on your own. Is it the best Against Me! record? To be honest, I’m going to hazard a yes – no other Against Me! record has ever felt this free, and it’s glorious.

Whatever happened to tickets on the door? AKA why is my bank balance so sad?

I have a bit of a music habit. I think that’s become evident across the five years (!) that this website’s been running. A very big part of this is going to see bands live. I do at least one festival a year, I go to as many local shows as I can and I probably go to at least two ‘big’ shows a month in one of the cities nearby. There’s nothing better than seeing one of your favourite bands tear it up on the stage, or to discover a great new band in a dingy little shithole of a venue. That being said, local shows aside, it’s an expensive hobby. You can expect to pay anywhere between £13 and £28 per ticket for a gig at the Birmingham O2 Academy, and that’s without booking fees on top. And these days, they’re not even giving us a chance.

Last week, the Pop Punk’s Not Dead tour got announced. And a few days after it got announced, tickets went on sale for that tour. Admittedly, you’re getting a lot of bands for your buck, with New Found Glory, The Story So Far, Candy Hearts and Only Rivals, with more acts to be confirmed. The gig’s over eight months away, in bloody November, but is likely to sell out quickly due to the hype generated by Kerrang, Rock Sound et al. Did I feel pressured into buying tickets now? Yes. And I’m not sure we should be operating like that any more.

The first time I went to see New Found Glory, it only cost me £13 and my dignity, as I went batshit crazy to Hit or Miss.

It’s totally not fair to announce a tour like this and put tickets on sale so soon after. The festivals have already started taking note, announcing their line-ups nice and early before tickets go on sale, and other gig promoters need to do the same. I’m lucky in that I’m an adult with a full-time job, and I usually have a bit of cash set aside, but this tour is exactly the kind of tour that the teens are going to go gaga for. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t generate demand, but it means that there’s a lot of people going to miss out, and not just that, but it means you can’t just stroll in on chance any more.

I miss door tickets, and I’m sad that most of the young music fans these days are going to miss out on the experience of heading into a ‘big’ show on a whim and discovering something incredible. But after all, when record sales are falling, the labels have got to make that cash somehow – pre-ordered tickets are a guaranteed way of doing so. There is one thing that we can do though. Get down to your local and support your scene. There’s plenty of fantastic music popping up, even in middle England. In Worcester, we’ve got the excellent Surprise Attacks series, amongst others, and it’s not even hosted in a seedy venue! If you ignore the folk epidemic in Cheltenham, there’s a swiftly growing punk scene and plenty of ace bands coming through on a regular basis. Just listen for the whispers, click the ‘attending’ buttons on Facebook, pay your three quid on the door and put your middle finger up to the big guys. Unless, of course, AFI tour again any time soon.

TwoBeatsOff’s Best of 2012

2012 has been a landmark year here in Britain. There’s been some major highs – the Olympics, for one. There’s been some shit stuff too – mass scandal everywhere. But one thing that can be said is that it’s been a fantastic year for music, both here and abroad. It’s also been TwoBeatsOff’s biggest year yet. So we’re doing a best of 2012; a comprehensive list of our favourite bits this year.

Ripper

Best band: I was going to nominate a certain massive Welsh band, but that’s been a bit tainted with all the allegations going around at present. Instead, I’m going to go with one of the hardest working bands in the UK right now, and one of the most technically able. Chronographs have been working their arse off all year to put together one of the finest EPs I’ve laid my hands on in recent times. They’re incredible live, extraordinarily talented musicians for their age and are set for greatness. Recently signed to Ghost Music with their new EP coming out soon (check out our five star review here), 2013 will be where Chronographs truly hit the spotlight.

Best album: this year, my vote goes to Parkway Drive – Atlas. The Australian metalcore powerhouse have come out gold with an album that not only brings the beatdown, but some outstanding orchestral sections. It’s big in every sense of the word. I attempted to review it but essentially found my fingers going “hgrighdiogndrk” on the keyboard. Of course, mental keyboard spam is a general reaction to Winston McCall in my case, but it really just hit the mark on every level. And it managed to fully destroy the left speaker in my car because the breakdowns are just that tasty.

Best newcomer: For this one, my nomination goes to Good Friend. Even though they’ve only released one EP and not done that much else, I’ve not been able to stop listening to that EP all year. Nothing has made me grin more. If you’re a fan of stuff like The Lawrence Arms, Hot Water Music et al, then you’ll love Good Friend.

Best live act: It was a year of reformations, farewells and anniversaries on the live circuit. But of course, this one has to go to Refused. Seeing them reform and perform in London was not only one of the best nights of this year, but one of the best nights of my life. The Shape Of Punk To Come is almost fifteen years old, but is more relevant than ever today, and to see the legend that is Refused take to the stage once more is something that I will never, ever forget. Or likely experience again.

Best musical moment: I am awarding this one to Laura Jane Grace from Against Me! and the moment she announced to the world that she was transgender, and to the massive wave of support that she was given as soon as it all came out. While Grace’s bravery was incredible, it was just as amazing to see how supportive the punk scene – and the wider alternative spectrum – can be as well. Punk rock is all about being who you want to be, and it’s great to see that Laura Jane Grace feels free to let that happen. And now I’m ridiculously psyched for the new Against Me! album.

George

Two thousand and twelve will be remembered for many things- the downfall of Ian Watkins, the death of Sonisphere and the singer from Against Me!, who turned from a Mr to a Ms and sparked a worldwide gender debate in the process. It was the year metal opened its arms to pop and fully embraced the power of the hook with Torche and Baroness among others, subverting metal’s macho mannerisms and crafting albums of unashamed pomp and huge choruses. Billy Joe Armstrong conducted a very public PR stunt*cough-cough* stress-induced meltdown whilst drum n’ bass conquered the naysayers at Download Festival.

Two thousand and twelve was yet another year when some of the most influential bands decided to put aside their differences and finally cave in to the huge cheques being waved in front of their faces by promoters well aware that the reformation dollar is a very lucrative one indeed. Whatever their respective reasons, 2012 saw such luminaries as At The Drive-In taking a rather subdued attack to their intense post-hardcore whilst Refused finally did their seminal swansong The Shape Of Punk To Come justice and played to audiences hundreds of times larger than they did back in the day. Chris Cornell regained some credibility with the reformation of a grey-haired Soundgarden and the purveyors of doom Black Sabbath returned to spread the joy once again.

Best Live Band – Refused

I’ve seen so many great shows this year; chipping my tooth and suffering a very painful neck injury courtesy of a rather large stage diver at a particularly sweaty and chaotic Every Time I Die performance was definitely a night to remember. Meshuggah’s decimating and uncompromising aural assault in a large tent in a field in Kent at Hevy Fest was another. But the band who takes the biscuit has to be Refused. As they exploded into THAT riff from ‘New Noise’ at the London Forum in August there may well have been an earthquake occurring such was the seismic activity inside the venue. When the band played London almost fifteen years ago, they did so to only a few hundred people, and that was the biggest show of the tour. It speaks volumes of the bands impact on punk and hardcore and the high esteem in which they are held when, after almost fifteen years, they are selling out venues to thousands of people and playing to fields where the crowd stretches several kilometres into the distance. Yes, the reformation sparked controversy courtesy of the open letter they wrote to their fans after they split declaring that they were “fucking dead” but Refused’s classic punk message of anti-capitalism bears more relevance today than it ever did. What’s more, the band certainly knows how to put on a show, from the brilliant and highly effective use of minimalistic lighting to Dennis Lyxen taking on the role of showman rather than snot nosed punk. Through his physical contortions to his anguished scream and his mesmerizing onstage antics which usually end with the venue’s security looking rather nervous. Now though, the band truly is dead, but although the air of mysticism around the band has been largely eradicated, thousands upon thousands of avid fans witnessed their genius and the band’s message will live on for another generation at least.

Best Album – Deftones

There have been some great releases this year. South Wales bruisers Brutality Will Prevail’s threatened to become kings of the UK hardcore scene with their heavy as hell album Scatter The Ashes. Converge yet again upped the ante with All We Love We Leave Behind and Every Time I Die gave their southern fried hardcore a much needed shot of adrenaline to create the superb Ex-Lives. For sheer musical perfection though, Deftones finally crafted the album they’ve been trying to make for their whole twenty-five year existence. Although commonly and thoughtlessly lumped in with the nu-metal rap-metal nonsense of the late 90’s, Deftones were always a much more forward thinking and vastly more interesting and versatile entity. Koi No Yokan casts its net further afield than previous releases, pushing the bands experimentalist digressions to new depths whilst retaining cohesion and fluidity. The record contains some almighty off kilter 8-string riffs that would make Meshuggah jealous as well as vast soundscapes that range from the heavenly ethereal to the overcast doom. The balance between the decimating heaviness and breathtaking beauty is as close to perfection as you’re ever going to get, more so than 2010’s equally praised Diamond Eyes. Admittedly, the band aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but instead moulding their intensely emotional sound into a masterpiece that builds upon the successes and failures of their previous output. The most consistent band in metal just keeps getting better.

Best Newcomer – Darkshaft

You may have experienced this scenario – a gig in a tiny toilet venue on a desolate winters night in a dead end town where the few people in attendance look like they want to be anywhere other than this gig. Not even alcohol can curb your mind from wishing you were at home and curled up under a duvet like a slightly intoxicated baby. Without warning, a band takes to the stage and for half an hour they proceed to blow your socks off, as well as any other piece of clothing that isn’t securely fastened down. You stumble home trying to piece together what you’ve just witnessed, what’s more you struggle to remember the bands name, was it Darkcock? Darkschlong? ah yes, it was Darkshaft. The band is two guys, one on guitar and one on drums. Both posses screams Daryl Palumbo would be proud of and they boast a big back o’ riffs channelling everything from 50’s rock n’ roll to the sex-fuelled sweaty stomp of Death From Above 1979. Equally importantly, they posses an all important sense of humour oh, and they’re from New Zealand. They’ve only got a demo tape, a cassette, and a slightly punked-up cover of The Wonder’s ‘That Thing You Do’ to their name but with such virtuosic musicianship and beastly live performances expect to see heaps of praise for the demonic duo next year.

Best Band – Basement

2012’s best band is sadly one that doesn’t exist anymore. The UK underground was dealt a huge blow this year when Suffolk five-piece Basement decided to call it a day. This was even more so, because the band had just released Colourmeinkindness, a record of such creative brilliance and dare I say ‘maturity’ that it belied the young age of the band members, most of whom had only just reached their twenties. Their debut: 2011’s I Wish I Could Stay Here, won the hearts of kids throughout the underground with its wistful take on 90’s emo. After winning countless fans through touring places as far afield as the US and Australia it seemed the band were destined for great things and the speed at which the band’s two farewell shows sold out proved the amount of devotion the band had quite rightly garnered over their all too brief existence. Colourmeinkindness was a record of grunge throwbacks (the good type of grunge) and emo-isms (again, the good kind) that was not only heartbreakingly sincere but also wonderfully unique. As is the case when bands split up before they reach their creative peak there is an inescapable “what if?” that hangs over their dissolution. Certainly the band had the potential to graduate from the dingy toilet venues where they honed their sound and become a bonafied prospect on the UK’s rock scene. But lets no dwell on the “what ifs?” and instead celebrate a band who achieved so much in such a short space of time.

Best Musical Moment – Sabbath reign supreme at Download

The performance of rock legends Black Sabbath at this year’s Download festival was given added poignancy given that guitar hero Tony Iommi had been diagnosed with lymphoma only a few months previous to their performance. But in true metal fashion they soldiered on like the true rock Gods they are, producing a performance that belied not just their age but their collective drug consumption over their 40-or-so year existence. Ozzy, who by all accounts has defied medical science, was far from the shuffling and barely coherent star he is most known for. Instead his voice was powerful and his performance undeniably engaging whilst around him the two original members (minus drummer Bill Ward of course) provided their doom-laden take on blues, a sound which gave the world the blueprint for all of modern metal to follow. Sabbath are once again back in the public conscience as kings of heavy metal, and long may they reign.

Colin
Best Band – Green Day. While Billie Joe’s sad personal problems may have put a dampener on the end of their year, they went above and beyond in 2012 to make this the best year for the band’s fans it could possibly be, particularly us in the UK. Three (count them – 3!) new albums, suprise(ish) gigs at Shephard’s Bush Empire and Reading, and an under-appreciated but absolutely excellent debut UK tour of the stunning American Idiot musical, genuinely the best show I’ve ever seen.

Best Album – This is a tough award for me. Because, in all honesty, my favourite album released in 2012 was Weapons by Lostprophets, which is a controversial choice for obvious reasons. But while Watkins’ actions are to be abhorred, the other 5 members of the band should not be punished, and they have made a truly great album here. If this isn’t an appropriate choice for the award, then second place would go to Shinedown’s superb Amaryllis.

Best Newcomer: A combination of Brummie pride and pop-punk loyalty leads me to give this award to Taking Hayley. I honestly think that’s a name you’re going to hear a lot more of in 2013, particularly with their success at the UK Warped Tour and a headline tour already announced and selling well for February. Although an honourable mention must go to Fearless Vampire Killers – grandiose is not the word. Insane bunch, but fantastic music.

Best Live Act: Possibly another sentimental, Brummie choice from me, but having never thought I’d ever get a chance to see them in my lifetime, I can’t give this award to anybody except the almighty Black Sabbath. An incredible band making a much celebrated return this year, I saw them closing Download Festival and they absolutely blew me away, which is something considering my favourite band in the world, Metallica, had played the previous night. Their entire set, from their eponymous opening song to a thrilling Paranoid closer, was superbly crafted and Ozzy Osbourne is still the most incredibly entertaining frontman in music. Plus the mere fact that the performance took place after Tony Iommi’s battle with cancer was stunning and a wonderful moment for music.

Best Musical Moment: A pop-punk bias only gives me one possible answer: The announcement that finally, the UK was getting our own, proper, standalone Warped Tour date. Not as part of another festival, but a bonafide, independently organised, UK Warped Tour date. The organisation at the event, travelling between stages and rooms, was nothing less than awful, but that didn’t matter one bit – the atmosphere was incredible, the bands were brilliant (ignoring Blood On The Dance Floor, obviously) and New Found Glory were there. That’s all that matters. Superb news, and I eagerly await Warped Tour 2013 UK.

Why you should see New Found Glory before you die

I did begin to sit down and write a review of the Kerrang! Tour from a week or so ago. Every band that night was spectacular in one way or another – While She Sleeps are new, brash and have a confidence well beyond their field of experience; letlive. released my favourite album of last year, performed a Black Flag cover I didn’t hate (I have a serious issue with people doing Black Flag covers, it’s like trying to rewrite The Lord’s Prayer or something) and are one of the most exciting bands I’ve seen live in a long, long time; The Blackout had us in the palm of their hand once again and strutted through a great set, making the venue explode with the squeals of teenage girls and the shouts of boys who are no longer ashamed to like them. And then there were New Found Glory.

This is where I got stuck. I just can’t review a New Found Glory show. It feels far too obvious to me. It begins to get way too personal. So I decided I couldn’t review them and scrapped what I’d written previously. However, I will tell you why you should go see New Found Glory before you die. It just might be a bit more unconventional than I had planned.

The main reason that I can’t review an NFG show is because I can’t help but break into the personal anecdote. I have seen New Found Glory every year of my life since I was 13 except in 2005. From 2004 onwards, I have missed one tour, but I’ve seen them at almost every festival appearance they’ve made in the UK since that date. Seeing New Found Glory every year has near become ritual for me. I don’t need to sit down and learn all the words any more, even for the new albums, because the songs are so goddamn catchy – in a couple of listens, I’m set. That 2004 date was my second gig when I was just 13. In December 2006, they played on my birthday. But even when it wasn’t necessarily a “special” event, every NFG gig has always seemed momentous; they always come at certain important points of my life. Even the K! tour the other week struck gold, in the final year of my undergraduate life and in the last term where I’m allowed any fun. NFG have been there as I’ve grown up. Like so many others, they’ve led me through my awkward teenage years and shaped me into the person I’ve become.

A New Found Glory set is almost like therapy for me. I know (mostly) what’s coming up, and it’s one of the very few occasions that I will just completely lose my shit and go for it. The other week, I was surrounded by fifteen year old kids who barely recognised the older songs to hardened NFG veterans bellowing every word. Nobody stood still. Every time I see them, it is exactly the same as any other time – they come on, they play an incredible set, we all get worn out and sweaty, we lose our voices, we laugh and smile as we see the years of friendship that have tied this band together and we look at our friends and we realise that we would rather be nowhere else. I ended up separated from my friends the other night, but every now and again, I’d see a flash of them in the crowd or hear Mike yelling out the words (because he is the loudest person I know) and know they were having just as good a time as I was. Nobody had to get pulled out – even though there were crowd surfers – and nobody looked like they were having a bad time. It’s impossible to not smile at all during a New Found Glory set, it really is. Even if you’re not a pop-punk fan, the atmosphere is infectious.

Pop-punk is not dead. New Found Glory have proven that. They even named a tour after it. It is getting watered down though. In the early 2000s, don’t forget that we were previously swarmed by pop-punk bands . You couldn’t walk around the corner without being assaulted by a four-chord structure, the bass turned up and that drumline. Maybe I’m not being fair to the new kids on the block, but back then, it all seemed far catchier and while it wasn’t innovative, it didn’t all quite swim together. You could tell the difference between Mest, Good Charlotte and Millencolin. Fall Out Boy walked tall and proud in front of the whole lot. You can’t quite do the same today. Therefore, it’s worth going to see the masters. Forget your All Time Lows, who themselves take their name from New Found Glory, your You Me At Sixes and your We Are The In Crowds. See New Found Glory and you’ll see why pop-punk isn’t dead. You’ll see what pop-punk should be and what it can be – every NFG album has a different sound and a different feel to it. They’re much better live than Fall Out Boy ever were. They’ve still got the punk sensibilities they started with, even if they’ve grown up a bit. And rest assured, they will always, always play ‘My Friends Over You’. That’s worth it alone.