One of my all-time favorite bands since High School has been New Found Glory and I do my best to never miss a show when they come through the Bay Area. Last Thursday night New Found Glory played at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, needless to say I was there to sing along to all their hit songs and relive my High School days.
New Found Glory is out on the road supporting their ninth studio album “Makes Me Sick.” I arrived to The Regency Ballroom a few minutes before New Found Glory hit the stage. The room was packed and something funny I noticed was over the loud speakers was various songs playing to keep the crowd entertained. The second to last song before New Found Glory came out was The Starting Line’s Best Of Me. The room started singing along to every lyric. I was amazed seeing so many young people in the room, who had to be at least 10+ years younger than me, know that song, even though it came out back in 2002. But the more I thought about it, I remember when bands like Nirvana and Green Day came out, I was a kid and those are the bands I love and remember to this day. I figured for these younger people in the room, bands like The Starting Line probably had a big impact in their youth as well. Next up Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” started playing and once again the room started singing and dancing, at this point I couldn’t wait for New Found Glory to start playing.
Finally, New Found Glory came running out and started their set with “All Downhill From Here.” Great choice to get the room jumping up and down. Next was “Understatement” which helped kick up the circle pit. As you can see from my photos below, this might be my favorite stage setup they ever went on tour with. A mixture of bright colors, dripping slime inspired font and drawings, which reminded me of the Garbage Pail Kids. I also noticed on stage right a second guitarist playing in the back on an elevated stage. I looked over to see who it was and realized it was Ryan Key, former front man for Yellowcard. I looked him up on my phone and found out he is currently touring with New Found Glory as their second guitarist, keyboardist and backup vocals. This was very cool to see considering Yellowcard had their farewell tour a couple years ago which a co-headline tour with New Found Glory, which I saw at The Regency Ballroom as well. I laughed out loud when at one point in the show, New Found Glory thanked Ryan for helping out on this tour and he still looks the same when Yellowcard first got big on MTV’s TRL.
New Found Glory busted through hit song after hit song. The band even brought a fan up stage to help sing “Failure’s Not Flattering.” As well as having a young fan spin a wheel to decide what the next song would be. I loved how creative New Found Glory were interacting with the fans. After their set ended, New Found Glory came back out for the encore and lead singer Jordan Pundik was wearing an american flag theme boxing robe just like in Rocky 4, which was worn on purpose because guitarist Chad Gilbert announced the band will be releasing From the Screen to Your Stereo Part III and played one of their covers, which was Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger.” I loved their pop punk cover version, which I posted the video below. New Found Glory ended the show with “My Friends Over You” which always serves as a perfect song to end a fun night with. I loved them spraying the room with fog and confetti to rain down onto the crowd. Thank you New Found Glory for another fun show. Go get the deluxe edition of New Found Glory’s Makes Me Sick Again.
Here are some photos Baby Huey took from New Found Glory’s set:
Here are some videos Baby Huey filmed from New Found Glory’s set:
Follow New Found Glory here.
