Dense Lineup of Emo Bands Doubles Down and Sells Out Everything in One Day
In Las Vegas Saturday October 22 and now October 23 the branded When We Were Young festival will take place featuring a lineup chock full of everyone’s favorite emo bands of yesteryear.
Headliners include My Chemical Romance and Paramore along with Avril Lavigne and JEW (Jimmy Eat World) – by far my favorite unintended band nickname of all time.
This poster image, immediately went viral, and tickets for the original one day scheduled concert at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds sold out right away. With so much demand, the festival added a second day with all the same acts performing back-to-back so more nostalgic members of the writstcutters union could attend.
Notwithstanding the big headliner names, this concert is sneaky deep, which is probably the biggest reason this went so wildly viral. Much tinier logos of still huge acts like The Ready Set, Wolf Alice, Anberlin, We The Kings, Sleeping with Sirens, The All-American Rejects, Manchester Orchestra, AFI, The Maine, and many more. Even newer artists like Tik-Tok generation stars Lil Huddy and Nessa Barret, and 5th wave emo boys like Mom Jeans. will also be performing.
It’s a wacky fest, but one so desperately needed now. So much nostalgia for this generation of music, the emo genre of which is already starting to back around into the mainstream. My question to the world, and also myself, is who are my must-see performances if I go to this show?
You really have to think in terms of expected quality of performance (bands still regularly touring get points here), depth of discography (there are a number of one-hit-wonders playing), and how many of your favorite songs you expect them to play.
Here’s my top 5:
- All American Rejects (too many good songs that are all very singable. Bet they still perform hype too)
- Jimmy Eat World (probably the best music at the entire concert in terms of quality)
- Mom Jeans. (what can I say, I just like ’em)
- Anberlin (*starts scream-singing “The Feel Good Drag”*)
- Dashboard Confessional (there’s going to be a lot of girls here)
Regardless, can’t wait to see what happens with this concert, and hopefully the public response to this event is the beginning of a trend of more of these types of mega-festivals popping up in the future. Annual festivals have gotten really watered down in recent years with shitty mainstream acts that don’t belong at places like Lollapalooza or Coachella. More DIY type of festivals specifying in a specific genre or generation should get more support because people may actually enjoy going.