Yellowcard is currently on their final live tour. They are done. After 20 years, it’s time for them to hang it up. 20 years. God, that makes me feel super old.
I have to be honest, I’m not the biggest Yellowcard fan out there. When Ryan Key, the singer, called out the fans that had no clue the band had released multiple albums in the past couple of years, he was talking to me. I listened to their 2003 release, “Ocean Avenue”, over and over and over again throughout my teenage years but when it came to moving on from that album, I just never could and the band quickly became one of those nostalgic one-hit wonder bands for me.
Yellowcard proved last night that they are much more than a one-hit wonder band as they played through a 24 song set and left the crowd begging and pleading for more. There wasn’t an extravagant light show. There was no confetti other than what was leftover from a previous show. It was just a couple of guys with their instruments playing through 20 years of music that shaped the lives of so many people.
Usually I’m the one freaking out over seeing a band. I’m usually the one in tears when bands play the slower, more touching songs. I’m the one that stands there until the very, bitter end chanting “one more song.” To be the person watching the crowd do these things was truly an emotional experience. I felt like a guest at the show, I felt privledged to be able to be a part of something that was such a deep experience for so many people.
I couldn’t sing along to all of the songs like majority of the crowd could. I mean, let’s be honest, I was really only there to hear the few songs off of “Ocean Avenue” that they played and, well, it was a show and I just couldn’t resist. Regardless of what I was there to hear, every single song took me back to high school with that signature violin sound that makes Yellowcard a truly unique band.
The band tried their best to fit in as many songs as they could. They played a little bit from every era of the band, from the super pop-punk sounds of “Ocean Avenue” to the more mature sounds of their newest, and final, album “Yellowcard”. Regardless of what song they were playing, they were playing it with conviction and it was hard to not tear up when you realized that after this tour, there will be no more Yellowcard… they will be just a memory.
Before Yellowcard played their final (and most anticipated) song “Ocean Avenue”, Key addressed the crowd with the predictable words about how the band would be nothing without the fans. As predictable as the words were, the emotion that poured off of the stage from Key and the other band members was anything but predictable and you could see them tear up as the crowd started chanting their name.
The show started with Dryjacket from New Jersey. These guys, although much calmer than the other two bands, had me captivated. The haunting vocals matched with the sound of clean guitars and crisp drum beats was truly something beautiful. Their set was far too short and left me with just a taste of what these guys are capable of, but I liked what I heard and saw and can’t wait to see more from them.
