St. Paul’s Station 4 was packed on a Saturday evening for The Pop Punks Not Dead tour featuring This Time Next Year, Man Overboard, The Wonder Years, Set Your Goals, and New Found Glory.
California’s This Time Next Year kicked off the show, but unfortunately for many fans, the long lines to enter the venue prevented many from enjoying the band’s full performance. However, by the end, the room had started to fill and it was easily apparent that the audience liked what they heard. The band had a great sound with a style similar to New Found Glory. Even the singer’s voice was similar to NFG’s ead singer, Jordan Pundnik.
Man Overboard, who got their name from the classic pop punk band Blink 182, took the stage with the slogan “Defend Pop Punk” on their bass drum. The New Jersey band started in 2008 and judging by the audience members singing along to several songs, has apparently gained a number of fans in their three years together. Lead singer/guitarist, Zac Eisenstein, displayed random jumping spasms, which ignited their energetic performance.
Front man, Soupy AKA Dan Campbell, of The Wonder Years had a great audience interaction and seemed to enjoy a level of intimacy with the fans. He spent much of his time hanging around the ceiling support pole on the stage (yes, it is in the middle of the stage) while looking right into the faces of people who were singing the words back to him. The Wonder Years were the first band of the night to have a significant amount of crowd surfing. When the band was finished performing, Soupy told the audience to come hang out with them at their “merch” booth. They were the only band to put out the invite the entire night.
Set Your Goals, who have gained popularity thanks to their participation in the Vans Warped Tour attracted the younger crowd to the stage. I asked a few people at the show which band they were there to see and most of the teens replied, “Set Your Goals”. The band probably got the most commotion out of the crowd with people flying over the barrier and singing the pop punk tunes as they were crowd surfing. Front man, Matt Wilson, seemed a little stiff and awkward at times, but the band had over all had great chemistry with the audience.
The final act, New Found Glory (NFG) took the stage with background music from the Universal Studios word logo. When the lights turned on, Pundnik said “what is up St. Paul? Let’s get f#*king crazy!” They instantly went into the song titled, “Intro” and then performed the song, “Understatement” without a break. The audience loved it and as the crowd pushed forward towards the stage, a mosh pit formed behind them.
NFG are touring in support of their new album titled Radio Surgery, as they performed the self titled new single as well as “All Downhill from Here,” “ Hit or Miss,” “ Head on Collision,” “ Kiss Me,” “ Something I Call Personality” and other fan favorites. The show was more passionate during the encore where they played “Basket Case” (Green Day) “ Blitzkrieg Bop” (The Ramones) and their own “My Friends Over You.” During the last song Pundnik jumped off of the stage and was mobbed by fans until he grabbed a random beer off of a window ledge took a swig. A good party was had by all.
