Hello to all of you beautiful nerds and welcome back from traveling the vast nerd universe! Another new post and it’s a bit of a detour!

Pop Punk Is Not Dead Tour Review

I felt it was time for a detour. I am still working on the Saturday Panels post but due to technology acting stupid, it got deleted and now have to re-write it. Don’t worry, I will still get that cup as scheduled. I do want to review this since of course concerts have come back and my all time favorite band was one of the many that toured. First is the disclaimer!

Disclaimer

This post is based on thoughts and opinions and observations of the lead writer of this blog. Please respect her thoughts and opinions of what she has experienced. You have been warned!

So, last night was the night the Pop Punk Is Still Not Dead Tour with New Found Glory in Orlando. When I heard Luke, who was a guest on Nash’s WTF Is Wrong With You talking about how everyone is touring again when people were getting vaccinated, I decided to search for New Found Glory and guess what? They were coming through this month and that was last night. I purchased the tickets for me and RJ and we were both vaccinated and ready to go. He was vaccinated in the summer while I got vaccinated in March since educators were up to get the vaccine. We did have to show our vaccination cards as we were going into the House of Blues at Disney Springs and had to wear masks which we did last night. I even kept an eye out for emails from Live Nation about the mandates and we followed. We did get there in time for the doors to open and it felt good to be back at the House of Blues which has been forever. I think the last time I went was for Traverser back in 2018 and that was a long time ago. Even RJ is hoping we can start going back with friends for local shows when the pandemic is done and I agree since I missed being there with friends and getting to eat at Hop afterwards. MMM Midnight Pancakes! Anyways, this show had a bit of a switch in the line up which we did not know.

When I purchased the tickets, they said that it was supposed to be Yolo, New Found Glory Hot Mulligan and Simple Plan. Unfortunately, Simple Plan backed out and they did have a replacement with Less Than Jake. We weren’t mad because we did enjoy their music. My first time hearing Less Than Jake was the Digimon Movie Soundtrack with “My Best Friends Are Metal Heads.” I still remember that scene to this day. Back to the show, I do have to say out of honestly and agree with RJ, Yolo and Hot Mulligan felt that their bass was turned up beyond eleven! I almost fell off my stool with Yolo, sorry if I got the name wrong since I hardly remembered it. I haven’t really listen to mainstream radio these days since I have Pandora, Band Camp, and my music library on my phone. I also felt that it was hard for me to understand Hot Mulligan since the lead singer was scream singing most of the time. I love a good scream band but if they’re really good and just not have the bass up so loud. I do have to say that Yolo, sorry again, was good during “Vicious Love” though, I think I prefer her over Haley from Paramore a little more. It did get better when Less Than Jake hit the stage since we were excited about them. I put them as one of my top favorite ska bands next to Ore Ska Band from Japan. Their set was a mix of old and new and it brought up when I used to download music from mp3.com back in the day since I had to rely on my dad to buy my music if I wanted the full album, I remembered getting some of the older songs and “Gainesville Rock City” was one of them actually. I was glad to see these guys and it was good to bring them on since they’re a Florida band that’s still going strong.

Finally, New Found Glory was the headliner for this one and man it was amazing! I remembered going to Warped Tour 2007 and they were great back then. I’ve been a fan since 2001 and I remembered hearing their song “Hit or Miss” for a short while. I didn’t know who they were until my brother visited and asked me if I heard of them and said, “No.” This was when Camelot Music existed and there was in the mall down the road from us and he picked up the self-titled and played the song and realized who they were and burned some of their songs and then got a copy of the album for myself a year and half later and then continued from there. I currently have the ten year anniversary edition of the self-titled, alongside Sticks & Stones, Catalyst, Resurrection, both From the Screen to Your Stereo Volumes 2 and 3, and their latest, Forever & Forever X Infinity on my phone and I listened it on shuffle, oh right, their live album as well on my phone and was glad I did and sang along with almost all of their songs. What do I mean by this? Well, they performed “Let It “Go” from their From the Screen to Your Stereo 3 and well, Jordan comes on dressed as Elsa with the wig and the most sparkly dress ever and a cast on his leg. Apparently, while touring in Pennsylvania, he broke his foot but didn’t cancel any performances so he performed the best he could with a cast covered in LEDs and he was dedicated due to all of the fans. I did sing the many other songs they’ve done like “Understatement,” “All Downhill From Here,” and so much more. My throat is still recovering from all the singing but it was worth it! They were going to do another performance of the self-titled album but only had the tickets for last night. I did forget to mention, during the performance they did perform one song they never had before and that was “Never Snows in Florida” from their first album, “Nothing Gold Can Stay and it sounded amazing live. Great to hear that one. So, enough gushing!

Rating: 3.5 Shooting Star Paws Out of 5!

I did take some points off for the first two acts since they were too loud with their bass. I’m sorry but the bass should not be that loud unless you’re in the Bass Zone at Electric Daisy Carnival and don’t have to fly off my stool while doing it either. Less Than Jake and New Found Glory were our favorite parts since they can put on a show. RJ did get confused by the Backstreet Boys being played as NFG was coming on but they did use it as a pre-cursor to the carnival intro they used since that was the theme they used for the Catalyst album. I think they did the Backstreet Boys with “Backstreet’s Back” because they were saying they have returned to Orlando and glad they have since it took me years to see them again after Warped Tour. Not only that, wishing I could have given Jordan a hug for the pain he went through with his foot since that was painful I bet and he mentioned that he loves to jump a lot during shows, heck one picture in the booklet on self-titled has him and the guitarists jumping. I did remember when I did have eye sight that it was true since during the live show in London which I have a DVD of for one Christmas that he did jump a lot.

Well, that is the end of this review, I am glad I did catch New Found Glory after so long and loved their music ever since I was a teen. It felt good to hear their music live again and getting to see them at the House of Blues was a great relief since it’s been a long time since we’ve been at a concert there. We tend to catch our local band buddies there but it was our first for a major show and the last real major show, which I know I mentioned Warped Tour but realized it was actually Rise Against Mac k in 2012 when they toured with A Day to Remember and Manzinger, which I also remembered I did get into Rise Against all thanks to the bonus CD that came with my copy of Sticks & Stones when they had the song “The Angel You Are” on that CD. Who knew? Not sure if we will catch Simple Plan another tour in the future but I still need to find a way of catching Red Jumpsuit Apparatus since they’re touring with the tenth anniversary of their first album. Not only that we did miss their set during Warped Tour that year. That will be another time. So, stay tuned guys for the Saturday Panels post!