My Chemical Romance, Paramore power debut of When We Were Young — PHOTOS
He pounds his heart with his fist as if to emphasize the origin of his words.
“This is a song about finding yourself in rock ‘n’ roll,” explains Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins by way of introducing “Something Loud,” hammering his chest as he performed the tune in question.
“I finally let myself own every small feeling,” he sang tellingly, distilling the essence of this day.
About those feelings: they were everywhere at the heart-emoji-of-a-music-festival that is When We Were Young, which debuted at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on Sunday after Saturday’s show was canceled due to high winds. (The fest returns Oct. 29).
The massive crowd of tens of thousands came dressed in the deepest shade of asphalt, almost exclusively clad in black, their shirts spelling out what this day was all about: “Emo’s not dead,” “Make America emo again,” “Every nite is emo nite,” “Sad music.”
“We’re celebrating emo, right?” Paramore singer Hayley Williams asked rhetorically during her band’s rapturously received set on the Pink stage.
“That’s a lot of feelings, huh?” she observed earlier. “Lots of pent-up emotions.”
And this music serves as its release.
Though emo dates back to the mid-’80s, the genre didn’t go mainstream until the early aughts, when it exploded in popularity.
In a way, emo was a counterbalance to nü metal, that mix of hard rock and hip-hop that got big around the same time with bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit and Deftones.
Both scenes were heavily predicated on the angst of young males, but whereas nü metal directed that cathartic energy outwardly in “Break Stuff” fashion, emo looked inward, focusing on all those aforementioned feelings as opposed to excessive testosterone production.
When We Were Young mines this era heavily — although not exclusively — and hence carries with it the warm glow of nostalgia, the audience singing along lustily, constantly on Sunday to the songs that soundtracked their coming of age.
“Let’s love like we were 17,” AFI frontman Davey Havok sang on “17 Crimes,” rocking the best mullet of the festival as he pined for the unbounded emotions of adolescence on the Black stage at age 46.
Avril Lavigne got in the game as well on the Black stage, mining the past by covering Blink-182’s pop-punk standard bearer “All The Small Things” with members of All Time Low after being joined by her new fiance Mod Sun for their collaboration “Flames” as pyro burst from the stage.
When We Were Young was a marathon, the music beginning just before noon and lasting until midnight, with over 60 acts performing on five stages.
Temperatures dipped into the high 40s later in the night, causing some fans to crowd around a fire-spewing octopus art installation piece for heat.
The bands were there to warm the blood — and heart — as well.
Indie rockers Bright Eyes conjured grand, near-orchestral swells of sound on the Pink Stage with drummer Jon Theodore particularly magnetizing as frontman Conor Oberst spun himself in circles; goth punks Alkaline Trio thrilled on the Checker stage with songs of love and pyromania; female metallers Kittie reunited for only their second show in five years at the Stripes stage.
Of course, emo and pop punk’s rise was not without its detractors: with an oft-buoyant sound and confessional, diary-worthy lyrics, the music has long been dismissed as maudlin, soft and navel gaze-y by some.
Williams has heard it all before.
“I’ve had a lot of older people — especially older men — tell me what punk rock is and what punk rock is not,” she acknowledged from the stage.
She delivered her response in song.
“If you have an opinion,” Williams sang on “This is Why,” “maybe you should shove it.”
A similar spirit of defiance powered headliners My Chemical Romance on the Black stage.
While punk was initially born — at least in part — to deflate the pomposity of progressive ’70s rock, My Chemical Romance embraced grandeur and sweeping melodrama on songs like “Welcome to the Black Parade” and the dark opera of “Helena.”
On Sunday, though, their performance was mostly lean and mean, frontman Gerard Way howling and growling into the mic, their set veering towards the breathless.
“Let’s blow an artery,” Way enjoined amid the surge of “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” which crashed into the equally adrenalized “It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a (expletive) Deathwish.”
Way may be 45 now, and that song released when he was 27, but this night was all about turning back the clock on both his band and the audience gathered before him.
“Darken your clothes, or strike a violent pose, ” Way commanded at one point, “Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me.”
The name of the song?
“Teenagers,” of course.
Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jbracelin76 on Instagram
