10 essential albums to hear at When We Were Young festival
The air reeked of sulfur, and the band, well, it bore the unmistakable scent of self-indulgence, the kind of delicious pretentiousness that leads a group to adopt an alternate persona and refer to itself in the third person.
Flash back to March 7, 2007.
On stage at Orleans Arena: goth-emo goliaths My Chemical Romance, only they’re not calling themselves that at the moment.
Instead, they’re The Black Parade, which is also the title of their third record, shaking their hair and swishing their hips, fire bursting from the stage and filling the venue with pungent smoke as they dress up the rock opera in natty black threads and doomsday bombast, playing the album in full.
Seventeen years later, the band will perform the record front to back once again when the massive emo and pop punk gathering When We Were Young returns to the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on Saturday and Sunday.
New for the fest in year three: Almost every band, save for headliners Fall Out Boy and a few others, will perform one of their most beloved albums.
For My Chemical Romance, which headlined When We Were Young in its inaugural year, this means revisiting “The Black Parade,” an equally bleak and invigorated song cycle heavy with themes of life and death and modern-day dystopia. It spans martial, fist-in-the-air anthems (“This Is How I Disappear”), Elton John-worthy piano ballads (“Cancer”) and funereal death waltzes complete with fake sobbing (“Mama”).
Live, the songs are buffered with lots of slobbering guitar pyrotechnics and Freddie Mercury-esque caterwauling.
You could call this bunch the Queen of the Damned.
My Chem’s set will certainly be among the most anticipated this weekend. Here are nine more albums we’re looking forward to hearing live.
Pretty Girls Make Graves, ‘The New Romance’
An underappreciated classic, the second record from this Seattle coed post-punk quintet still sounds fresh and bracing two decades after its release, with frontwoman Andrea Zollo’s voice a cannonball of emotion soaring through songs that bounce and brood, crush and console. The band’s set at When We Were Young will be just its second performance in the past 17 years. Do not miss this one.
The Used, ‘In Love and Death’
A screamo gateway act, The Used exposed the sound to plenty of new ears back in the day. (Remember when the band toured with Linkin Park, Korn and Snoop Dogg a couple of decades ago?) And this was its biggest album, debuting in the top 10 and eventually going platinum thanks to live-wire frontman Bert McCracken’s uninhibited emoting on songs that remain equally poignant and pummeling.
Jimmy Eat World, ‘Bleed American’
Maybe the defining album of early aughts emo, “Bleed American” is equally anthemic and heartfelt, with songs meant to be sung out loud. And they surely will be this weekend, as evidenced by the band’s performance during When We Were Young’s first year, which inspired some of the most impassioned sing-alongs of the fest. Bring some Sucrets.
Nada Surf, ‘Let Go’
Once upon time, Nada Surf seemed destined to be relegated to the dustbin of one-hit-wonder status after its satirical hit “Popular” got plenty of MTV airtime in the mid-’90s and the band wasn’t able to follow it up with similarly successful singles. But Nada Surf’s third record perfected the group’s searching, sincere power pop in a work whose influence can’t be measured in album sales.
Taking Back Sunday, ‘Tell All Your Friends’
Everyone did tell all their friends about this emo standard-bearer — or so it seemed back in the day — as it remains one of the top-selling albums of its ilk, eventually going platinum for indie Victory Records. Over two decades later, it’s still as much of a scene staple as tight, circulation-imperiling skinny jeans and your high school girlfriend’s crush on singer Adam Lazzara.
Coheed and Cambria, ‘Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness’
Because the emo ranks were sorely lacking in sweeping prog-punk concept albums with highly involved narratives including — but not limited to — a character named The Writer who has conversations with his 10-speed bicycle, this guitars-for-days epic filled a huge void in the scene. Let’s get nerdy, dudes.
Thursday, ‘Full Collapse’
“Time runs through our veins,” Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly sings on “Understanding in a Car Crash,” a screamo anthem for the ages. He may be right, but the passing of time has done nothing to diminish the staying power of the band’s second record. If you can find a list of the top emo albums of the century that doesn’t include “Full Collapse,” toss that bad boy in the trash.
Mom Jeans, ‘Best Buds’
“I think it’s about time that I warned you I might cry in front of you.” That’s the first line of the first song on Mom Jeans’ first album. It sets a confessional-to-a-fault tone for this uber-earnest emo quartet that may strike some as a bit too candid, but the band’s blend of messy emotions and tight songcraft remains endearing for anyone whose heart has occasionally felt like a pinata.
Escape the Fate, ‘This War Is Ours’
This band is ours: Vegas’ own Escape the Fate will rep its hometown by performing its second record and first with singer Craig Mabbitt, who replaced original frontman/current Falling in Reverse major domo Ronnie Radke. “We Won’t Back Down,” the band declared in the title to the album’s opening cut. Sixteen years later, it still hasn’t.
Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jbracelin76 on Instagram.