For the past nine years, Taking Back Sunday has hosted a very special holiday show called the Holiday Spectacular which is held over the span of a few days on their home turf of Long Island, New York and in parts of New Jersey. The band continued that tradition with two "S'Old" out shows at Mulchay's Pub And Concert Hall in Wantagh, NY on Decemeber 13th and 14th. Long Island-based comedian Neil Rubenstein served as the host for this year's spectacles.
Before the band came out, Rubenstein took over the stage to tell a few jokes to warm the audience up for what would be a spectacular show. After a few minutes of telling jokes, Rubenstein finally hyped the crowd up for the performance of Long Island's hometown heroes, Taking Back Sunday. Taking Back Sunday is a pop punk/emo band that was formed in 1999 on Long Island, New York. The members consist of Adam Lazzara (vocals), John Nolan (guitar/vocals), Shaun Cooper (bass) and Mark O'Connell (drums) with Nathan Cogan serving as their second guitarist for live performances.
Taking Back Sunday opened up their set with two concert staples, "What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?' and "A Decade Under The Influence" taken from their third studio album, Louder Now , which was released in 2006, and their second studio album, Where You Want To Be, released in 2004 respectively. With both songs being 2000's classics, fans recognized them immediately and unleashed their inner emo souls by singing every single lyric back at Lazzara.
One of the higlights of the night was Lazzara's stage presence. Lazzara is a very eccentric and upbeat performer. All eyes were on him as he performed multiple antics on stage like spining his microphone around and dancing all the time and even telling jokes to the fans. These acts make Lazzara stand out amgonst other vocalists.
Just over two months ago, the band released their eighth studio album,152, on October 27, 2023 and, in promotion of the album, they played a total of six songs off of it. Those songs were "S'Old", "Amphetamine Smiles", "Keep Going", "Lightbringer", "The One", and "The Stranger". Despite being newer songs, the crowd's response to them was very pleasing and a small mosh pit even broke out. "S'Old" was the track the fans were singing along to the loudest and going the hardest to while "Amphetmaine Smiles" slowed the pace down for a bit. I found myself resonating with this song the most as it's a song that explores inner turmoil and the desire for true happiness with its heartfelt lyrics and powerful musical arrangement. It serves as a reminder that music can provide comfort and a sense of connection even during difficult times. For the second half of the song, fans took their cellphone lights out to help set the mood of the song.
As we reached the end of the set Lazzara made a joke about how they, like almost every other band, were at the part of the night where they would say their goodbyes and get off stage for a few minutes then come back for the encore. Instead of doing that, the band transitioned into the "encore" with an alternate performace of their song, "You Can't Look Back" which is off their 2016 album Tidal Wave.
They closed out their ninth Annual Holiday Spectacular with two fan favorites. Those two fan favorites included "Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From The Team)" and "MakeDamnSure". "MakeDamnSure" is taken from Louder Now and is Taking Back Sunday's most popular song to date, and the one the band closes almost every single show with. The song sits at #1 with over 171 million streams on Spotify with "Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From The Team)" sitting right behind it at #2 with over 161 million streams. These were the songs the fans were waiting for all night. Fans continued showing their inner emo singing their hearts out and a small mosh pit even broike out towards the front. Lazzara let the crowd sing the bridge of "Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From The Team)" right back at the band before finishing the song off with his power vocals. Towards the end of "MakeDamnSure" 'snow' started to fall from the ceiling in celebration of the holidays, turning Mulcahy's into a winter wonderland.
With that, Taking Back Sunday's Ninth Annual Holiday Spectacular comes to a close. No matter how big this band gets, its always nice to see them come back to their hometown to put on these special set of shows in such small spaces. I definitely plan on coming back next year to celebrate the holidays with Taking Back Sunday.
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