New Found Glory (Kentish Town Forum, 6.10.17)

Back to the Forum for the second of four New Found Glory shows. Tonight they were playing "Sticks and Stones" and "New Found Glory" in their entirety. To paraphrase Eric Morecambe, they're playing all the right songs, but not necessarily in the right order. It's an approach that allows the band to retain the structure of a live show whilst treating us to some little heard album tracks.

It's the "Something I Call Personality"/"Black & Blue"/"Sucker" trifecta that brings me the most joy tonight, a circle pit friendly set staple into a two minute fast scrappy pop punk track into one of the best singalongs in the band's back catalogue. Of the four shows, this combination of records brings the highest hit rate and there are very few lulls tonight. It's difficult to fault the crunchy renditions of new tracks "Party On Apocalypse" and "Happy Being Miserable" either, despite the lukewarm reaction of the crowd.

I did hear half of these songs last week but I'm happy to hear them again, especially "Head On Collision". "Forget My Name" and "It's Been A Summer" are particularly well received by the crowd, as is "Dressed To Kill", one of the band's best songs and one of the genre's best songs full stop. Sure, it's a angsty breakup song, but do we ever really grow out of those? It's also a song that continues to have a personal resonance. "Cheer up my friends all say", indeed.

By the time Dougie from McFly has taken to the stage to deputise on the bass on "Hit Or Miss" and the band have invited a dozen fans up on stage, the 20th anniversary celebrations are in full swing and we're once again vowing to choose our friends over a hypothetical girlfriend*. I'm having a bit of a shit time mentally at the moment, but New Found Glory are still capable of taking me out of it for an hour and a half. Roll on the weekend.

* Or boyfriend, I suppose. The song doesn't really make that explicit.

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