Yellowcard, New Found Glory and Plain White T's Brought the Early 2000's Back to Vegas

LAS VEGAS, NV - It's been probably 20 years since I went to what would be considered a emo, pop-punk show, and that's maybe because I "aged out" of the genre. However, when I heard New Found Glory's new album Listen Up! earlier this year, it got me remembering what I liked about their music and more of the genre in general...and the album is much better than I expected. Though, I am not sure what I expected, to be honest.

So, when I was given the chance to cover their set along with Yellowcard and Plain White T's when they brought the "Up Up Down Down" Tour to the Bleaulive Theater at the Fountain Bleau Resort, I was very intrigued about what I would expect.

I actually have never seen Plain White T's live before, and I forgot that they had quite a few hit songs beyond just "Hey There Delilah" such as "1, 2, 3, 4" and "Hate (I Really Don't Like)" among others. 

Of course, I should point out for fans of Plain White T's that while there is only one original member left in the band (being frontman Tom Higgenson), I actually didn't think that took away from their performance at all as Higgenson's songs were always the better live songs anyway, in my opinion.

They ran through their hits and even a song that they had only played live 3 or 4 times, and I was actually pretty impressed with their set. 

I never really considered myself a fan of their recordings, and I did think it was quite hilarious that there were middle aged men singing the words to "Delilah" at the top of their lungs as if they were still teenagers. However, I have to say after watching them live, I have a much better understanding and respect for their music.

I highly recommend checking them out if you get the chance.

Now, New Found Glory is a band I saw first in about 2001, and then didn't see until about 2022 when they cam through on the When We Were Young Fest (with Blink 182 and Green Day as the headliners that year).

I thought they did a great job then, and I thought their supporting slot on this tour was actually better. Maybe it's due to the addition of the 3 new songs they slotted into their set.

They came out on fire with the new song "A Love Song" and barreled right into classics like "Hit or Miss" and "Head On Collision."

The setlist was about 15 songs long from memory, and they spanned many fan favorites like "Dressed to Kill", "Sincerely Me" and "My Friends Over You" while inserting possibly my favorite new song of theirs "Laugh It Off."

Overall, their show was full of great energy, and they even had a fan come up on stage to sing a bit of "Hit or Miss" and afterwards instead of being helped down by security, he immediately stage-dove into the crowd.

Yellowcard headlined the event, and I wasn't able to get very many photos as the photo pit was not available for their set.

I know it is probably blasphemy, but I never did quite connect with Yellowcard's music, and their live show didn't do much to pull me in.

Their set was pretty incredible with insane lighting and a production that had a TV monitor to segue between songs with some video clips and such.

Overall, I was left feeling like Yellowcard themselves had by far the least amount of energy for their performance, but they just had the best stage setup.

I definitely would check this tour out if you are a fan of any or all of these bands though as it was one of the best concerts I had been to in a while. And on a side note, the venue was very nice, and the first time I had been there. The sound was on point, and you could hear the vocals and a good mix from everywhere that I stood in the theater.