Taking Back Sunday at the Roundhouse

Taking Back Sunday are a band who have seemingly always been firmly in the set genre of emo. Carefully placed alongside counterparts My Chemical Romance, Fall Out boy and Panic! at the Disco, they have never really aggressively taken the reigns and forged their own identity. A few years after the rise of emo they now have to stand on their own two feet and reinvent themselves to stay relevant. The Upcoming went down to the Roundhouse to discover what Taking Back Sunday have left to offer.

The Marmozets are the main support tonight. Fresh from their Radio 1 and festival success, they do an impressive job of showcasing themselves as an exciting current alternative band. Their irresistibly catchy hit Why Do You Hate Me? is a huge highlight of the set and thoroughly deserves the attention it has received from mainstream media. The excited tension is fully justified as the band burst out with fan favourites What’s It Feel Like to Be a Ghost? and A Decade Under the Influence setting off the atmosphere into an emo/punk frenzy.

Despite the pulsating opening taking much of the credit, it’s also amazingly striking to notice how frontman Adam Lazzara has changed over the years. In his heyday the vocalist’s charismatically camp demeanour meant he could boast about being an almost emo version of Mick Jagger, yet now he seems almost a shadow of that personality and does slightly struggle to create the same intense character live performance.

The set still manages – just about – to maintain a level of heavy rock energy with the old-school emo boys attempting to roll back the years with hits like Set Phasers to Stun. Closing the set with Make Damn Sure sends the room into a rapture. It may not be a triumphant return of heroes but Taking Back Sunday still manage to ignite a room full of fans on a freezing cold London night.

Keir Smith
Photos: Erol Birsen

For further information about Taking Back Sunday and future events visit here.

Watch the video for Flicker, Fade here: