Tuesday February 9th, New Found Glory, they may be playing home, but they’re not playing, Coming Home, and thank god. They’re playing their entire Self-Titled record, and I couldn’t be more pumped. It was about 6:00pm and we had just gotten to Revolution up in Fort Lauderdale in decent time and I swear everyone on I-95N were also heading to see New Found Glory. The streets were packed, and so were the main parking lots, but not my trusty secret parking spot! Hidden and close by, we managed to park affordably. We then decided to sneak in a bit late and catch some brewskys on the cheaper side over at Fat Cats.

Finally making it towards the venue, the line was wrapped around the building and down the street, and the first band had already begun playing. This was insane. After finally getting in we had just missed Fireworks, but New Found Glory was playing, so the duplicate was unnecessary anyway. I heard good things, and during NFG’s set when giving shout outs to the opening acts, Fireworks did get a nice little round of applause, so you can be the judge on them. I did however make it just in time to see Hellogoodbye, and really they just should be called Goodbye. I didn’t even realize they had begun playing due to the length and drawn-outness of the songs. I thought it was the music they play between bands until I heard an inordinate amount of talking and mumbled banter. So I took this opportunity to get more booze! Fuck yea!

Afterwards I made it down for Saves The Day and wasn’t really expecting much after the last time I saw them with Alkaline Trio, but holy shit, they rocked out. Hard. They played everything I wanted to hear and were just all around great. I know or was at least familiar with all of the songs, and call me lame, but I was so stoked they played Freakish and At Your Funeral. His vocals were crystal clear and spot on. Hearing him hit those sweet melodies was worth everything, and to think New Found Glory was coming up next made it all the more worthwhile. I unfortunately didn’t get a set list as one I wasn’t 100% attentive, and two, I’m not that familiar with their music. But trust me, if you are a fan you missed out, and if you aren’t it was a pretty sweet block of groove-ness.

So before I get into New Found Glory let me say they had some sick shirts. I got some for sure. So next time you run into me, I may just be looking super dope, be careful. Waiting was super intense, and I had to keep stopping myself from singing the record from memory start to finish, annoying the surrounding NFG participants whilst embarrassing my girlfriend. I had some friends save me a spot on the floor, but my girl’s fragile so you know stage right, up-the-stairs standing were going to have to rock my world for now, and they did!

So, as expected, or for those in the know, New Found Glory played their entire self-titled. Flawlessly. This was a moment to forever be cemented in time. In a word, magical. This was no gimmick or money making scheme, especially since their last record was incredible and needed no marketing tricks. Jordan’s vocals were wonderfully high, energetic and on key. Even in Eyesore, he sounded as if the song was just written even adding a bit of heartfelt melody changes. The rest of the band looked as if they were having the time of their lives and thanked their fans several times for sticking with them for all these years. They even went through and changed some of the music for the songs to give them all premium crowd participation which ruled. There were several pauses before the ending choruses of the songs, and some other added riffage. Everyone was incredibly tight, most noticeably on the track Black and Blue. Right at the end where Cyrus plays the leaps and everyone pauses, it’s so much tighter and better live. They did one of my favorite tracks justice. Chad even having just got out of thyroid surgery with a gnarly scar was tearing it up on stage. The set was beautiful and being I’m from down here and have definitely had a good share of seeing them live, feel that this was one of the best performances I’ve seen from them in a long time.

New Found Glory Set list:

• Better Off Dead
• Dressed To Kill
• Sincerely Me
• Hit Or Miss
• Second To last
• Eyesore
• Vegas
• Sucker
• Black and Blue
• Boy Crazy
• All About Her
• Ballad For The Lost Romantics
• So Many Ways
• (ENCORE)
• Don’t Pull her Down
• Understatement
• Something I Call Personality
• All Downhill From Here
• Truck Stop Blues
• My Friends Over You

A perfect end to a wonderful night. Great show, and if you have a chance or get to see them on this tour be sure to pick up a “Help Mend A Heart” flyer, I made them!

If you have any pictures or videos from the show, please email them: sterling@notnorthnews.org — You’ll get credit if they’re posted!

Related posts:

1. Tours: New Found Glory | Saves The Day | hellogoodbye | Fireworks
2. Fallen From the Sky working on next full-length, lose guitarist.