“20 Years of Tears” tour brings emo legends and lifelong fans together
“20 Years of Tears” tour brings emo legends, fans together
Review: From mosh pits to singalongs, Hawthorne Heights, Anberlin and more reignite the emo spirit for a devoted crowd.
Raw teenage angst was alive and well on Saturday, Sept. 14, as “elder emos” invaded the small town of Wayland, New York, for the “20 Years of Tears” tour at The ForX Summer Stage. The lineup featured Hawthorne Heights, Cartel, Anberlin, Stick To Your Guns, Emery, and This Wild Life — each with sets that sent the crowd back to their mid-2000s roots.
This Wild Life, self-dubbed the “Hot Topic Mumford & Sons,” opened the show with their hits “Concrete,” “Catie Rae,” and “No More Waiting.”
Post-hardcore band Emery took the stage next and got the crowd primed for some screams with their songs “Studying Politics,” “As Your Voice Fades,” and “Walls.”
Hardcore punk band Stick to Your Guns brought a different kind of intensity by igniting the crowd to start the first mosh and circle pits of the night. The powerful riffs and rhythms from songs “Empty Heads,” “Amber,” and “Against Them All” had the pit swirling in no time, with fans shouting along to every word.
Cartel gave fans a chance to catch their breath and sing along as they performed hits “Say Anything (Else), Burn This City” and “Honestly.”
A special surprise came when Matty Mullins, vocalist of the metalcore band Memphis May Fire, came out with Anberlin. As the band’s touring vocalist, Mullins filled the shoes of Anberlin’s original vocalist, Stephen Christian, who’s on a break from the road.
Hawthorne Heights, the most quintessential emo band of our time, closed the show with an emotional, powerful performance. Celebrating the anniversary of “The Silence in Black and White,” they walked fans through a roller coaster of feelings. The passionate vocals and punchy guitar riffs from “Ohio Is For Lovers,” “Niki FM,” and “Life on Standby” transported fans back to the mid-2000s. Of course, they didn’t leave without playing their biggest hit, “Saying Sorry.”
The “20 Years of Tears” tour was more than a trip down memory lane; it was a declaration that, as the saying goes, “It was never a phase, Mom!”
For the crowd of “elder emos,” many now in their 30s and 40s, this genre of music wasn’t just a fleeting trend – it was, and still is, a lifeline.
