On December 14, 2018, legendary band Taking Back Sunday graced the stage at Starland Ballroom in New Jersey, adorned in suits printed with loud Christmas tree patterns to play their 5th Annual Holiday Spectacular. But this time was different. They had just recently announced that they would be celebrating their twenty years of being a band with a colossal world tour in 2019. So why not kick it off early? Taking Back Sunday 20 started that night in New Jersey with a flip of a coin to decide which album would be played in full following their full playthrough of Tell All Your Friends, their first and arguably most beloved album. That night in Jersey the coin picked their second album, Where You Want To Be. This week, on November 16th, 2019, not too far from Starland Ballroom, Taking Back Sunday closed out their incredible year-long celebration at Terminal 5 in New York City. The coin flip had landed in favor of their third album, Louder Now, which really seemed fitting to bring the whole thing full circle. Though it may sound cliche, the one thing that can always be said about Taking Back Sunday is that they never disappoint. The energy brought by Adam Lazzara and his microphone swings had the crowd in constant mosh pit mode and their anecdotes between songs elicited laughs like that of a room filled with 3,000 good friends. With spectacular stage production and audience interaction, the passion these men hold for live music and nostalgia was seeping into every single person in that crowd. It was mind-blowing to think they had just spent their entire year playing the same albums from front to back; it seemed more like something that could only be experienced once in a lifetime. That is the magic of Taking Back Sunday.
Us For Once would like to wish a happy 20th anniversary to the band and their fans. We can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeve next.