Pop Break Live; When We Were Young 2024 at The Las Vegas Festival Grounds — Las Vegas, NV — October 19, 2024
The When We Were Young Festival has been going strong for three years now, with emo kids of all ages and all over the world invading Las Vegas for a weekend. The tight black clothes, dyed hair, eyeliner and bands and bands of friendship bracelets all made an appearance, as thousands of people sang their lungs out to their favorite music of their youth. I attended both the 2022 and 2023 festivals as a fan. This year, with my MEDIA wristband and ARTIST CREW wristband, I was able to get a rare sneak peak into a small, albeit awesome, experience behind the scenes.
I firstly want to thank the members of Peoria, Illinois based band The Forecast for allowing me to be a member of their crew. As a former drummer myself, I was able to use my skills to be the drum tech for The Forecast drummer, Tony Peck. Setting up a drumset is easy. What’s a tad more difficult is making sure the drummer is comfortable. He needs each and every piece, from the floor toms to the snare to the cymbals at the correct height and spot to ensure maximum ability to kick a song’s ass from beginning to end. Extra drum sticks would need to be on hand and if there was any need to tighten a drum head or, God forbid, a cymbal came loose, that would need to be fixed immediately. Luckily, Tony, the professional he is, knocked it out of the park two days in a row with no incident.
The hard part comes with the awesome rotating stages the festival uses for the two stages that are not considered the main stages. They use rotating stages so as one band is blasting through their set, another is setting up right behind them. You have a minimal amount of time to get the band’s equipment off stage, including switching out a kick drum head for The Forecast made specifically for the show. All this goes down as the festival crew themselves (and the next band) are trying to maneuver and set up around you. It’s a game of getting around each other while making the most of your space to get results. HUGE shoutout to each and every person that worked on the behind the scenes crew. They are some of the most efficient people I have ever met.
After The Forecast completed their 11:05-11:30 set and the breakdown concluded, it was time to enjoy a little R&R in the Artist Village, where each band got their own trailer filled with water, snacks, whisky and beer. After some food and rest, it was my job to become a fan again.
When We Were Young 2024 was unique in that each band played their most beloved albums front to back. These are albums that are rooted deep in my bones, living daily in my bloodstream from my teen years. As I sat side stage, witnessing the amazing crew do their thing, I was also awed by bands such as Cartel, Senses Fail, 3OH!3, Story of the Year, Motion City Soundtrack, Bayside, We the Kings, Tonight Alive, New Found Glory and The Starting Line blast through their most well-known albums while thousands of fellow fans screamed every single word at the top of their lungs. The Starting Line’s Say It Like You Mean It album was one that changed my life as a twelve year old, and it was surreal to see that mere feet from the band.
As each band came off the stage, I kept my head down but congratulated them all on their awesome set and body of work. I am a fan, afterall. But with the responsibility and gift I was given this weekend, I was not going to be a fanboy. This was a job and I was going to respect that. As my friends from The Forecast stood near me and spoke to bands they toured with for over twenty years, speaking to them as peers and friends, I got a massive sense of pride that I was a part of this. These folks are just people doing a job, just like all of us. They’re humans who just so happen to get their emotions out by singing and jumping around on stage, loving the fact that those people in the crowd are screaming back at them.
As my day at The Ghost Stage (where all the aforementioned bands performed) came to a close, I made my way over to the VIP section of the Pink/Purple Stages at around 7PM to see four of my favorite bands.
Jimmy Eat World absolutely killed it, making me feel eleven again by knocking it out of the park with Bleed American.
A Day to Remember rocked the house with their seminal record Homesick, one of the loudest reactions I’ve ever heard in my life.
Fall Out Boy was next and they were one of the rare bands to not play a full album, instead diving into a sort of “Eras Tour” style set, playing select songs from each album as they were released. With one of the best performances I’ve ever seen by them (and I’ve seen them a lot) and about $1 million in pyro, it was easy to forget there was another band after them.
My Chemical Romance closed out the show, playing The Black Parade to a tired but raucous crowd. Their stripped down look and set design was exactly what I expect from the band for this album. As a ton of people left after the last song on the record, I knew there would be two more. The band did not disappoint and came back out to blast through “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Helena”, much to the delight of the remaining faithful. I don’t care what anyone says. They ruled.
When We Were Young is a festival made for us emo kids in our mid-30s to relive our childhoods. It is quite an amazing experience. I say this every year, but if this is the last one, I can say I ate pretty good with an awesome trilogy of festivals.
I would like to personally thank my friends in The Forecast (Tony, Shannon, Dustin and John) for including me in their weekend, as well as the rest of their crew. Thank you to the members of the bands who I grew up listening to that treated me as if I were a peer and not some nerdy fan. Thank you the When We Were Young crew, whether it be backstage, the cleaning crew, the vendors or the media, for making everything run so smoothly. Thanks to the band The Paradox for opening the show (on literally their 10th show ever) and setting the tone. Listen to this band, seriously. And lastly, thank you for taking the time to read this. My back and legs hurt, but my heart is full.
Where’s the Tylenol?!
