Boys Like Girls – The Homecoming (Live From the MGM Music Hall at Fenway Park)

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The Boston-based pop-punk band, Boys Like Girls, released their first official live album yesterday called The Homecoming (Live From the MGM Music Hall at Fenway Park), and it has just about everything you’d want from a live recording. Hit-filled setlist, check. Stadium-ready anthems from an adoring crowd, check. Surprise cover songs that reflect on the band’s humble beginnings to being major acts today, check. My first spin of the record left me with a big smile on my face as I couldn’t help but think about how far this pop-punk band has come, and re-solidified themselves as major players in the music scene as a whole. The repeat spins of the album reminded me of the magic that happens when a band leans further into that trademark sound that made me fall in love with their music in the first place, and delivers all over a career-spanning collection that is filled with over 30 tracks that clock in just under the two-hour mark, yet breezes by like no time has passed at all. It’s that enjoyable of a live record, and I’m so happy that Boys Like Girls have released this set.

After a brief introductory track called “The Homecoming”, Boys Like Girls waste little time in getting to the hits for the adoring Boston crowd by ripping into “Love Drunk” and “Five Minutes to Midnight”. Martin Johnson’s voice doesn’t get as high as he does on the original recordings, but he gets into a comfortable “happy medium” between the two ranges and showcases his ability on being a captivating front-man. Boys Like Girls almost outgrow the pop-punk band “label” by becoming full-fledged rockstars on this album.

Martin’s stage banter is really funny and engaging with the audience as he mentions the number of fans who had likely illegally downloaded their music on Limewire back in the day, but the band is making up for it with “some overpriced merchandise just outside the venue”. He ties it all together with a burst of nostalgia as he walks the fans through a time-lapse of where the early fans would burn their illegally downloaded music on their parents’ computers and affectionately write on the CD-R “Boys Like Girls.” The band clearly engages with the audience in more ways than one with some surprise covers that tie the songs together like the “ode to Boston” “Sweet Caroline” sing-a-long that is tied into an interlude of the Sunday At Foxwoods track of “Language.” Add in some Bruce Springsteen in “Born in the U.S.A.” that bleeds into “Heart Heart Heartbreak” and a scene staple of Dashboard Confessional’s “Vindicated” interpolated with “Broken Man,” and you can tell that Boys Like Girls fully understood the assignment in delivering this material that sounds bigger than the band themselves.

”Life of the Party” features a great bass line from Gregory James, before adding in some great guitar from Johnson and Jamel Hawke to include the George Michael smash of “Faith” to fully engage the audience in their slick blend of pop-punk paired with stadium-ready rock. By the time the band gets into a comfortable groove on ballads like “Hero / Heroine” and the raucous “On Top of the World” you’re probably having the same feeling that I got when I first spun the record: Boys Like Girls have grown into a full-fledged rock band that understands their audience and is growing at an alarming rate post-hiatus.

”The Outside” features a guest spot from The Summer Set and State Champs to round our Boys Like Girls’ touring arsenal, while “The Great Escape” rocks with urgency and bleeds back into a reprise of “Love Drunk” that begins to wrap up the show. After a brief delay, “Two Is Better Than One” supplies the encore with a tender moment with the audience over Martin’s great vocal performance on an acoustic guitar. Even without a Taylor Swift cameo in the second verse, Boys Like Girls make for an ultra-memorable performance on The Homecoming that is sure to be in steady rotation in my music library whenever I need a reminder of how quickly a band can come into their own.

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